Colton Parayko agreed to a five-year, $27.5 million contract with the Blues on Thursday that puts him in a group with defensemen like Chris Pronger, Al MacInnis and Alex Pietrangelo as long-running stars on the blue line.
"I'm just happy at the end of the day I'll be in St. Louis the next five years," Parayko said from Toronto as he waited to fly back home to Edmonton. "I love being there. My goal is to play there as long as possible."
"I said at the end of the year we viewed him as a nucleus, a cornerstone player," Blues general manager Doug Armstrong said. "He's only had two years experience and it usually takes 300 games when guys settle in to a constant rhythm in that position. He's still very young, but has a huge upside with his size, skating, shot. There are a lot of elements there. We'll work with him to maximize every element to become a top end player."
Parayko was a restricted free agent, so the Blues had the right to match any offer made to him by another team. When Parayko filed for arbitration and the Blues accepted, that closed the window for other teams to sign him and committed him to the Blues, with the only question how long of a contract he would sign.
"There were a lot of factors," Parayko said, "Too many almost to sit down to list. We sat down for hours discussing different things, a lot of factors, at end of day, the main thing was, I wanted to play there and I'm looking forward to continuing to do that."
Parayko's arbitration hearing was scheduled for Thursday, but the sides reached a deal shortly before the session was to begin. The Blues reportedly had submitted offers of $3.4 million and $3.6 million for each of two years. Parayko's side countered with a one-year offer of $4.85 million. The deal has a $5.5 million annual average value and leaves the Blues a little over $2 million below the salary cap.
"You like to have as much wiggle room as possible," Armstrong said. "Now we view the cap will stay flat for the foreseeable future. We're content with the space we have. We'll move forward and get ready for training camp."
Even though Parayko has only two years in the NHL, the team clearly sees him as a linchpin of its defensive core, locking up his services through 2022. At present, Parayko and Pietrangelo are the only defensemen under contract with the team after the 2018-19 season.
Parayko burst onto the scene in 2015-16 after playing three seasons at Alaska-Fairbanks. Largely unknown entering camp, Parayko grabbed a spot on the roster ahead of several more experienced candidates and quickly became a top-four defenseman after playing just 17 pro games in the AHL at the end of the previous season.
With one of the team's hardest shots, he had nine goals and 24 assists as a rookie, finishing eighth in voting for the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year in one of the most competitive seasons for that award. He was plus-28 in plus-minus that season, the fifth-best mark in the league. His goal total went down but his point total went up in his sophomore season, as he finished with four goals and 31 assists. His ice time of 21:12 was third on the team per game behind Pietrangelo and Jay Bouwmeester.
Prior to last season, Parayko was chosen for Team North America, the 23-and-under team at the World Cup of Hockey, and after last season, he played for Canada at the world championships.
