Contract equals what team signed Robert Thomas for two
months ago, making each the richest in franchise history
ST. LOUIS -- Move over Robert Thomas; you have company.
 |
| Jordan Kyrou |
Two months to the day after signing Thomas to the richest contract in Blues history, the team announced on Tuesday they've accommodated Jordan Kyrou in the same fashion by signing the winger to an eight-year, $65 million extension that will pay the 24-year-old $8.125 million per season.
The contract will kick in for the 2023-24 season and run through 2030-31.
"Pretty cool feeling. It's definitely awesome," Kyrou said Tuesday. "It's like a once in a lifetime opportunity. I'm super grateful for sure. ... Growing up as a kid, it's something you dream of, right? This is it. Now it's just time to focus on getting better, getting stronger, faster, working on my game and how I can improve my game."
Kyrou, the 35th pick (second round) in the 2016 NHL Draft, had his breakout season in the NHL last year with 75 points (27 goals, 48 assists) in 74 games. He is entering the final year of his current contract that pays him $2.8 million before he could have been a restricted free agent after the upcoming season.
"We're excited to have a player of his caliber locked up for the meat of his career," Blues general manager Doug Armstrong said. "Coming in as a high draft choice, what he did as a junior hockey player, Ontario player of the year, won a World Championship, came in and was a good player in the American (Hockey) League and he honed his craft coming here last year and being a over a point a game player. We're excited to have that done with Robert Thomas. We're playing for today and building for the future. Having those two guys signed long-term is the cornerstone of what we're trying to accomplish moving forward. It's great news for the organization, great news for the city, great news for the players obviously themselves."
The two sides spoke around the draft and the Blues made it a priority to get their two young cornerstone players locked up to contracts before the season started.
"I talked to both players at the end of last year and I told them they were going to be our priority this summer," Armstrong said. "Both players, I don't want to say played ball, but they took bridge deals and our cap situation is our cap situation with the flat cap. They took two-year contracts and with the understanding that if they did their job, we would do our job and within a year, I realized they were doing their job being players on our team at 22, 23.
"When you look at the other players around the league that are signing these deals maybe coming out of entry level, there's more prove-it to their contracts than our contracts. Our guys have proved it. When you look at all the guys that have signed for $7.5-$8.5, none of them are a point a game players or very few are point a game players. They're on the if-come and hope. We have a little bit of that with our guys but less than I think with some of those other contracts, and that's why I think these bridge deals are important for us is to get a little bit more information. But when you're coming out of a bridge deal, you have to make that decision if you want to commit long term. If not, they're just a year or two away from free agency and all the leverage certainly changes to the players knowing that in a year, I can see what 31 other teams think of me and I can always come back, but we wanted to get ahead of that and they wanted to be a part of our team now moving forward."
Per cap friendly, Kyrou gets a full no-trade clause from 2025-26 through 2029-30, then has a modified no-trade clause for the 3030-31 season in which he has a 15-team no-trade list. The salary breakdown for Kyrou, which includes no performance or signing bonuses is $9 million in 2023-24, $10.9 million in 2024-25, $10.5 million in 2025-26, $8.25 million in 2026-27, $6.6 million in each of 2027-28, 2028-29 and 2029-30 and $6.55 million in 2030-31.
The Kyrou contract is down the very same details as that of Thomas, so the Blues not only hold each player in high regards as their future but also that as equal players.
"Obviously it's nice to get something done and just kind of not have to worry about that," Kyrou said. "Now I can just go focus on playing hockey and working on my game and working on what I need to do to be at the peak of my game. I think for me, it just gives me this whole year to continue and work on my game and just get better and not even focus on any of the contract talk and any of the stuff like that.
"Sometimes you wait a week, you wait two weeks to hear something. You're kind of just sitting there waiting, waiting for that call right? But at the same time, it's obviously the summer time and I'm just focusing on training and focusing on getting myself on getting better and getting stronger."
Kyrou completed his second full season last year but played in 16 games in 2018-19 and 28 more in 2019-20; he has 122 points (46 goals, 76 assists) in 173 regular-season NHL games and 10 points (eight goals, two assists) in 21 Stanley Cup playoff games.
"You've got room to improve every year and I think every summer you've got to go back and train hard and work hard," Kyrou said. "It's going to pay off during the year."
Armstrong worked on similar parameters of that with Alex Pietrangelo and Vladimir Tarasenko, each who got long-term contracts (Pietrangelo seven years, $45.5 million and Tarasenko eight years, $60 million) when they were in their early 20s.
"Both of those were a little bit different because they were out of entry level," Armstrong said. "They were I think second-team All-Stars. They were just more advanced than these two players coming out of entry level and they got those deals without the bridge. This is more like the 'Schwartzy' deal (Jaden Schwartz) with the bridge and then signing them after. But these are cornerstone players for us. You don't have an ownership willing to commit that type of money if there's not a belief that these guys can grab the flag and lead the charge."
Is there risk in doing these deals? Sure. But history says the Blues have made good calls on them. They're hoping to add to the list with Thomas and now Kyrou.
"Well, I think there is risk. There's always risk," Armstrong said. "But when you look at the number of players that are getting extended like this after two years of service or three, these guys have four years of service so there's less risk than other teams are taking, but there's always risk. There's risk of injury, there's risk of poor play, there's risk of not getting along with the manager, not getting along with the coach. There's always risk out there, but there's a belief that I have in these two players that they're going to be the pillar of what we build around."
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