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It’s been on odd few weeks for the St. Louis Blues. Several familiar faces will be playing hockey elsewhere when the 2016-17 season gets underway. The dramatic shifting of the tides has left some fans of the team feeling seasick.

Watching trusted producers bolt via free agency is never easy, but does that necessarily make this a bad offseason for general manager Doug Armstrong?

Perhaps the biggest surprise was David Backes signing on with the Boston Bruins for the next five seasons. He’d been the captain of the Blues since September of 2011 and played a grand total of 776 contests for the organization. The former second-round pick was tremendously involved in the local community, founding Athletes for Animals with his wife Kelly and doing things like cleaning out kennels at local animal shelters in St. Louis.

Separating the human side from the on-ice side is difficult, but it’s necessary when analyzing the choice to let Backes walk. In short, inking the 32-year-old power forward to a five-year deal would have been a disaster for Armstrong. It’s well within the forward’s rights to ask for as much term as he wants, but that doesn’t mean the Blues have to abide.

Armstrong spoke frankly about why he didn’t re-sign Backes. It clearly came down to term for the veteran general manager, telling Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch the following:

“At the end of the day, the term was a concern for myself. David is a great player, and he’s been a great Blue, and we wish him nothing but the best. But when you project out long-term, it was problematic for me personally to project out that far with players.”

He went on to talk about how there is “analytical data” that shows when players tend to peak and then decline. At 32, Backes’ best years have come and gone. He’ll be 37 by the time his new deal expires, and that’s not something Armstrong was willing to do.

The GM reportedly offered four years, but Backes stood his ground and wanted five. He found it in Boston, leaving a void in St. Louis.

There’s something to be said for Armstrong sticking to his guns in this case. The NHL — believe it or not — is not a charity. There are various franchises around the league that don’t hesitate to dish out extra money and term to “their guys.”

That might make sense on occasion, but it can cause all sorts of salary cap issues down the road. That’s what concerned the Blues when it came to re-signing Backes, and it should be reassuring that the team’s brass didn’t buckle over a single year difference.

Some may retort “it’s just one season and that was our captain!” but one year can be an eternity in the NHL. Look at what the Chicago Blackhawks had to give up to get rid of the last season of Bryan Bickell’s deal. They traded blue-chip forward Teuvo Teravainen along with Bickell to the Carolina Hurricanes to get out from under the final year of that contract.

That’s a steep price, and it’s difficult (if not impossible) to gauge where the market for a 37-year-old forward will be in a half decade. The reality is that Backes’ points per 60 minutes played fell to a career low of 1.35 last year and there’s no reason to believe that he’ll see an uptick with the Bruins.

Boston paid him for things he does off-ice, but that’s not a game Armstrong needed to get into and play.

Will he be missed? Certainly, but in two years this will undoubtedly look like the right move for the Blues.

The one year off theme continued when it came time for St. Louis to re-sign Troy Brouwer. He came to the table asking for a four-year deal, and Armstrong refused to go past a three-year extension. This lead to the forward leaving for the Calgary Flames. The general manager said that he was a “little bit shy” when it came to matching the Flames’ offer, which is understandable.

It’s fair to point out that the Blues are just one summer removed from trading T.J. Oshie to the Washington Capitals for Brouwer, but none of this is happening in a vacuum. By passing on Backes and Brouwer, the Blues avoided paying two over-the-hill forwards a combined $10.5 million AAV over the next four seasons.

Only two members of the current Blues roster is signed for longer than four years: Vladimir Tarasenko and Jake Allen.

That means that the likes of Paul Stastny, Alexander Steen, Patrik Berglund, Kevin Shattenkirk and Jori Lehtera will all need new contracts to prevent them from becoming unrestricted free agents between now and 2020-12 — when Brouwer would have been coming off of the books.

Colton Parayko, Petteri Lindbohm and Dmitrij Jaskin will also need deals as restricted free agents, while Jaden Schwartz and Ty Rattie currently need new contracts as well.

It probably feels like a lot of turnover for Blues fans who are used to a pretty steady roster, but realistically allowing these two veterans to walk as free agents creates a lot of cap flexibility for the next wave of players.

New talents are always rising and falling in the NHL, but cap space will always be limited. Armstrong operated under that premise this summer and should be commended for doing so, even if it means taking a slight step back in terms of team performance in 2016-17.

This is a younger, leaner and faster Blues team that still has enough talent to make the playoffs and do some damage in the coming season.

Follow @FranklinSteele//All cap information appears courtesy of GeneralFanager.com.

Blues won’t regret losing Backes and Brouwer