As competitive a division as the Central is right now, the St. Louis Blues have a nucleus as competitive as anyone's. So are any of those core players possibly going to Seattle in a few years?
(Check here for the guidelines I'm using, thanks to capfriendly.com and hockeydb.com for most info here.)
Part of what makes St. Louis a contender is how much of their core is under contract through the (tentative, if not outright speculative) debut season for Seattle's NHL team in 2020/2021.
Forwards: Vladimir Tarasenko, Ryan O'Reilly, Alexander Steen, Jaden Schwartz, Tyler Bozak, David Perron
Defenesemen/Defencemen: Colton Parayko
Goalies: Jake Allen
So, none of these guys are cheap (Perron makes the least amount of money at $4 million yearly, where Tarasenko and O'Reilly are tied for the highest annual salary of these eight players--and the rest of the team as well, for what it's worth--at $7.5 million. Most of these guys are at least $5 million against the cap, Allen and the aforementioned Perron being the exceptions.
Steen has a full No Trade Clause, Bozak and Perron have modified ones and no one else here has any similar language in their contracts. Steen is also an Assistant Captain, as is Tarasenko.
In all honesty, Seattle would probably be glad with any of these guys. All these forwards are top-nine caliber, and Parayko is definitely at least a top-four defender if not a true top-pairing guy. Even Allen, for all his struggles, can be one of the best goalies in the league at times. Perhaps not often enough for a significant portion of the fanbase, but that's not necessarily pertinent for this consideration. But to me, there's one guy who Seattle should covet the most:
David Perron (Left Wing/Right Wing)
Why St. Louis Would Make Him Available: The snarky answer is kinda the real answer here too: they literally did this last year. And as much as the Blues clearly like him, he's the third oldest of these eight guys. And while he's not the most expensive player here, a team so close to the salary cap could use the $4 million he makes for other players.
Why Seattle Would Want Him: If we're being honest, the only forward Perron would clearly be better than of these six (depending on how you feel about Tyler Bozak) is Steen. In a perfect world you'd rather have any of Tarasenko, O'Reilly, Schwartz or (possibly) Bozak. But I'm going to be generous and suggest the odds of any of them being available are, uh, not great.
That said, Perron is a useful scoring winger. Accepting that last year's career-high sixty points probably has an outlier quality to it, he's still good for over half-a-point per game in his NHL career. The scoring drops off significantly in the playoffs, but that's not necessarily something an expansion team should worry about. Usually, I know.
And, yes, he could easily be traded in his first or second season (hypothetical) season in Seattle. That's been a common thread here, even if he might have to wait until his contract expires after the 2021-2022 season. Most teams (St. Louis or anyone else, though it's be funny to see them acquire him yet again) would presumably would be more interested in him as a classic rental at the deadline.
More than any future value as an asset to be traded, I'd argue he brings a quality few others in the NHL possess that would be uniquely suited to a new NHL expansion team. Being one of the Golden Misfits means having some insight into how the most successful expansion team in sports history came together, and I could see that being worth a lot to the team trying to follow such a history example.
