The story in this forward group is a tad more complicated. Tarasenko, Schwartz, and Steen are going nowhere, same can be said for Vladimir Sobotka after the pain the Blues have gone through in prying him back from the KHL. The remaining group of vets rightfully receive mixed reviews. Patrik Berglund fulfills the team's 3rd line centre role nicely, but does so at a $3.85M cap hit. Jori Lehtera has managed to get himself onto the Blues power-play unit, yet struggles to pass the 10 goal mark. And David Perron, the spark plug he may be, carries with him a nasty habit for dumb penalties and inexplicable mental gaffes. This has created such a mess, that checking line bargain Dmitrij Jaskin is in consideration for protection, even though he scored just one goal in 51 games last season. Still, after much consideration, two of these forwards will sneak onto the expansion list, while Lehtera's near immoveable contract will remain out of call.

These two forwards are Berglund and Perron. Patrick Berglund appears to have management's trust and notably fills a role this team needs. His ability to jump back and forth between 2nd and 3rd lines remains valuable enough for us to keep. David Perron may be a surprise, but his game always seems to experience an uptick when donning the blue and yellow. After three seasons getting tossed around the league before returning back to St. Louis, there is a high probability Perron could be convinced by management to take a home-town discount on his next deal. Under the radar as he may be, a 0.52 point per game average over the last three seasons is too hard to ignore.

The last and final forward spot remains conditional on the Blues' current roster. Rumours have justifiably swirled around Paul Stastny and his future in St. Louis. $7.0M is a lot for a player that (i) struggles to stay healthy, and (ii) fails to crack the 50 point barrier. However, with only one year left on his current deal, the burden attached to his cap hit becomes much more reasonable. So much so, that if left exposed, Vegas would surely pick up the 32 year-old and squeeze one last year of consistent two-way play out of him, before either trading him at next year's deadline, or letting him go in free agency. This trade value alone allows us to keep Stastny within the scope of our protection, and instead look to move him or Lehtera once the dust has settled from expansion.