It just got VERY real…

It just got VERY real…

It just got very real for the St. Louis Blues after a dominant start to the year. We get a major report surrounding Doug Armstrong and where he stands with contract talks with Philip Broberg. But not only that, after having choice words for Jim Montgomery, they have a huge decision to make going forward with their starting goalender as things have started to pick up fast between the pipes. We have so much to break down, including a report on Philip Broberg and his next contract and a piece on Jordan Bennington moving forward. We’re going to break down all this and so much more in this episode, you’re not going to want to miss it. But before we get into, I just want to give a huge shout out to everyone watching. And to the 53% watching this and you haven’t hit the sub button yet, I actually heard you will be on Santa’s naughty list if you do not hit that sub button. So, make sure to go down and hit completely free and we’ll keep you up to date on everything to do around the blues. But with that, Darius, let’s just dive straight into it today. And before we get into this Philip Broberg update, I do want to dive into a update and just kind of speak on what happened with Jordan Bennington. Now, just two games ago, we know that he was pulled. Hoer came off a shutout and a lot of fans wanted him to start. But we do see Jim Montgomery speaking on Jordan Bennington. He said, you know, I love Jordan Bennington. He’s a competitor. He raises his game in the big moments. I love him. He walked off the ice and he said, I love you. I said, “I love you, too.” Now, he did continue on just saying, “Listen, Jordan Bennington spoke himself saying that he wanted to kind of get that fiery out of him. He wanted to not sit with him.” And with Jim, he spoke on how much he respects him. But Darius moving forward, I feel like the battle is starting to win being won by Joel Hover. I don’t know if you feel different. Listen, Bennington is of course the one goalender, but I think there’s going to be some narrative spun with this now. And like you mentioned off the top of the episode, you don’t want to end up on Santa’s naughty list. There’s a, you know, a couple people telling us in the comments that he doesn’t exist. That’s a little ridiculous. But Jordan Bennington looks like he might end up on that naughty list so far this year cuz the goalending hasn’t been that good from him. And of course yelling at the head coach. But I have to be honest, Mark. I have to be honest. I loved every second of it. I know they lost. I know they lost, but I loved every second of it. Jordan Bennington is a fiery competitor. And a lot of people call him out and say, “Oh, that thing he did with the puck when Obie scored the goal a couple weeks ago. Like that is so classless.” All that stuff. That’s what he does. That’s what he does. Like he was going to give the puck back at some point, but he’s just making life difficult for other people. And I like that from a competitor, right? I like that from Brad Marawn, right? He gets under guys skins all the time and the Blues ultimately, you know, won in 2019, got the best of him, but that’s what he does and some of the best competitors in the league do this. So again, that’s not what he said to Jim Montgomery. Of course, we know that and that’s not what Jim Montgomery said back to him. He probably said something like, “Stop a beach ball, please.” And then Jordan Bennington had choice words for him as well. But I have to be honest, Mark, like I love this, you know, competitiveness. But despite all that, the numbers haven’t been there for Jordan Bennington so far this year. He hasn’t really been good. And hopefully this is something that can kind of uh spark something under him, get a fire going under his butt to get going for the rest of this season. But right now, you know, Hoffer has had some really bad games this year. He definitely has, but he’s just coming off a shutout. It was a little bit weird. you made the point, we were talking a little bit off camera and I want to give you credit that you were saying why wouldn’t you go back to a goalender that just had a shut out? That’s a little weird to me as well. doesn’t really make sense uh to me in that way. But Joe Hoer has been pretty good as of late and it’s I think it’s an interesting conversation moving forward now who gets the net moving forward because I think now you have to go back to Hoffer for their next game and that really makes things complicated moving forward because now you’ve swapped things to where you’re putting the trust into Joel Hoffer to be essentially your starting goalender. And I mean the big thing is maybe Jim Montgomery goes back to Bennington saying hey listen you had the feiness. Let’s get you back in. But it’s going to get interesting what happens. We know that Bennington can go up in these big performances. We’ve seen him do it in the playoffs countless times. How big he is for this team. But I think at the moment with the Blues needing wins, maybe just ride the hot hand for a bit. Maybe that makes Bennington mad and he wants to get in and prove everyone wrong. I’m loving the battle between the goalenders right now. But I think getting Hoper in for an extra game or two here and there is going to be big for his developments as well. Still a young goalender. Plus, I do want to say Pewtor is expected to play next game. So, just keep that in mind going through the team’s going to look a little better. But Darius, the biggest thing around this team and one of the biggest question marks other than the trades of course is the fact that we see an early season Doug Armstrong. This was before the season started that they’re not in a rush to get Broberg and Holloway signed. They’re both unrestrict or both restricted free agents. We’ll make sure we’ll leave enough space for them. But now we’re starting to get reports coming around Broberg that there hasn’t been any contract talks. Listen, off to an incredible start to the year. 10 points in 27 games and that doesn’t really justify. We see Jim Montgomery speaking on him as well. What I find is attitude of being harder, firmer in the battles and taking pucks harder areas offensively has really made him a lot more dynamic offensively and in his 200 foot game. Listen, the big thing with Broberg, you need to get this guy locked up. RFA, you can hold his rights. We’ve seen that happen with the Edmonton Oilers. Of course, we’re not going to let him walk and we’re not going to be as stubborn, but what is your thoughts on just everything kind of floating around that nothing has progressed yet with the RFA? It kind of makes sense because we’re seeing this around the league to a degree and they have time and they have control over him, of course, with the, you know, he’s an RFA, he’s not a UFA, so it does make some sense, but I think you want to get