Trade Grades: St. Louis Blues acquire veteran $6.5 million defenseman from Anaheim Ducks

For the second time this season, a trade occurred at 10 am EST on a Saturday. 

The Anaheim Ducks have traded Cam Fowler– $2.5 million retained– and a fourth-round pick to the St. Louis Blues for a second-round pick and Jeremie Biakabutuka. This wasn’t completely unexpected. Elliotte Friedman reported that Anaheim and Fowler were “working on what his future could look like” back in September.

Fowler was Anaheim’s twelfth-overall pick in the 2010 draft. This was his 15th season with the Ducks. He played 991 games in a Ducks sweater, and had 457 points.  

Here are my grades for both teams involved in this trade.

St. Louis’ Grade: C-

Let’s start with the positives. With Anaheim retaining 38.5% of Fowler’s salary– $2.5 million– the Blues are only on the hook for $4 million of Fowler’s original $6.5 million cap hit. With a setback to Nick Leddy’s recovery and Torey Krug done for the season, St. Louis was hurting in the defenseman department. Short-term, Fowler fills a hole on the blueline. He has four assists in 17 games this season.

But let’s look a little deeper, shall we? This doesn’t make a lot of sense. The Blues are currently just four points out of a playoff spot, but I wouldn’t bet on them to make the postseason in a competitive Western Conference. And even if they did, at this point in his career, Fowler probably isn’t much more than a third pairing defenseman. 

Anaheim’s Grade: C-

For the second time this season: what on earth are the Ducks doing? This is now the second questionable trade they’ve been involved in, the first coming just eight days ago.

That’s not to say Anaheim trading Cam Fowler wasn’t expected. But retaining $2.5 million of his cap hit after not making the Rangers retain any of Trouba’s salary should be troubling for Ducks fans. Anaheim has been in a rebuild since missing the playoffs in 2018-19, and this string of moves suggests that management doesn’t see them contending until next season at the earliest. 

I know, I know. Anaheim retained part of Fowler’s salary to get a second-round pick back in the trade. But that pick isn’t until 2027, which means whoever is taken likely won’t see the ice until 2028 at least. That doesn’t exactly scream “the rebuild is over!”.

Last observation: Cam Fowler played 991 games with Anaheim, which means the Ducks traded him just nine games before his 1000th game. He would have been just the second skater ever to play 1000 games in an Anaheim Ducks sweater.