The last of the Blues’ five main pending free agents is on the move.
Versatile forward Ivan Barbashev has been traded to the Vegas Golden Knights for prospect Zach Dean, as general manager Doug Armstrong continues his housecleaning in advance of Friday’s NHL trade deadline.
The Blues and Vegas announced the move late Sunday morning.
Dean, 20, was a first-round pick by the Golden Knights, No. 30 overall, in the 2021 draft. The native of Grande Prairie, Alberta, currently is playing junior hockey for the Gatineau Olympiques in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.
In 38 games this season, Dean — a forward — has 24 goals and 25 assists. He played for Team Canada in the World Juniors this season, and had one goal and two assists.
Dean currently is in the first year of a three-year entry-level contract that averages $883,333 against the salary cap.
With the Blues floundering in the standings and facing a salary cap crunch for next season, it became increasingly obvious in recent weeks that the team wasn’t going to be able to re-sign Barbashev, a 27-year-old Moscow native.
He counts $2.25 million against the cap this season, and is expected to command at least $3 million a year — maybe a lot more — on his next deal. Unlike the Tarasenko and O'Reilly deals, the Blues retained no salary in the Barbashev trade.
Armstrong was in Springfield (Mass.) checking out the Blues AHL affiliate on Sunday and was unavailable for comment. He's scheduled to meet with the media in St. Louis on Monday.
Barbashev can play wing or center, and can move up and down the lineup. He kills penalties, can fill in on the power play, skates well and is a physical player.
Coming off a career season in 2021-22, in which he scored 26 goals with 34 assists — both career highs — Barbashev’s production was more in line with his previous time with the Blues this season. Following Saturday’s 3-2 overtime loss to Pittsburgh, he had 10 goals and 18 assists in 59 games, with 132 hits. His ice time of 16:24 was just off his career best of 16:26 last season.
He will get a St. Louis homecoming in just two weeks on March 12, when the Golden Knights play the Blues at Enterprise Center.
The trade comes on the heal of the Feb. 9 deal with the New York Rangers in which the Blues sent Vladimir Tarasenko and Nikko Mikkola in return for Sammy Blais, minor league defenseman Hunter Skinner and conditional first- and fourth-round draft picks.
And the Feb. 17 trade that sent Ryan O’Reilly and Noel Acciari to the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for first- and third-round picks in the 2023 draft, a second-round pick in 2024, and minor-leagues Adam Gaudette and Mikhail Abramov.
There were reports earlier this month Armstrong had informed Barbashev he probably would be traded, in part because there was so much interest in him. Barbashev’s agent Daniel Milstein said the reports were inaccurate. But league sources informed the Post-Dispatch that Barbashev indeed was told he would be moved.
So the trade had been anticipated for a while, to the point where Barbashev told Matthew DeFranks of the Post-Dispatch a few days ago: “Basically everyone knows what’s going to happen. It’s kind of tough. I’ve been here for six, seven years.”
Barbashev was a second-round pick by St. Louis in the 2014 draft, No. 33 overall, and made his Blues debut during the 2016-17 season.
His departure leaves just six Blues remaining from the team’s Stanley Cup run in 2018-19: Blais, Jordan Binnington, Robert Bortuzzo, Colton Parayko, Brayden Schenn and Robert Thomas. Jordan Kyrou played in 16 regular-season games that season, but did not play a regular-season game after Jan. 21, 2019, and did not appear in the postseason.
