Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports that Saad and the Blues are working towards a mutually agreed contract termination.
St. Louis announced that the team will place Saad on unconditional waivers tomorrow for the purpose of terminating his contract. He would then become a free agent.
As Friedman explains Saad will walk away from his remaining salary this season and the $3.63 million in salary owed to him next year.
The 32-year-old forward cleared waivers Wednesday and was to count $4.5 million against the cap.
For Saad, this provides him a chance to get a new opportunity and teams would not have to deal with the $4.5 million cap hit next season.
Saad has been held without a goal in 40 of his 43 games this season. He has a total of 16 points on seven goals and nine assists and was not garnering much, if any, trade interest around the league.
“Obviously the production’s not there,” Blues general manager Doug Armstrong said. “Right now the cap is tight, and obviously statistically he’s not having a great year and he’s got another year left. If we could find a match, we would try.”
The Blues are languishing on the edge of the Western Conference playoff race past the midway point of the season, five points back of the second and final wild-card spot. Armstrong made his first big move in November by firing Drew Bannister 22 games into being the full-time coach and hiring Jim Montgomery as his replacement.
St. Louis has gone 14-12-3 with Montgomery behind the bench. The organization is trying to build for the future but also attempt to win now, and there are plenty of questions about why that is not happening.
Saad is in his fourth season with the Blues. During the prime of his career, he helped Chicago win the Stanley Cup twice: in 2013 and then in 2015.