St. Louis Blues Acquire Mathieu Joseph

 

The St. Louis Blues have traded future considerations to the Ottawa Senators for right wing Mathieu Joseph, and a 2025 3rd-round pick. Joseph, 27, played 72 games with 11 goals, 24 assists, 35 points, and a -4 in 2023-2024. The games, assists, and points, and were all career highs for Joseph. 

In 2018-2019, Joseph had a career high in goals (13) with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Joseph helped the Lightning win back-to-back Stanley Cups (2019-2020, and 2020-2021). 

Overall, Joseph has played 6 seasons in the NHL. Joseph has played 360 games with 55 goals, 80 assists, 135 points, and a plus 19. In the playoffs, Joseph has played 10 games with 2 assists, 2 points, and a -2. 

Joseph is good on the penalty kill. Joseph has two years left on his current contract. 

St. Louis Blues Acquire Radek Faksa

 

The St. Louis Blues have traded future considerations to the Dallas Stars for center Radek Faksa. Faksa, 30, played 74 games with 7 goals, 12 assists, and 19 points in 2023-2024. 

Faksa had his best season in 2016-2017. That season, Faksa played 80 games with 12 goals, 21 assists, 33 points, and -6. The assists and points were both career highs for Faksa. In 2017-2018, Faksa had a career high in goals (17). 

Overall, Faksa had played 9 seasons in the NHL. Faksa has played 638 games with 89 goals, 111 assists, 200 points, and -11. In the playoffs, Faksa had played 79 games with 9 goals, 11 assists, 20 points, and a -7. 

Faksa is a good fourth-line center who is good at faceoffs and he's also good on the penalty kill.

St. Louis Blues Acquire Alexandre Texier

 

The St. Louis Blues have traded a 2025 4th-round pick to the Columbus Blue Jackets for center Alexandre Texier. The Blues have also re-signed Texier to a two-year contract extension, worth $4.2 million. 

Texier, 24, played 78 games with 12 goals, 18 assists, 30 points, and a -5 in 2023-2024. The games, goals, assists, and points were all career highs for Texier. 

Overall, Texier has played 5 seasons in the NHL. Texier has played 201 games with 34 goals, 45 assists, 79 points, and a -12. In the playoffs, Texier has played 18 games with 2 goals, 5 assists, 7 points, and a -2. Texier was drafted by the Blue Jackets back in 2017 in the 2nd round (45th overall).

Texier has the potential to be a good addition for the Blues roster in 2024-2025. 

St. Louis Blues remove interim tag, name Drew Bannister head coach

The St. Louis Blues have removed the interim tag of Drew Bannister and have signed him to a two-year contract extension as head coach. Overall, in franchise history, Bannister will be the 27th head coach. Bannister, 50, took over as head coach after Craig Berube was fired on December 12, 2023. At the time the Blues were struggling and were 13-14-1 with 27 points. The Blues ended up 30-19-5 with 65 points. The Blues saw the power play and penalty kill both improve under Bannister. The Blues also improved by 11 points from 2022-2023.

It should be interesting to see what Bannister can do as a full-time head coach. 

Bannister has had a lot of success as an AHL head coach. With the Springfield Thunderbirds, Bannister led them to a record of 93-58-19 in 3 seasons. In 2021-2022, the Thunderbirds reached the Calder Cup Finals under Bannister. 

Now it's up to Blues general manager Doug Armstrong to work on improving the roster. 

St. Louis Cardinals 2024 Season Preview

 

Offseason additions: SP Sonny Gray, SP Lance Lynn, SP Kyle Gibson, SP Victor Santos, RHP Keynan Middleton, RHP Andrew Kittredge, RHP Riley O'Brien, RHP Ryan Fernandez, RHP Nick Robertson, RHP Josh James, SS Brandon Crawford, and 1B/DH Mastt Carpenter. 

Offseason subtractions: SP Adam Wainwright (retired), RHP Drew VerHagen, RHP Jake Woodford, RHP Guillermo Zuniga, RHP Casey Lawrence, RHP Jacob Barnes, LHP Andrew Suarez, C Andrew Knizner, OF Tyler O'Neill, OF Richie Palacios, OF Juan Yepez, and SS/2B Taylor Motter. 

Point team prediction: 85-88 wins (NL Central or one of the Wild Cards). Cardinals probably won't go far in the playoffs though, unless they upgrade the pitching staff at some point. I could see the Cardinals upgrading the pitching staff if they do well. The Cardinals will start the season with 6 players on the injured list SP Sonny Gray, SP Drew Rom, RHP Keynan Middleton, OF Lars Nootbaar, OF/2B/SS Tommy Edman, and OF Dylan Carlson. 

The Cardinals are coming off one of their worst seasons since 1990, when they were 70-92. 

