It seems like foolish thinking now, but heading into the 2023-24 season, it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that St. Louis Blues forward Jakub Vrana could score 30-plus goals. After being acquired from the Detroit Red Wings last March, he had 10 goals in the final 20 games of the regular season, and entering the final year of his contract, he’d be even more motivated.
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Now, however, it looks like Vrana may not play another game for the Blues.
On Monday morning, the 27-year-old winger and his agent were notified by the organization that he would be placed on waivers later in the afternoon, which was reported by The Athletic. That did not happen when the waiver wire was released at 1 p.m. CT, causing some uncertainty about the situation, but there’s an explanation for why it did not come to fruition.
The Blues are looking at every avenue in terms of how to part ways with Vrana, including the possibility of a trade.
Editor’s note: Vrana was placed on waivers after this story was published on Tuesday. The Blues will find out Wednesday at 1 p.m. CT whether he’s been claimed.
“He was informed this morning (that he was being placed on waivers), and I guess they changed their minds,” said J.P. Barry of CAA Hockey, Vrana’s agent, after Monday’s waiver wire was announced and the player’s name wasn’t on it. “They must have got phone calls between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. (ET). I’m sure they just got into some discussions, or some follow-up discussions.”
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The Blues practiced Monday at 11 a.m. CT at Centene Community Ice Center, but Vrana was not on the ice.
Afterward, coach Craig Berube told reporters that general manager “Doug (Armstrong) just said he’s not practicing today and if there’s any more questions, talk to Doug about that.”
Armstrong wasn’t immediately available for comment, per a team spokesman.
The situation between the Blues and Vrana was coming to a head at some point, and it became increasingly obvious that it would be soon. He had been a healthy scratch in four consecutive games, and when he returned to the lineup for back-to-back games at Columbus and Chicago last week, he had no points and was a combined minus-4 in 22 minutes, 37 seconds of ice time.
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For the season, Vrana has two goals and six points in 19 games. Overall, he’s been a healthy scratch in eight of the team’s 27 games.
It’s been clear throughout Vrana’s career, which includes stops in Washington and Detroit, that he has speed and a great shot.
With the Blues, his top skating speed this season is 22.75 miles per hour, which ranks in the 88th percentile of the entire NHL, and his top shot is 92.03 mph (77th percentile). Conversely, though, Vrana’s average distance traveled per 60 minutes this season is 9.6 miles (60th percentile) and his shot attempts are a mere 41 (65th percentile). In other words, Vrana’s speed hasn’t been effective because he’s not always moving and utilizing it. He’s not putting himself into position to get shots, and when he does, they’re not accurate (4.9 shooting percentage).
Meanwhile, at five-on-five, he’s been a liability defensively, on the ice for eight goals for and 12 against. His expected goal share of 40.89 percent ranks 11th out of 12 Blues forwards who have played as many games as him (19).
“You can’t look at that from last year to this year (because) it’s two different years, ” Berube told reporters Monday. “When he came in last year, there’s nothing to lose. You just go play. He scored some goals and did some good things. This year it’s been a struggle.”
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Vrana’s style hasn’t appeared to match the way Berube wants to play, and the coach has seemed to be trying to make it work. Perhaps that was always going to be the case, but with Vrana only costing the Blues a seventh-round draft pick and the Red Wings willing to retain 50 percent of his $5.25 million AAV for the year and a half that was left on his contract, the $2.625 million AAV was viewed as worthy of a flier.
But the Blues finally got to the point where it was time to move him and notified GMs around the league of their intentions last week. Nothing materialized, though, leading to him being notified Monday that he was going on waivers.
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“To actually put him on waivers (which didn’t happen in the end) was a surprise, but it’s part of the process when things aren’t going well,” Barry said.
So, what now for the Blues and Vrana?
Typically when other teams know that a club could be putting a player on waivers, they won’t trade for him and instead wait for a chance to get him on the wire, for which they’ll pay no compensation. But perhaps there’s a team that wants Vrana and doesn’t want to risk the possibility of him being picked up by someone else, or maybe the Blues are working out a trade that brings them something back for retaining part of his salary.
Every NHL team can retain salary on three contracts at one time and the Blues have all three slots available. According to PuckPedia, if they retained 50 percent of Vrana’s salary, the acquiring club would be on the hook for only 25 percent of the prorated portion of the contract at the time of the trade. So if the deal were to happen at the halfway point of the season, which is coming up, the breakdown of who pays him this year would look like this: Red Wings ($2.625 million), Blues ($1.313 million) and his new team ($1.313 million).
Either way, Barry believes there’s still value in his player.
“I hope so,” he said. “I mean, when he came (to St. Louis), he played well. His preseason was good. It just seems like the last two months have not gone well.”
On Tuesday, the Blues host Detroit, and it’s unknown whether he’ll skate with them or remain in limbo. The next step is likely a trade or officially being placed on waivers, which could happen as soon as Tuesday.
“They always have the option to delay it a day if they have to,” Barry said. “We’ve just got to cross our fingers here and hope it’s a good team that wants to give him a chance. But for now, he’ll just sit tightly.”
(Photo: Ric Tapia / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
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