Maple Leafs Joffrey Lupul: Anatomy Of A Trade

Does Joffrey Lupul on the Blues finally take the team over the hump? Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports

St.Louis Blues’ Trade Offer

Why it will work:

The Blues have struggled to score all year, despite having emerging superstar Tarasenko and young scoring winger Jaden Scwartz on the roster and Joffrey Lupul can help with that. Berglund carries a 3.7M cap hit for 2 more seasons and has some small injury concerns of his own and has been the main trade chip the Blues have floated out for the last two seasons.

Berglund isn’t an offensively inclined player as he’s only topped 40pts twice in his career, and is at only 26 for the season. Berglund is however a great defensive player, some of his limited offensive numbers are due to being deployed as mostly a 3rd line shutdown forward; despite this, he has posted two 20 goal seasons and 19 goals back in 2011-2012. Blues get offensive, and savvy playmaking to help get their scorers to the next level and Toronto gets a defensively sound, hard-working forward to help mentor the kids or flip at the deadline for more rebuild pieces.

Why it won’t work:

The Blues offence decides to come to life in the playoffs and they win the cup, and decide to keep the core together as much as possible. The Leafs want more for having to retain salary in this deal. The Blues might not want to include a pick as well as Berglund if they view Lupul’s injury history as too much of a risk. Lupul refuses to waive his limited NTC to go to St.Louis.

Next: Florida Panthers Trade Offer