Blues to keep Jake Allen

[flyersffan]

On NHL Network Radio today Steve Kouleas reported that the Blues will not move Jake Allen. How much does this drop Binnington's stock?

[hockeymanG23]

No one wants to trade for a backup making almost $4.5 million? I’m surprised.

Seriously though, I could’ve sworn the Blues were saying their plan was to play Allen more than they did down the stretch run. I could see 45-50 starts for Binnington with Allen getting the rest of them. He seems to play better with a legit challenger on the team so it could improve his own numbers but Binningtons play would really have to fall off for Allen to become a serious threat again.

[LawMan]

I'm not sure it drops Binnington's stock much. Binnington's stock will never be higher than it is right now...

Allen has had every opportunity to take over the starting job in St. Louis for the past several seasons and has never been able to put a sustained run together. Binnington will come into next season as the starter and if his backup wasn't Jake Allen it likely would have been a different 1B veteran. Allen will not take the net from Binnington for any period of time without Binnington's play causing him to lose the net and if that is the case Binnington would lose the net to any other capable backup.

To sum up, Binnington had an amazing run but is far from an established, permanent #1 starter. If Binnington builds on this season in a real way then no backup will take the net from him and if he falters it won't be because of who is behind him. Maybe Binnington's stock falls a tiny bit because the Blues try and showcase Allen for a trade but not much of anything IMO.

[Axeman33]

Maybe St Louis is actually happy with the tandem they have and don't want to break it up. Maybe they don't see a better FA option for what the cost would be. Lots of unknowns.

[Eskimo Brother]

I think another incentive is that if they ship him out, Binnington can argue that he should be the workhorse starter, fresh off of winning a cup, and at that point he could command over 7M. With the Blues keeping Allen, maybe he falls more in line of the Helle/Vas/Murray contracts that were all signed with other goalies around that could take over. A 4.5M Binnington is much different than a 7M asset.

[finnys_fanatsy]

Perhaps they understand that Binns sudden success was a flash in the pan...and Allen is a known commodity when the bubble bursts.

[Godin]

Maybe St Louis is actually happy with the tandem they have and don't want to break it up. Maybe they don't see a better FA option for what the cost would be. Lots of unknowns.

Agreed. Why break them up after where they got with them? Allen is better than how he played last year and Binnington is the real thing. Great tandem.

[ericdaoust]

How much does this drop Binnington's stock?

It doesn't change anything because neither guy is playing 70 games. Both will get starts.

[stevegamer]

Perhaps they understand that Binns sudden success was a flash in the pan...and Allen is a known commodity when the bubble bursts.

Yep. Except he's known to be a commodity with an upside of being slightly above average, and prone to funks where he completely stinks. I'm unsurprised they kept Allen, as the lsit of GM's dumb enough to take that contract on is short.

[bnet]

It makes sense, $4.5m is pricey for a backup, but even for a high end backup or 1B, you're prob looking at minimum $2.5mil a year. Look at how well both goalies played this year in the SC final. Rask who had his lightest workload in year thanks to Halak and Binns who only played half the year in the NHL.
Makes sense for the Blues to keep Allen, who has shown in the past that he can work well in a tandem (it's his consistency that is lacking). Have a 50-30 split and keep Binns fresh for the playoffs.

[evans334]

I read a tweet somewhere talking about how during the playoffs Allen would study their opponents goalies tendencies and mimic them during practice for the skaters to try and get a custom to beating them.

We all know Allen's ups and downs but he's still a serviceable goalie and Binnington can't win forever, see Andrew Hammond & Matt Murray.

[Pengwin7]

Allen gets an already-agreed-upon salary to sit on the bench for the majority of time... and he's OK with that.
Seems like a situation that makes sense.
Obv - not great for Blues cap situation, but they've got until early March to figure out if they need to move Allen to upgrade the roster.

[lucafen4]

What else are they to do with him?

If he's good in the room and good with Binnington. Better the bird in hand.

[Chico Resch]

To me, this either says....


1)They're not 100% sold on Bininngton
2)Noone wants to pay for a $4.5m backup.

[butch]

if its not causing a serious cap crunch then enjoy the luxury for now ; eventually things change and they might get calls on him for a host of good reasons .