Yeah, I think Blues would need to be blown away by a deal to move McDonald. I'm not convinced we don't resign him. I can picture him taking a big hometown discount to remain with the Blues, be here when we finally win one. If he is willing to take a 2 year, 3 million per type contract, I don't see how the Blues can pass it up.
- Antilles

Exactly. HE runs our PP, not Pietro, Shattenkirk, or Berglund. He's the most seasoned fwd with the rings to prove it. His skating rivals Jeff Skinner's.

If the Blues want to make some noise they need TWO D men, not one. Cole needs more AHL seasoning (or to play 20-25 min a night SOMEWHERE). Redden is still toast and Russell is beyond useless.

Furthermore, as the Blues get healthy, at what point do they think about keeping Porter or Cracknell in the lineup and scratching lil Scottie Nichol? He's made a nice career for himself as a plumber but he's really not very good and not the type of guy who can pot a key goal now and again. He basically provides the same amount of offense as Reaves and while his defense is fine, the Backes line gets the big defensive assignments so it's not like he is a "shutdown" guy.
- BerglundsGrundle

Nichol is big on the PK. Of his average 10 minutes a night, he plays 2 of them on average on the PK. He and Sobotka see the most pk time of any of our forwards. Thats why he's out there vs Porter or Cracknell when we're fully healthy.

Plus he leads the Blues in Faceoff percentage, something the blues have been terrible at, for the most part.

Nichol is big on the PK. Of his average 10 minutes a night, he plays 2 of them on average on the PK. He and Sobotka see the most pk time of any of our forwards. Thats why he's out there vs Porter or Cracknell when we're fully healthy.

Plus he leads the Blues in Face-off percentage, something the blues have been terrible at, for the most part.
- jpl0219

The Blues PK is middle of the pack. It's not like he's a shutdown guy... no reason a more useful player can't take that on.

And the face-off percentage is an upside, but how many high leverage situations is he taking? For two minutes of PK/game and a couple PK face-offs per game, seems like the rest of the time he is on the ice not contributing could be better filled by someone with more skill and who is faster and who doesn't get tossed around...