ST. LOUIS (AP) The St. Louis Blues acquired All-Star defenseman Justin Faulk from the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday in exchange for defenseman Joel Edmundson and a prospect.
The Blues also announced Faulk had signed a seven-year contract extension worth $45.5 million that goes into effect following this season with the defending Stanley Cup champions.
”The team’s in a position right now where they’re trying to win and keep that success going,” Faulk said on a conference call. ”You never know what the future’s going to be. … You just know who’s on the team today, and you like the team and you just have to believe in the people running the team that they’re going to do their best to keep that success happening, and hopefully for a long time.”
Faulk gives the Blues another offensively gifted right-handed shooting defenseman who could play on the second or third pair. He could also run the second power-play unit.
The 27-year-old Faulk had 85 goals and 258 points – club records in both stat categories among defensemen – and had spent his entire eight-year NHL career with Carolina, which drafted him in the first round in 2010. He was entering the final year of his six-year, $29 million contract that gave him the right to reject a trade to several teams.
”We got to the point where we could have either kept Justin and ride it out, try to continue to sign him, or we felt at this point we were getting good value and we should make the decision to move on,” Carolina general manager Don Waddell said.
The three-time All-Star had been the subject of trade speculation throughout the offseason, and it intensified after the Hurricanes signed veteran defenseman Jake Gardiner to a four-year deal earlier this month, part of a series of offseason moves that created some salary cap concerns.
Waddell said he received more interest in Faulk last week and talked with the Blues midway through the week, with the deal coming together over the weekend. The formal structure of the trade was put into place Monday.
Edmundson, 26, signed a one-year, $3.1 million contract with the Blues last month to avoid arbitration ad will be an unrestricted free agent after the season. He has averaged about 18 minutes of ice time for his four-year NHL career with 13 goals and 39 assists. He had a goal and six assists while playing in 22 of the Blues’ 26 postseason games during the run to their first Cup.
Carolina also picked up 19-year-old forward Dominik Bokk in the deal and the team swapped late-round draft picks in 2020 and 2021.
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This story has been updated to correct Carolina defenseman’s name to Jake Gardiner.
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