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Is Blues’ Brian Elliott Headed Out Of St. Louis?

By Catherine Silverman

Nov 25, 2014; St. Louis, MO, USA; St. Louis Blues goalie Brian Elliott (1) stretches during a time out in the game between the St. Louis Blues and the Ottawa Senators during the first period at Scottrade Center. Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 25, 2014; St. Louis, MO, USA; St. Louis Blues goalie Brian Elliott (1) stretches during a time out in the game between the St. Louis Blues and the Ottawa Senators during the first period at Scottrade Center. Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports /
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Brian Elliott no longer feels that his job with the St. Louis Blues is totally secure

When Brian Elliott went down with an injury fairly early in the season, the St. Louis Blues had a goaltender who could probably hold his own behind Jake Allen in the injury interim — but with a couple tempting free agents willing to be picked up cheaply, the Blues went a different route.

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It took the whole league some time to get used to seeing New Jersey Devils veteran Martin Brodeur between the pipes in a blue uniform — but now that he’s three games in, St. Louis fans are pretty pleased with the shake-up.

Brodeur was signed to a professional tryout contract shortly after it was announced that Elliott would be out for a decent chunk of time, and after losing his league re-entry debut (allowing a monstrous four goals on 24 shots), he’s settled in and stepped up. Since then, he only has three goals against on forty-nine additional SOG, and brings a veteran experience to the net that neither Elliott (29) or Allen (24) really have.

No one thinks that the Blues were struggling in net before Elliott’s injury and Brodeur’s subsequent arrival — but if the former Devils franchise netminder is back on his A-game, the team could be stuck with three extremely good goaltenders to fill two spots.

Enter, a Brian Elliott trade rumor.

The team has insisted that Elliott and Allen are their guys, but according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Elliott knows that situations can change. With Ilya Bryzgalov recently locked up by the Anaheim Ducks, the league has gone from having a surplus of good goalies floating around to a shortage; with only the Sabres netminders considered trade candidates at this point, the Blues could stand to gain considerably from shopping one of their two younger starters.

Teams that could be interested in this? For starters, the Boston Bruins, who haven’t met with much success after opting for Niklas Svedberg behind Tuukka Rask. The Dallas Stars are also second-guessing their decision to back up Kari Lehtonen with Anders Lindback, and the New Jersey Devils seem less than thrilled with — well, anyone but Cory Schneider, who’s suffering as a result.

The Edmonton Oilers and Arizona Coyotes are both extremely streaky in net, as well — add in another groin injury for Avalanche starter Semyon Varlamov, and you’ve got a whole line of teams that could start weighing the pros and cons of a roster move in the event that St. Louis puts either Elliott or Allen up for grabs.

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