The St. Louis Blues are acquiring centre Radek Faksa in a trade with the Dallas Stars. The Blues are sending future considerations to the Stars in return.
TRADE ALERT: The Blues have acquired Radek Faksa from the Dallas Stars. #stlblues
DETAILS ➡️ https://t.co/P1oM7DtfWk
— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) July 2, 2024
Blues Get A Centre
The Blues have been in the market to acquire another centre after trading Kevin Hayes over the weekend. Despite many centres available in free agency, the Blues did not sign one when free agency opened yesterday.
Faksa has a year left on his contract and has a $3.25 million cap hit. For the Blues, Faksa will most likely be a third-line centre for the Blues. Robert Thomas will be the first-line center with Pavel Buchnevich seemingly sliding into the second-line centre position. This is the third trade the Blues have made this offseason. In addition to the Hayes trade, the Blues also acquired Alexandre Texier from the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Faksa Switches Teams For the First Time
Faksa has spent his entire NHL career with the Stars. He had a career high of 17 goals in the 2017-18 season. For the Stars, this move to seems more about unloading Faska’s contract than anything. The Stars have been in a bit of a tight cap situation for the last few seasons. This is the second contract the Stars have moved on from this offseason, after buying-out defenceman Ryan Suter earlier.
Blues Lineup Projection With Faksa
The Blues forward combinations for next season after acquiring Faksa could look like this.
First Line
Brayden Schenn–Robert Thomas–Jake Neighbours
Second Line
Brandon Saad–Pavel Buchnevich–Jordan Kyrou
Third Line
Alexandre Texier– Radek Faksa–Zachary Bolduc
Fourth Line
Zach Dean-Oskar Sundvist-Alexey Toropchenko (Faska or Texier could centre this line if Sundqvist is not recovered from his injury sustained last season.)
Extra Forwards
Main photo credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