this done sooner rather than later because if he’s not already the Blues best defenseman, he’s definitely going to be and very soon. So, you want to lock him up to a contract that makes sense because if he continues to play well, and I think he’s going to I mean, he’s off to a pretty good start so far this year, at least in terms of point production. I’ve always thought he’s been a good 200 foot defenseman, too. There’s always things to learn and to get better at, of course, and you know, he is still relatively young in the league as well, but I always thought that he was a good 200 foot defenseman. Uh, obviously has that offensive touch, too. And he’s doing a good job this year. Will he eclipse his career total? I think that he has the potential to do it this year. The Blues have to start playing a little bit better. That is for sure. But I think ultimately it does make some sense uh to get this done sooner than uh later rather than later, I should say. Excuse me. Because the the cap is going up. Players are going to want a higher percentage of the cap. So get him signed before he does something that you know gets him into an upper echelon of of uh you know salary cap. So uh I’m thinking that they they need to get this done sooner rather than later. But I I understand why they’re taking their time with him because there is no rush and they want to see kind of where the team falls. But it doesn’t really matter where the team falls to me or if you’re trading Braden Shen, if you’re trading Jordan Kyu, lock him up anyway. It’s not like you’re going to make a decision to lose this guy, trade him, something like that. Like, he’s a part of your future. He’s going to be a centerpiece of this team for a long time to come. He’s one of the better young defenseman in the entire league. So, yes, he’s still learning. Yes, he’s still developing uh in real time in front of our eyes. But, you want to get this done as soon as possible because you can see some of the projections there. And I’ll throw it over to you, Mark. I mean, it’s, you know, these are going to be it’s going to be a higher number than this, I think. And yeah, these projections are coming through before we’re seeing the 10 mil each season jump up and up and up as the cap roll continues to rise. But looking at the projections coming into the year, we know the 7 mil on a 5-year deal does make sense, but I think the Blues could really lean in and try to lock him up. We know right now station on that top pairing with Pareo. We see the numbers of what he’s getting paid 4.5. But the big thing is I’m fine with making him the highest paid defenseman in a rise in cap role where he’s only 25 years old. What we’re seeing production wise, like you said, the offense, this was incredible from last year, what we’re seeing out of him, even into the event sets when looking at this series, the minutes played, you can see he played most with he’s had minutes with bulk, but the expected goals for he’s been on both of the top pairings on the Blues. This is a young stud and the best defenseman in the making. Would you be fine with going on an 8-year, $9 million deal, or would you rather take the bridge and see can he progress even more? Now, if you take the bridge, he’s going to be making a lot more in a couple years cuz the cap’s going to continue to go up and we know the direction that this player is going in. So, I would look for the max amount of years. Now, keep in mind, no agent’s going to sign that anymore. You can still do it for one more year, like the rest of this year, but no agent signing that, right? You’re getting probably six years at this point, uh, max at this point because there’s no agent that’s going to sign that. you’re leaving money on the table at the end of the day, especially giving up UFA years. So, um I I think it’s going to be not shorter term in terms of like a bridge contract, but I think if you’re the Blues, like 5 years, 6 years, try to get that done cuz again, I don’t know if an agent is going seven or eight anymore at this point, but try to get something a little bit longer term because if you’re going on a bridge or like a two-year deal or something like that, he’s going to command way more money at the end because what an $8 million defenseman is right now in two seasons or three seasons from now, maybe you’re a $12 million defenseman, right? That could be a little extreme, but the cap is going up a lot. like these players are going to start making crazy amounts of money. So, uh, crazy for us. If you look at the NBA, it’s like nothing. But, uh, of course, I I think that you need to get this done pretty soon. Uh, stop playing around with it. We know that this guy is going to be a centerpiece of this team for years to come. I think he’s probably already probably the best defenseman on this team, well-rounded, at least in all aspects. He’s still young. Get him locked up. Try to make it as longterm as possible. If you do a bridge deal, it’s fine. At least he’s locked up, but you’re going to be paying for it in a couple years. But fence, what is your thoughts? How much would you give a guy like Broberg on this? And I shouldn’t say guy like this is Broberg. How much would you give Broberg on his next contract? Would you go max dollars just to get him signed to an eight-year deal? Would you rather do the bridge? What is your thoughts on the goalending situation? Who do you go back with in the next game? Do you give it to Bennington with that fiery spite that he has after last game? Let us know all your thoughts down in the comments. And speaking of comments, let’s go straight into com today. The Blues can score. And listen, the goalenders can help this, but there is a lot to like about this Blues team. and we’re seeing them finally get some things come together. They’re losing some games, but it’s going to be very dictating over this next stretch before Christmas where we see where this Blues team is. But leave your thoughts down in the comments. You could be featured on comments of the day. While you’re down there, leave a like, subscribe, share this with your friends just like clockwork. We’ll be back tomorrow with another episode, so keep an eye out for that. But I’ve been your host Mark with my co-host Darius and take

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Blues Digest is a YouTube channel dedicated to covering all the latest news, trades, reports, and rumors about the St. Louis Blues. We provide in-depth coverage of game highlights, player performances, and analysis of team strategies. Our channel features discussions on key players like Robert Thomas, Jordan Kyrou, Pavel Buchnevich, and Jordan Binnington, along with insights from Head Coach Jim Montgomery and General Manager Doug Armstrong. Stay tuned for all the exciting updates and engaging content on everything Blues!

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