Barbashev trade reduces Blues Cup-winning roster down to six

Barbashev was a teenager still then. He's not anymore.

A day after the Blues shipped the versatile 27-year-old forward to the Vegas Golden Knights for 2021 first-round pick Zach Dean, the purge into a roster is now down to six players that won the Stanley Cup in 2019.

"I've had 'Barby' since he was a kid in the minors," Berube said. "Been around him a lot, has done a lot of real good things for the organization, has been a real good player, different roles over the years. I think his role's grown over the years. He came in as a bottom six; he came in as a fourth-line player and moved his way up to a real solid third-line player and got opportunities to be in the top six at times due to injuries or whatever. He's grown as a player, great person. It's part of the game. You lose good people."

Barbashev was perhaps the last of the pending unrestricted free agent dominoes to fall as far as getting traded, behind Vladimir Tarasenko and Niko Mikkola (New York Rangers) and Ryan O'Reilly and Noel Acciari (Toronto).

But when it became apparent that Barbashev was not going to re-sign in St. Louis, general manager Doug Armstrong had no choice but to move him with the team floundering this year.

"We had talked about an extension and he had felt it was a proper time for him to explore the market, and I certainly understand that, so we were able to get a player we liked in his draft year a couple years ago, a player we obviously monitored in Dean," Armstrong said Monday. "Fits into that age group.

"As I said, when you're going into a situation like ours, you're looking for recently drafted players or NHL players that are young, recently drafted players or picks, sort of in that order. We've been able to get picks, we not get a recently drafted player, a player that's a good player in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League now in Dean, checks a lot of boxes of skating, character, tenacity and he's going to turn pro next year. We believe that's a good add for us, for a player that was going to test the market."

Barbashev, who set career highs last season in goals (26), assists (34) and points (60), dipped to 10 goals and 19 assists in 59 games this season, but it was hard-pressed to think he would come up with numbers like last season on a regular basis.

A forward who Vegas can play up and down its lineup, Barbashev's versatility, his age and his salary cap hit ($2.25 million AAV) was attractive to many.

"Yeah there was. Probably of all the players we've talked about right now, he had the most interest," Armstrong said. "Not the greatest return, but the most interest because of his salary situation."

Now Barbashev joins former 2019 teammate Alex Pietrangelo on a playoff-bound roster looking to make another extended playoff run.

"Yeah, a good team, contract year," said Blues forward Brayden Schenn, one of six remaining Cup winners left. "A chance for him to probably go on a deep playoff drive out there in the West. Vegas obviously a good team and it's a good city. He's happy, he's looking forward to the opportunity. He was obviously one of the guys (where) his name was brought up that could be on the move. So far, I think we're 3-for-3 or 4-for-4 or whatever it may be. This trade deadline feels like it's been a little bit longer in this locker room because our trades happened early. You've got to go out and focus on playing hockey and come to work and compete and find a way to win a hockey game.

"He was an unbelievable teammate, a low maintenance teammate that came to work every day and put his gear on and played hard for the team. Vegas is lucky to have him. A guy that was a huge piece to our Stanley Cup team. Wish him nothing but the best."

Barbashev will always be remembered for the player who would step onto the ice in that Cup run with Alexander Steen and Oskar Sundqvist, the team's fourth line, or as Berube called it, the identity line, and set the tone no matter who the opponent was.

"They were a real identity line for us," Berube said. "They did a great job throughout the playoffs, penalty-killing, checking and contributing offensively. If you look back, they each had maybe five goals. That's a lot of goals in the playoffs. I can't remember the exact numbers but there was always something good happening when they were out there."

Four years later, the Blues are in retool mode, and Barbashev felt he'd be part of the purge with his contract set to expire June 30.

"I thought he was excellent," Berube said. 'Knowing you're going to be traded and still putting in the hard play and effort every night for the team, it's due to his character."

It doesn't make things easy for the remaining veterans in the locker room that felt like this team could build on previous playoff runs.

"It's tough. I'm not going to lie. I've never been through it in my life," defenseman Torey Krug said. "I've been very lucky and fortunate in my career to play on winning teams and always be in the mix until the very end. It's definitely different, uncharted territory. At the end of the day, it's still my job, it's still other guys' jobs to show up to the rink and play and hopefully make that process quicker for Army. Whatever decisions they have to make moving forward, it's our job to push them in the right direction so that they can feel comfortable in those decisions.

"Yeah it's tough. You have a lot of impactful players, not only on the ice but in the room that have stepped away from us. It's our job moving forward to kind of embrace what they have brought to this room for so many years and try to incapture it and try to keep it in our day to day routines and obviously we have to move on. It's been tough having a lot of guys leave the room, especially impact players. Now it's time for new guys to learn the ropes and step up."

Nobody knows what the future holds, but if that's it for Barbashev in St. Louis, he leaves with 178 regular-season points (78 goals, 100 assists) in 410 games along with three goals and six assists in 50 playoff games in seven seasons.