The Winnipeg Jets have acquired center Paul Stastny from the St. Louis Blues in exchange for a 2018 lottery protected 1st round pick, a 2020 conditional 4th rounder and the rights to forward Erik Foley. The 4th will be awarded to St. Louis if they don\’t sign Foley. Oh, and the Blues retained 50% of Stastny\’s salary.
For the Jets, they\’ve been looking for a center, and have missed out on Derick Brassard and Tomas Plekanec. Stastny is an expensive rental, but is worth it for the Jets, especially since they are in the playoff hunt. His $7 million cap hit will only be about $3.5 million for them for the rest of the year, then they can say goodbye to it.
Stastny, 32, has scored 12 goals and 28 assists for 40 points in 63 games for the Blues this season. In his NHL career for the Blues and Colorado Avalanche, Stastny has scored 216 goals and 417 assists for 633 points in 805 games.
For the Blues, they have lost six straight games, and were in a similar situation that they were with Kevin Shattenkirk last year, and they traded him. The Blues are in the middle of the standings, and didn\’t want to make any risks, and went the safe path and traded him for a good value.
Foley, 20, has scored 15 goals and 19 assists for 34 points in 32 games for Providence College this year. That exactly matches his numbers last year, but with four more games.
I think the Blues win this deal. Stastny is a good player, but like most trades, it depends on the prospect and the player picked with the draft pick.
CarterHud 