- Jeremy Rutherford says the Blues still have interest in Hurricanes defenseman Alexander Nikishin, but only at the right price
- New Blues GM Alexander Steen has taken Robert Thomas off the table, removing the piece Carolina wanted most
- Read below for where the Nikishin trade market stands and what St. Louis could offer instead
Alexander Nikishin still does not have a contract, and the St. Louis Blues are still circling. What they will not do is trade Robert Thomas to get him.
Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic wrote in his latest mailbag that St. Louis has interest in the Carolina defenseman, though only if the price lands somewhere they like. Nearly a month into free agency, Nikishin is one of just 10 restricted free agents around the league without a deal for 2026-27.
New general manager Alexander Steen has no interest in dangling his top center, which closes the door on the framework that once looked easiest. Carolina chased Thomas at last season’s deadline and got nowhere near the asking price.
Carolina has its own reason to settle this. The Hurricanes are sitting on roughly $10 million in projected cap space, and Nikishin is the only player on their NHL roster still waiting on a new deal:
Darren Dreger of TSN reported before the draft that Carolina had put Nikishin into trade talks while it weighed a long-term extension against what a deal could return. The Hurricanes have not picked a lane since. Up to six teams checked in on him earlier this summer.
Nobody in Raleigh is shopping for futures. The Cup champions want a useful roster forward coming back, and they are still hunting for a top-six piece.
That leaves St. Louis short on clean matches. Pavel Buchnevich carries an $8 million cap hit and his offense has slid for four straight years, so the Blues would have to eat salary and then keep adding. Jordan Binnington and Logan Mailloux both come into play if a Nikishin trade ever gets close.
He is worth the runaround. Nikishin put up 11 goals and 33 points in 81 games as a rookie, finished plus-18, made the All-Rookie Team alongside Matthew Schaefer and landed seventh in Calder voting. Take a look at what the 24-year-old does with the puck:
A left shot fits neatly behind Philip Broberg in St. Louis, and it would let the Blues bring prospect Theo Lindstein along slowly instead of throwing him into a big role.
Steen has already shipped Jordan Kyrou to Washington and brought in Mason McTavish and Connor McMichael this summer. Landing Nikishin would mean cutting into the roster he just spent three months assembling.
