St. Louis Blues Re-Sign Jaden Schwartz to Five-Year, $26.75M Deal
The Blues have locked up another important member of their core.
The St. Louis Blues locked up an important member of their long-term core on Friday afternoon, announcing that they’ve signed forward Jaden Schwartz to a five-year, $26.75 million-dollar deal. According to Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the average annual value on Schwartz’s deal will be $5.35 million.
Via General Fanager, Schwartz will have a partial no-trade clause for the final two years of the deal. Schwartz was a restricted free agent this offseason and had been scheduled to go to arbitration later this month if a deal hadn’t been completed.
When he’s been healthy, Schwartz has shown the ability to be a very effective two-way forward capable of commanding top-six minutes. Unfortunately, Schwartz has dealt with injuries over the past two years. He suffered a broken foot in December of 2014, though he made a near-miraculous recovery and only missed seven games. Things weren’t as favorable for him last season, though, as he suffered a broken ankle during a practice in October of 2015.
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Over 33 games last season, Schwartz had eight goals and 14 assists while recording a plus-8 rating. He also had four goals and 10 assists in 20 postseason games. Schwartz’s career 82-game average, however, indicates that he can be at least a productive second-line player, as he’s averaged 24 goals and 30 assists per 82. Since he just turned 24 years old, Schwartz could definitely still improve, too. With that said, his lack of size (a generous 5-foot-10 and 190 pounds) and aggressive playing style could make him a long-term injury risk, though.
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As many predicted, Schwartz’s deal fell right in between those of two comparable players from other teams who have signed extensions this offseason: New Jersey’s Kyle Palmieri, who got $23,250,000 over five years, and Nashville’s Filip Forsberg, who got $36,000,000 over six years. If he can stay on the ice for the full season in 2016-17, the Blues would certainly hope that Schwartz can put up numbers similar to those players, who collected 57 and 64 points, respectively, over 82 games each in 2015-16.
Next: Blues Sign Ty Rattie to One-Year, One-Way Deal
With Schwartz’s deal done, the Blues have now managed to lock up the three players who are arguably the most important members of their core–Schwartz, Vladimir Tarasenko, and Jake Allen–through the 2020-21 season (or in Tarasenko’s case, through 2022-23). With Alex Pietrangelo under contract through 2019-20 and Robby Fabbri and Colton Parayko under club control for the foreseeable future, the Blues should be able to rely on that six-player core through the end of the decade.