BLUES ACQUIRE CENTER, RIGHT WINGER IN TRADES
The Blues have acquired center Radek Faksa from the Stars for future considerations, the team announced. In a separate trade with the Senators, they’ve also picked up winger Mathieu Joseph and a 2025 third-round pick with future considerations heading to Ottawa in return.
With the deals, St. Louis essentially makes a pair of slightly overpriced free-agent signings and receives a third-round pick for its trouble.
Faksa is signed for next season at a $3.25M cap hit, while Joseph is signed for two more years at a $2.95M cap hit. No salary was retained in the deals.
Both should slot into everyday bottom-six roles with the Blues, while Joseph could have some mobility up to the second line. He’s coming off a strong season in a depth role for Ottawa, recording 11 goals and 35 points in 72 games.
He was more than serviceable for what he cost, but the Sens desperately needed to open up cap space with Shane Pinto in need of a new contract (although he does remain a trade candidate, per The Fourth Period’s Anthony Di Marco) and a handful of other forward spots still to fill.
The problem for Ottawa is that it’ll now need to replace Joseph’s production, not something it can confidently do for less than what he costs.
After parting ways with him and picking up Michael Amadio and David Perron in free agency on Monday, the Sens likely still need a top-nine forward to boast a playoff-caliber offense next season, something they may not be able to afford based on how much a new deal for Pinto costs them. They have $7.35M in projected cap space remaining after the Joseph trade, per CapFriendly.
Dallas, too, needed to open up some cap space for an RFA in need of a new deal — defenseman Thomas Harley.
The Stars rebuilt their blue line on the fly Monday after losing Jani Hakanpaa and Chris Tanev and buying out Ryan Suter, bringing in Mathew Dumba, Ilya Lyubushkin and Brendan Smith while also giving a new deal to Nils Lundkvist, who was briefly a UFA after not receiving a qualifying offer.
They now have almost $8M in space after the move, opening enough space to re-sign Harley and land a more economical replacement for Faksa on the open market among the few names that are left.
Faksa’s cap hit wasn’t an outright albatross for Dallas, and he remains a premier fourth-line center with a good defensive game, receiving Selke votes four times in his career.
But over $3M annually was a tad tough to swallow for a player who’s only had double-digit goals once in the past four years and is coming off a 19-point campaign in 74 games last season. His usage had slipped, averaging 12:31 per game last season — his lowest since his rookie year.
He’s a similarly priced and more defensively oriented replacement in St. Louis for Kevin Hayes, who they traded to the Penguins over the weekend. Over his first 638 NHL games, all in Dallas, Faksa had 89 goals and 200 points with a -11 rating.
Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli was the first to report that Faksa was headed to the Blues.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was the first to report the Blues were acquiring Joseph.
TSN’s Chris Johnston was the first to report the Senators were sending a draft pick to the Blues in exchange for future considerations.
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