Boom goes the dynamite in St Louis

[CaptainCrunch]

St Louis Times Picayuuune Dispatch Star Herald (AP)

GM CaptainCrunch showed his intention to compete this year with a pair of moves, one designed to address what he felt was a major weakness in his team, and one that was a roll of the dice to shake up the top two lines on this team that haven't been pulling their weight.

In the first move consumated earlier this evening Crunch bought in Carey Price, going back to Montreal are prospects Drew Commesso, Danila Klimovichh a 4th round pick and Sergei Bobrovsky. In return StLouis receives price and 3.43 million in Cap space.

"We really wanted to bring in a strong starting goalie that can steal wins. We love Bob for his quirkiness, but honestly I'm hoping this indicates to the fans that we have not forgotten that we missed the playoffs last year and intend to get there this year.

Less then 20 minutes later Crunch confirmed another deal with the Nashville Predators. The Blue's pick up prospect Oskar Steen, Taylor Hall returns after a very short stint in Nashville and Jonathon Bernier returns to the Blues. In exchange the Blues sent Jesse Pulijarvi and Michael Hutchinson to the Preds.

"I had to think long and hard about this deal. Jesse has been a long time coming but he's started taking major strides, but again, the Blues want to quit messing around and take a shot right now. So this is the classic futures for today deal. Bernier does improve our backup spot which is something that can't be over looked."

Its clear that Crunch is taking a major gamble. But after a long hot streak, the Blues have stumbled over the last couple of games since trading for Panarin.

So in theory the Blues lineup should now look like this

Panarin (78) Couture (75) Duclair (73)
Hall (74) Stephenson (72) Jankrok (71)
Stastsy (71) Krejci (71) Nosek (68)
Appleton(68) Archibald (68) Ryan (67)

Fowler (71) Suter (71)
Jensen (70) Brodie (70)
Matheson (70) Fabbro (68)

Price (85)
Bernier (81)


Steen will report to the Blue's farm team.

[JonDuke]

[CaptainCrunch]

Editors correction, St L also receives a 3rd round pick in 2022 and cap equalization dollars.

[Goffie]

The Habs were quick out of the gate. But have struggled since. We like Sorokins play and feel that between him and Bob the team is in good shape in the net moving forward.

I will probably regret moving Price come playoff time as he always steps up in the big games and wins me a couple rounds.

This is the first trade of the regular season for the Habs. Time will tell if it triggers more.