Breaking: St. Louis Blues closing in on  one major trade with the Panthers in the 2024 season

The St. Louis Blues could make a big trade with an organization that has quite a few tough decisions to make once the Stanley Cup Final ends.

The St. Louis Blues don’t have much projected cap space, with Cap Friendly clocking them at about $15.6 million and Spotrac putting them in at roughly the same amount, so it would be tough to see general manager Doug Armstrong trading for an expensive asset with just a year to go on their contract.

But it’s looking more like Florida Panthers general manager Bill Zito will ultimately trade forward Sam Bennett elsewhere, considering their sheer number of free agents and lack of cap space. If not Bennett, someone could end up going elsewhere, but if Zito opts to move the 27-year-old, Armstrong should at least try to figure out a) what kind of compensation Zito is looking for, and b) how to find a way to afford and potentially extend Bennett.

Bennett isn’t an elite puzzle piece offensively as far as productivity goes, with an average 20 goals and 21 assists in the regular season, and six goals and 10 points through 12 postseason games prior to the Stanley Cup Final. But Bennett brings physical play, and he’s someone who would augment the Blues top-six with the ability to get 16 minutes of ice time per game, at minimum.

A trade like this for Sam Bennett is admittedly a longshot, considering the Blues lack of cap space. But he would bring plenty of championship-caliber experience to a team that could use some more of it, and he’s young enough to, if a trade occurred and Armstrong signed him to an extension, stick around for a while.

While the Panthers trading Bennett wouldn’t be anywhere near as much of a shocker as the organization trading him to the Blues would be, NHL general managers with Doug Armstrong’s experience would make a deal like this work. Bennett’s presence would more than ignite the fanbase, especially if he came to town with the label Stanley Cup Champion on his resume.