The St. Louis Blues have been one of the more active teams monitoring Carolina Hurricanes restricted free agent Alexander Nikishin this offseason, with Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reporting that St. Louis has taken a “long look” at the 24-year-old defenseman as trade talks around him continue to circulate. While this information was reported several weeks ago, no deal seems to be close, and Carolina is still appears to be locked at whether they prefers to extend Nikishin or move him. But the shape of a realistic package, and whether it’s actually worth the Blues making, is worth examining.
Nikishin arrived in the NHL with a resume few rookies can match. He spent six seasons in the KHL, finishing with 177 points on 54 goals and 123 assists across 288 games, making him SKA St. Petersburg’s all-time leading scorer among defensemen, and captained the club during the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons.
That experience carried over immediately to his rookie NHL season as he finished with 11 goals and 22 assists for 33 points in 81 games, a Stanley Cup, and a seventh-place finish in Calder voting while average just over 18 minutes of ice time each game. Because he hasn’t accrued enough professional games to be offer-sheet eligible, any team wanting him has to get there through a trade, which raises the acquisition cost. His camp could be seeking a long-term deal in the $8 million AAV range, a number that could have pushed Carolina to weigh the trade market as an alternative to committing that money.
Should Carolina explore the trade route, it appears to been clear that they want an additional top-six forward back, not simply picks and prospects. That’s where Jake Neighbours becomes relevant. The 24-year-old winger is under contract through 2026-27 at a $3.75 million cap hit, coming off a season with 15 goals and 36 points, and has shown he can produce in a middle-six or top-six role with a physical, net-front game. Pairing him with defensive prospect Theo Lindstein, the 2023 first-rounder who logged 17 NHL games last season, and a future first-round pick could give Carolina the roster-caliber forward it’s seeking while adding a legitimate blue-line prospect to offset trading away one of its own.
The bigger question is whether St. Louis should actually make this move. Looking to the organizational depth chart, however, and it appears that a move makes a decent case that it should.
Philip Broberg is already entrenched as the clear top defenseman and isn’t going anywhere, so this isn’t about replacing him, but about adding a second high-end piece on the left side who plays a different game. On the right side, Logan Mailloux has already claimed at least a bottom-pairing NHL job, and likely the second-pairing role to start the season.
This is where it gets better for the Blues. The pipeline is stacked further with Adam Jiricek is trending as a legitimate top-four right-shot prospect after a strong OHL season, a strong AHL postseason cameo, and a top-defender showing at World Juniors. Lindstein already has NHL games under his belt and has shown that, while he is not a lock to start the season in the NHL, he can readily take a third-pairing role and continue proving his worth from there.
The tradeoff in this conversation is up front. Neighbours is a proven, cost-controlled, middle-six forward, and replacing his minutes would come internally between players like Dillon Dube, Otto Stenberg, Dylan Peterson, or Aleksanteri Kaskimaki.
While these players are all capable of taking over a bottom-six role, the Blues are also in the midst of a transition that also require adequate character and leadership, traits that Neighbours has shown plenty of in his time with the big club. Moving on from the 24-year-old is a bet on the unproven forwards and that they can produce close to immediately. Both Dube and Stenberg have some history already in the NHL, but will need to show that they can continue to produce offensively as well.
Ultimately, the real cost, and losing a fan favorite in Neighbours won’t be popular. But for a team retooling and looking to likely contend and push for a Wild Card spot for the upcoming 2026-27 season, betting on the pipeline to replace one winger could be a reasonable price to pay for a 24-year-old, Cup-winning and former KHL team captain, top-four defenseman.