St. Louis Blues Sign Dmitrij Jaskin to Two-Year Contract Extension
The St. Louis Blues have another one of their restricted free agents officially back in the fold for 2016-17 and beyond.
The St. Louis Blues announced on Thursday that they’ve signed forward Dmitrij Jaskin to a two-year contract extension. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Jeremy Rutherford, the deal will pay Jaskin an average annual value of $1 million. The 23-year-old Jaskin, who was scheduled to be a restricted free agent this offseason, made $775,000 in 2015-16.
Obviously, as they give Jaskin nearly a 30 percent raise, they’ll be hoping that he returns to the level of production he displayed in 2014-15, when he scored 13 goals and added five assists in 54 games. After being separated from Paul Stastny in 2015-16, he was quickly passed up by Robby Fabbri on the depth chart, and his point production plummeted. Through 65 games, Jaskin had just four goals and nine assists, and he was almost exclusively limited to the fourth line over the closing months of the season, even having to endure a short demotion to the AHL in February.
After breaking into the Blues’ playoff lineup in the second round, he did score a goal in Game 5 of the Blues’ series with the Dallas Stars and delivered a solid performance in the Western Conference Finals against the San Jose Sharks. The Blues will hope that his late breakthrough springboards him into a more consistent 2016-17 season.
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Jaskin’s role in 2016-17, at least at the outset of the season, figures to be that of a fourth-line winger. If Scottie Upshall departs in free agency, Jaskin could take over as the left wing on that line, and if the Blues bring back the 32-year-old winger, Jaskin could end up rotating with Ryan Reaves as the right wing on that line. There’s also a possibility, though perhaps an improbable one, that Jaskin could end up taking over as the center on that line if Kyle Brodziak departs. Jaskin got some action as the fourth line center while Brodziak was injured in December of last year, and he performed pretty well, though he was a bit inconsistent in the face-off circle. With that said, Jaskin’s transition to center ice would probably also require a failure on the part of the Blues to bring Vladimir Sobotka to the NHL.
Next: Blues Add Assistants Mike Yeo, Rick Wilson
With Jaskin’s new deal, the Blues will have roughly $15 million of cap space left to try to get a long-term deal with Jaden Schwartz, possibly re-sign David Backes, Troy Brouwer, Upshall, and Brodziak, and maybe bring back Sobotka. Judging by what the playoffs likely did to increase all of those players’ free agent value, it seems that this deal lessens the chance that all of them will come back next season.