ST. LOUIS — After four full seasons with the Anaheim Ducks, Mason McTavish knew the possibility existed that he’d be traded this offseason.“When you get scratched, that’s never a good sign,” he said. “That’s not the way you want it to go, especially in the first year of your extension.”Yes, the No. 3 overall pick in 2021, who signed a six-year, $42 million ($7 million AAV) contract last September, was scratched twice in the regular season and twice in the playoffs.McTavish wasn’t blaming anyone else.“It’s totally on me,” he said. “I’m not saying it’s anybody else’s fault.”But there were inklings, and they turned out to be real when Anaheim traded the 6-foot-1, 219-pound center to the Blues for a pair of first-round picks (Nos. 15 and 29) in the 2026 NHL Draft.McTavish, 23, was sitting at his parents’ house watching the draft when he received a phone call from his agent Pat Morris, alerting him of the trade about a minute before it was announced on TV.“It was my first time being traded in the NHL, so there was a lot of excitement and a little bit of nervousness,” he said. “I’m super grateful for the Blues kind of trusting me. I think my time in Anaheim — I went there when I was 18 — I enjoyed it. But it’s the right time for me to go to a new team and experience something new, and I’m really looking forward to it.”NHL free agency: Early winners and losersShayna Goldman and Madison EadesAgain, McTavish realizes that his 2025-26 season was disappointing. He scored just 17 goals and took the second-most minor penalties on the team behind rookie Beckett Sennecke with 20.“I wasn’t happy with the way I performed,” McTavish said. “I know that I have so much better than that, so obviously there’s a lot of motivation throughout the start of the summer and going forward. Definitely a lot of energy being exerted this summer, trying to get as better as possible.”