Ice Breakers: Blues are a team to watch in Claude Giroux chase

Part II from Tuesday’s segment on the Daily Faceoff Show:

> There has been considerable ink spilled on the Colorado Avalanche and their apparent interest in Philadelphia Flyers captain Claude Giroux in recent days. The Avs, of course, are a distinct possible destination.

But there is at least one more team to watch in the chase for Giroux: the St. Louis Blues.

The Blues have been testing the waters on a number of different fronts, including in conversation for a top-four defenseman like Montreal’s Ben Chiarot.

St. Louis is in contender mode and Giroux’s versatility – his ability to play center or wing, to win key faceoffs and then slide to the wing – would be a big addition.

There is familiarity there. Giroux played for Blues coach Craig Berube and with Brayden Schenn in Philadelphia.

Giroux, 34, is in the process of working with agent Pat Brisson to gauge potential interest. He is in the final year of a eight-year, $66.2 million deal and just 12 games away from 1,000 career games played in a Flyers uniform. Giroux holds a full no-move clause and will have total control on whether he’d like to move on to chase a Stanley Cup elsewhere.

For the cap-strapped Blues, it would be a win to not only add arguably the best pure rental player available at the deadline, but to also keep him out of the hands of your Central Division rival.

> Speaking of the Avalanche: What would Colorado be willing to give up to add before the deadline?

GM Joe Sakic said last week he is open to the possibility of trading his 2023 first-round pick. (They don’t have one this summer, they traded it to Arizona in the deal for Darcy Kuemper.)

Teams have been curious which prospects could be on the move. Is Alex Newhook in play? The answer is believed to be no, according to sources. Newhook is a big part of Colorado’s future.

However, word is filtering out that that defenseman Justin Barron is available in the right deal. Barron, 20 is a 2020 first-round pick. He has 15 points in 30 AHL games this season. File his name away.

Scouting report on Barron from Daily Faceoff‘s Chris Peters:

Justin Barron is a rangey two-way, right-shot defenseman with high-end hockey sense and quality puck moving capabilities. He doesn’t have flashy pucks skills, but he makes a great first pass and can get pucks out of the zone. He’s not afraid to jump into a rush. Defensively, he’s reliable. He plays positionally-sound hockey, engages physically and closes gaps well. You pretty much always know what you’re going to get out of him.

Some other notes: He dealt with blood clots in his draft year, but has had no lingering issues from that … Member of Canada’s 2021 World Junior team and got mostly third-pairing minutes … Fifth highest points per game (0.50) for U21 defenseman in the AHL this season.

> Ben Chiarot is expected to miss about a week for the Montreal Canadiens, who appear to be eager to move the pending unrestricted free agent after his injury scare over the weekend.

So what are the Canadiens looking for in return?

We’re told the Habs have asked for a package very similar to the one David Savard fetched from the Tampa Bay Lightning last year: first and third-round picks. (The Bolts also sent a fourth-round pick to Detroit to retain half of Savard’s salary in a third-party brokered transaction.)

Chiarot, 30, is one of the top rental defensemen on the market this spring. He is playing north of 23 minutes per night for the Habs this season, where he’s collected five goals and nine points. Chiarot carries a $3.5 million salary cap hit this season.

Savard, of course, signed with the Canadiens last summer for $3.5 million per season. He’s played approximately two minutes fewer per night than Chiarot this year.