The last time Nick Kypreos raised so much commotion about a St. Louis Blues goaltender, he had knocked one out of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Now, he’s suggesting the franchise’s lone Stanley Cup-winning netminder could be heading elsewhere.
During Game 2 of a first-round playoff series in 1996 between the Blues and the Toronto Maple Leafs, Kypreos – a former left winger who totaled 90 points and 1210 penalty minutes in 442 NHL games – injured Grant Fuhr when he dove on him after taking a cross check from Blues defenseman Chris Pronger. The incident, which forced Fuhr to miss the rest of the playoffs with two torn ligaments in his right knee, remains a sore spot for Blues fans, who believe – based on the direction of Kypreos’ lunge not matching with the placement of the hit from Pronger – that the injury was intentional.
Kyrpeos was suspended one game by the league for his actions, and years later, he admitted to taking advantage of the opportunity to put a hit on the Blues’ defenseless goaltender, although denying there was an intent to injure. That obviously did nothing to calm the followers of the Note.
Nick Kypreos Speculates on Jordan Binnington Trade to Edmonton
Now a hockey analyst on the Sportsnet cable television network in Canada and co-host of the “Real Kyper and Bourne” podcast, Kypreos recently ruffled even more feathers around St. Louis. On Nov. 25, Kypreos unveiled his first trade board for the 2025-26 season, and at the top of the list, he deemed Jordan Binnington as the No. 1 player available.
Which in and of itself might just be blown off as yet another talking head talking out of his head. But Kypreos took his prognostication one step further, picking a potential destination for Binnington’s services:
“Binnington has one more season on his contract and the sense is he won’t be part of any re-tool the Blues might undergo. The strongest speculation ties Binnington to Edmonton, and that the Oilers are also seeing if they can get a defenceman out of St. Louis at the same time. That potential deal would most likely be built around Stuart Skinner going back to St. Louis to team up with Hofer.”
That forecast set off a mini-tidal wave of reports on hockey-centric sites as well as news sources in Edmonton. St. Louis fans were quick to reject the suggestion – along with the source – and Blues analyst Andy Strickland revealed on the “The Cam and Strick Podcast” early this week that the Oilers are likely one of the 18 teams on Binnington’s no-trade list. This after NHL insider Chris Johnston, senior writer for The Athletic, cited an unnamed source on the Nov. 27 episode of his podcast indicating that hurt feelings caused by offer sheets given to Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg might keep Edmonton from collaborating with Blues GM Doug Armstrong any time soon.
“I had someone suggest to me though this week that they don't think there's any way the Oilers and the Blues could make that kind of trade, given the recent history with the offer sheets,” Johnston stated. “Now, you know, we'll see. But someone did put that in my ear yesterday, that that we should maybe not get too far ahead of ourselves linking those two teams and the player. Not because the player wouldn't be a fit, but might be a hard, hard deal for the teams to make.”
NHL Analyst Suggests Oilers Should Pursue Jordan Binnington
However, during an appearance Tuesday on the “Real Kyper & Bourne” show, Stephen Valiquette, a former NHL goaltender and CEO of Clear Sight Analytics, cited the difficulty that Skinner and backup Calvin Pickard have had stopping breakaways this season to suggest that Edmonton may want to rethink closing that door.
“They're giving up so many breakaways right now, Edmonton, and their goalies are allowing so many goals on breakaways, so many goals on rebounds,” Valiquette said. “Now, just put the two of them, Pickard and Skinner, together. Okay. So, if I was to take the exercise where I put Binnington, knowing that Binnington's a good breakaway goalie, knowing that history-wise speaks to him being a very good rebound goalie, and we plop him in that net, he would have saved the Edmonton Oilers this year, 16 more goals. And I think that, as you know, a change of scenery for Binnington, too, would be something that he would be, I get the sense, I don't know for sure, but I get the sense he'd probably welcome, especially if it was going to go to Edmonton. But yeah, Edmonton this year, 33 breakaway chances faced as a team, 14 goals went in the net. Even if you put a league average goalie in, they would have made six more breakaway saves. All right, so the math maths.”
Whether that equation ever adds up for the Blues is another matter entirely.