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St. Louis Blues sign Brandon Saad to 5-year deal

The St. Louis Blues have made a sizeable splash, signing free-agent forward Brandon Saad to a five-year contract.

Saad, who spent last season with the Colorado Avalanche, will join the Blues on an average annual cap hit of $4.5 million.

It was an interesting season with the Avalanche for Saad, who scored 15 goals and 24 points in 44 games. He fell into more a depth role due to the strength of the Avalanche forward group, though he broke out a bit with increased responsibility in the postseason, scoring seven goals in 10 games.

Already a decade into his NHL career, Saad has largely performed a middle-six, secondary scoring level, topping out at 53 points in back-to-back seasons with the Columbus Blue Jackets. He's routinely managed strong underlying data, though his defensive game tailed off a bit in his second stint with the Chicago Blackhawks between 2017 and 2020.

He has, however, just come off a very impressive season from an analytical perspective, though the raw results didn't quite mirror the shift-to-shift data.

Brandon Saad is coming off a strong postseason with the Colorado Avalanche. (Photo by Dustin Bradford/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Brandon Saad is coming off a strong postseason with the Colorado Avalanche. (Photo by Dustin Bradford/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) (Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

St. Louis won't quite provide the same environment as Colorado. However Saad should have increased role and the platform to continue serving as a positive influence inside the top six. He very much fits the characteristics of a Blues forward.

Saad's signing further clouds the future of Vladimir Tarasenko, who is reportedly seeing a decline in interest from around the league, according to The Athletic.

St. Louis still has plenty of cap space with Tarasenko's $7.5 million salary still on the books, but four restricted free agents still require deals. Those outstanding deals include Jordan Kyrou, Ivan Barbashev, Robert Thomas and Zach Sanford.

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