St. Louis Blues captain and marquee pending unrestricted free agent Alex Pietrangelo hopes he and the club can work out a new contract that keeps him in the Gateway City.
"The goal is to get something done. That's been the goal since the beginning. We'll see where things go," Pietrangelo told NHL.com's Louie Korac on Monday as the Blues opened training camp. "(The) focus right now is to get through this thing healthy and playing. We'll see where things end up."
Pietrangelo is in the final season of a seven-year, $45.5-million contract signed in 2013. He could be one of the top players available when free agency opens in October, and the veteran has proven he's worthy of a considerable raise after leading the Blues to a Stanley Cup last year and following that up with 52 points in 70 regular-season games in 2019-20.
With so much uncertainty over the past few months, Pietrangelo said he and general manager Doug Armstrong didn't hold any negotiations.
"It's kind of a tough question to answer right now," Pietrangelo said. "There's wasn't a whole lot going on. There's a whole lot of questions regarding everything moving forward, a lot of things that both sides were kind of sitting down waiting to see what was going to happen before any discussions.
"Quiet, but we're worrying about the playoffs right now. We'll move forward and see what happens here."
Armstrong was also asked about Pietrangelo's situation, but he didn't offer much.
"We know what the (NHL salary) cap is ($81.5 million for next season)," Armstrong said. "And we'll make decisions based on that."
As part of the NHL and NHLPA's recently ratified CBA extension, the two sides settled on a flat salary cap until hockey-related revenue can reach its previous projections.
With no cap increase, it'll be challenging for Armstrong and the Blues to fit Pietrangelo's new deal into their plans. St. Louis holds just over $2 million in cap space for next season, according to Cap Friendly, and the team also needs to sign RFA blue-liner Vince Dunn.