A lot of that was because of starting pitchers not going deep enough and other teams scoring lots of runs right away. So, Oliver Marmol had to use his bullpen early a lot. That doesn't help a team. The Cardinals also didn't get many quality starts. The Cardinals only had 48 quality starts last season. If you count the Cardinals starting rotation once Gray is healthy, last season that would have been a total of 65 quality starts (66 if you count Thompson). What did the Cardinals do last season when they got a quality start? They actually had a winning record (33-15, with a .687 winning percentage). The Cardinals decided to re-tool their pitching and get guys who can get quality starts. 

Will it work? There's a chance it could and a chance it couldn't. But on paper they shouldn't lose 91 games like they did last season. The Cardinals also didn't have high leverage options in their bullpen last season, this season they do. O'Brien should be interesting to watch. Last season, O'Brien, 29, pitched the whole season in Triple-A Tacoma and was a PCL All-Star. O'Brien was 2-5 with a 2.29 ERA, 51 games, 3 starts, 15 saves, 55 innings, 86 strikeouts, and 31 walks. If O'Brien has figured something out, he could be a late bloomer, which the Cardinals have success at finding those types of players. 

On a side note, O'Brien's grandfather Johnny played for the Cardinals for 1 season (1958). 

Thompson also looks like he's improved too, if he has that could be a great thing. 

Lineup: 

LF Brendan Donovan, 1B Paul Goldschmidt, 2B Nolan Gorman, 3B Nolan Arenado, C Willson Contreras, RF Jordan Walker, DH Alec Burleson, SS Maysn Winn, and CF Victor Scott (could see Scott leading off at some point).

Bench:

Ivan Herrera, Matt Carpenter, Brandon Crawford, and Michael Siani.

Starting rotation:

Miles Mikolas, Zack Thompson, Lance Lynn, Steven Matz, and Kyle Gibson.

Bullpen: 

Ryan Helsey, Giovanny Gallegos, JoJo Romero, Matthew Liberatore, Andrew Kittredge, Andre Pallante, Riley O'Brien, and Ryan Fernandez. 

Fantasy Stud:

Nolan Arenado if he bounces back (which he should). 

Prospects to watch:

Victor Scott and Ryan Fernandez 

St. Louis Cardinals Extend Oliver Marmol

The St. Louis Cardinals have signed manager Oliver Marmol to a two-year contract extension, through 2026. Marmol, 37, was in his final contract year. Marmol had one of the worst seasons as a Cardinals manager since 1990 in 2023. The Cardinals were 71-91. In 1990, the Cardinals were 70-92. Not all of 2023 is because of Marmol. It's more on John Mozeliak. People knew the Cardinals needed to upgrade their pitching going into the 2023 season. 

Instead of upgrading the pitching, all Mozeliak does is sign Willson Contreras. Mozeliak thought that the pitching would be fine, and everyone would be able to repeat their seasons from 2022. The problem is that doesn't happen much in sports. Players will have seasons where they aren't as good for whatever reason. Injuries happened and the Cardinals didn't have the depth to cover innings. 

Overall, Marmol has managed 2 seasons in the MLB. Marmol has managed 324 games and has a record of 164-160 with a .506 winning percentage. In the playoffs, Marmol is 0-2. 

Marmol had his best season in 2022. That season, the Cardinals were 93-69 with a .574 winning percentage. The wins and winning percentage were both career highs for Marmol in his managerial career. 

The Cardinals knew they couldn't go into the season with Marmol as a lame duck. Especially when Marmol shouldn't be blamed for everything from 2023. It's more on Mozeliak than Marmol. To me, Marmol still could be fired if the team were to do badly. Mozeliak would probably be with him, if that happened. To me, Mozeliak should go first. I also think the Cardinals could have waited a few months before giving Marmol his contract extension. Like why not have them start the season out well and then give Marmol the contract extension? Wouldn't that make a little more sense?
 

Still Sunny in St. Louis; Blues sign Oskar Sundqvist to contract extension

 

The St. Louis Blues have re-signed center Oskar Sundqvist to a two-year contract extension, worth $3 million. Sundqvist, 29, currently has played 62 games with 6 goals, 15 assists, 21 points, and -5 in 2023-2024. 

Sundqvist has won the Stanley Cup 2 times: (2015-2016, and 2018-2019). 

Sundqvist had his best season in 2018-2019. That season, Sundqvist played 74 games with 14 goals, 17 assists, 31 points, and a -1. The games, goals, and points were all career highs for Sundqvist. 

In 2022-2023, combined between the Detroit Red Wings and Minnesota Wild, Sundqvist had a career high 18 assists. 

Overall, Sundqvist is currently in his 9th NHL season. Sundqvist has played 417 games with 56 goals, 88 assists, 144 points, and a -15. In the playoffs, Sundqvist has played 37 games with 5 goals, 6 assists, 11 points, and a plus 3. 

It's nice to see Sundqvist earn himself a contract extension. Sundqvist loves St. Louis a lot.