With the Stanley Cup Playoffs over and the NHL Draft not far off, there are lots of emerging NHL rumours. Teams are looking at how they can acquire assets for a rebuild, get great players to help their playoff chances, or keep their core players together. One such rumour involves the St. Louis Blues and goalie Ville Husso.
St. Louis Blues Looking to Re-Sign Ville Husso
Rumour: According to Andy Strickland, the St. Louis Blues are going to try to prioritize re-signing goalie Ville Husso rather than letting him walk.
Been lots of chatter, but I expect the #stlblues to make a real effort to extend Ville Husso. He loves it in STL and has a great relationship with Jordan Binnington.
— Andy Strickland (@andystrickland) June 26, 2022
Analysis: There have been rumours of the St. Louis Blues potentially looking to let goalie Ville Husso walk in free agency recently. However, it seems that they are now prioritizing re-signing him instead. He was regarded to be one of the top goalie options for contending teams, but he could be taken off the market. Husso had an incredible 2021-22 season. He stole the starter’s net to finish the season. Despite losing it to Jordan Binnington again in the playoffs, Husso more than proved his value. Posting a 0.919 through 40 games was no small feat this season. The question becomes this: how much do you pay a goalie with 57 total games of experience at the NHL level? Goaltending is a random position as is, and introducing a lack of sample size makes it even less predictable. So how much is Husso going to ask?
The St. Louis Blues only have David Perron and Husso to re-sign as key free agents this off-season. With $9,000,000 in cap space, it will be tight, but doable. However, they shouldn’t want to throw too much money at Husso without a justifiable reason, because in the summer of 2023, the Blues have much bigger free agent names. With Tarasenko, Ryan O’Reilly, Jordan Kyrou, and Robert Thomas all needing new contracts next year, they’ll need flexibility.
Husso could demand much more from a different team on the open market since good goalies are a rare commodity right now. However, if he wants to stay in St. Louis and stay with his buddy Jordan Binnington, he has to be prepared to take less than what he could make elsewhere.
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