Survivor UFA: The infinitely replaceable Chris Porter is NEVER the best option.

Editor's Note: The Blues have quite a few UFAs whose futures need close examination. This is an ongoing pro/con debate on the fates of each of them.

Next on UFA Survivor, Chris Porter.

You know those guys who are constantly disagreeable? No matter what point you make or olive branch you extend, those guys yell out "You’re wrong!" and "I hate olives!"

Well friends, I am that guy. Again.

Seriously, who could really mount a serious argument against a guy like Chris Porter. He barely costs us anything. He is just another young, up and coming guy who is trying to make a name for himself. I really don’t have anything to offer on the topic.

…

The only problem here is that he IS NOT young OR up and coming. Porter is 30 years old, which is like 133 years old in dog years and around 50 in hockey years. Performance starts to decline at this point, and if we are being honest, Porter doesn’t have a lot of room to fall before he has to start digging.

Since being drafted in 2003 Porter has amassed a whopping 173 NHL games played, good for 11 goals, 16 assists and 27 points. A point-per-game rate of .16. In fact, the best he has ever done in ANY league at ANY level is 13 goals and 37 points and that was back with the Rivermen in 07/08.

The dude just doesn’t have it.

Now, since he is cheap and not really an on-ice liability, if we were short on other options, letting him stick around might make sense. Fortunately, we are not short on other options.

We have guys like Ty Rattie, who has a history of being a rockstar at virtually every level he has played, fighting for more NHL ice. Captain umlaut Magnus Paajarvi has been impressive down in the AHL and under our new coach (we ARE going to have a new coach, right? RIGHT?!) he has potential do some NHL damage. After them we have several quality AHL forwards who are young and developing and giving the games to them is actually an investment in someone who might become a difference maker. Any one of those options makes more sense than keeping an aging, chronically unimpressive has-been-who-never-was around like Porter.

Oh, and there is some kid named Fabbri who you may have heard of.

If those choices don’t tickle your fancy we could go outside to the RFA market and get someone like Daniel Carcillo, Andrew Desjardins or even our old buddy Lee Stempniak for roughly the same price. There are a bunch of other options too. That’s the thing about a guy like Porter. He is infinitely replaceable.

In closing, there are younger guys, bigger guys, better guys and guys with much less generic names who can take that slot. Depending on what exact scenario we end up looking for based on what happens with the top 9, there is ALWAYS going to be a better option than Chris Porter.

(The Anyone Other Than Porter campaign is responsible for the content of this message. For more information on to donate, see us on twitter @anyoneotherthanporterfortheSTLBluesinthe2015slash2016season)