Blues defenseman on the Oilers' radar this summer?

It seems that 2022-2023 will go down in history as when a shift in star power happened from the Western Conference to the Eastern Conference.

Many western NHL teams have decided to rebuild their teams by unloading as many contracts as possible and even bankrolling other trades for teams to help bolster their lineups for a cup run.

The St Louis Blues are one of those teams that have done so and have been collecting draft picks and prospects over the last year or two. After winning their Stanley Cup in 2018-19, the team has never looked the same, especially since COVID-19.

General manager Doug Armstrong had signalled this season would be the teams' teardown phase and begin the process of collecting draft picks for a short rebuilding.


One player who continues to pop up in trade rumours is Blues defenseman Colton Parayko. Parayko is a right-shot defenseman with a rather large size coming in at 6'6" and 230 pounds.


With the departure of Tyson Barrie, and the fact that Parayko would be in the second season of his 8-year $52 million contract extension, this would give the Oilers cost certainty going forward and he would have a $6.5 million cap hit.

The Oilers would need to rearrange some money to make this trade work, but his pedigree and being an Albertan himself would certainly make him attractive to the Oilers as a potential piece to build from.


Parayko has played 74 games and has scored four goals with 23 assists for 27 points. He holds 30 penalty minutes.

The Oilers are on the road and will be playing the Los Angeles Kings. Game time will be at 10:30 PM eastern on March 4th.