{"id":485220,"date":"2026-03-04T16:48:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T16:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/485220\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T16:48:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T16:48:10","slug":"sabres-blues-shifting-trade-talks-to-justin-faulk-colton-parayko-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/485220\/","title":{"rendered":"Sabres, Blues Shifting Trade Talks To Justin Faulk, Colton Parayko \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Sabres made a big push yesterday<\/a> to put themselves at the forefront to land top center\u00a0Robert Thomas<\/a>\u00a0from the Blues. It appears whatever they put forth was a best-and-final offer and may not be enough to pry him away. Darren Dreger of TSN<\/a> followed up this morning on yesterday\u2019s report, saying that talks between Buffalo and St. Louis on Thomas \u201cwent the distance\u201d but that it \u201csounds like the Sabres aren\u2019t willing to part with the necessary pieces.\u201d<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t mean talks between the two parties have ceased, though. Instead, they\u2019ve transitioned to helping Buffalo address its paucity of right-shot defenders, with the team now expressing interest in Justin Faulk<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0Colton Parayko<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Faulk is viewed as the likelier of the two to move, presumably because of a slightly lower price tag. He\u2019s been especially hot as of late, with five assists in his last five games, and is one of four Blues skaters to appear in all 60 games so far this season.<\/p>\n

Alongside that durability, the soon-to-be 34-year-old has had an impressive year on both sides of the puck. Easily the brightest spot on their blue line, his 11-21\u201332 scoring line leads St. Louis D-men and is fourth on the team overall. He\u2019s doing that while ranking second on the Blues in blocked shots with 101 behind Parayko\u2019s 148. While his 47.5% Corsi For share at 5-on-5 isn\u2019t all too impressive, the Blues have an even goal differential with him on the ice at 5-on-5. For how much he plays, averaging 22:30 per game in all situations, his -3 rating becomes a strong one on a team with a -52 goal differential.<\/p>\n

Buffalo\u2019s entire top four of\u00a0Rasmus Dahlin<\/a>,\u00a0Bowen Byram<\/a>,\u00a0Owen Power<\/a>, and\u00a0Mattias Samuelsson<\/a> are lefties. Dahlin and Samuelsson have simply played too well together this season to break up, but it\u2019s clear general manager Jarmo Kek\u00e4l\u00e4inen<\/a> is eyeing a name to plug into the second pairing alongside Byram or Power while bumping the other down to a third-pairing spot at even strength, giving them left-side depth last rivaled by the Lightning\u2019s three-headed monster of\u00a0Victor Hedman<\/a>,\u00a0Ryan McDonagh<\/a>, and\u00a0Mikhail Sergachev<\/a> during their Stanley Cup runs at the beginning of the decade.<\/p>\n

Faulk and Parayko carry the same cap impact at $6.5MM. The former is easier to acquire, though not just because his somewhat weaker defensive reputation contributes to a lower price tag, but also because of his contract. He\u2019s only signed through next season and has a 15-team no-trade list. Parayko, one year younger, is under contract through the 2029-30 season and, like Thomas, has a full no-trade clause that gives the Blues less maneuverability. With so much time left on his contract, the Blues are also in less of a rush to move him and squeeze value out of his deal.<\/p>\n

Parayko, long regarded as a top-five shutdown defender in the league, has sat out of the Blues\u2019 last two games due to back spasms. He\u2019s also having quite a difficult season, amid being a virtual non-factor for Team Canada at the Olympics. His 14 points in 58 games are on pace for the worst offensive output of his 11-year career. His 44.9% Corsi For share at 5-on-5 ranks last among Blues defenders, and they\u2019re getting outscored 54-38 with him on the ice at even strength.<\/p>\n

At age 32, there\u2019s likely some trepidation about committing for the rest of the decade if this season is more than just a flash in the pan. Faulk, whose contractual situation lies more in line with other targets Buffalo has expressed interest<\/a> in, like\u00a0Rasmus Ristolainen<\/a>, is the more plausible outcome if the Sabres and Blues to manage to connect on a deal before Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Sabres made a big push yesterday to put themselves at the forefront to land top center\u00a0Robert Thomas\u00a0from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":485221,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[229,1476,5,1821,30,4,1482,84],"class_list":{"0":"post-485220","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-buffalo-sabres","9":"tag-colton-parayko","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-justin-faulk","12":"tag-newsstand","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-robert-thomas","15":"tag-st-louis-blues"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}