Zack Bolduc

[Phil McCrakin]

I know he's played nothing but wing in the NHL but was drafted as a center. Did he play any center in Springfield? Just wondering because he does have a little bit of sandpaper to his game and didn't he lead the team in plus/minus? I know he's a shooter but just wondering.

[kimzey59]

I know he's played nothing but wing in the NHL but was drafted as a center. Did he play any center in Springfield? Just wondering because he does have a little bit of sandpaper to his game and didn't he lead the team in plus/minus? I know he's a shooter but just wondering.

He was stapled to Zach Dean’s wing in Springfield.
I don’t really see him as a conversion option.

I would like to see Stenberg and Stancl get some reps at center next year, but I don’t know how likely that is to happen.

[billybaseball]

He stopped playing center in his last year of juniors.

[Phil McCrakin]

He stopped playing center in his last year of juniors.

Got it. Man do we have some talented young wingers or what. Kyrou, Holloway, Neighbours, Bolduc, Snuggerud. Throw in Toropchenko as a solid checking 4th liner that can move to 3rd line in a pinch.

[STL fan in MN]

He stopped playing center in his last year of juniors.

He transitioned from C to LW sooner than that actually. I didn’t watch him play back when he was 16-17 but what I can do is track his faceoffs via the QMJHL website. Looks like he took a fair amount of faceoffs his 16 year old season with it trailing off in Feb/March. This tells me he played C most of the season but then more wing near the end of the season. In his 17 yr old season, he had a lot of faceoffs in Oct and Nov and then hardly any. This tells me he started the season off at C but then concerned to wing. He was then traded from Rimouski to Quebec. In his 18 yr old season he took 9 faceoffs the entire year. His last year of Jrs, age 19, he took 3 faceoffs the entire year. Has then been a LW as a pro ever since as well. I didn’t really ever see him play with Rimouski pre-draft but post-draft, in Quebec, I watched him a lot and he was paired with Theo Rochette pretty much the entire 2 years with Rochette as the team’s 1C.

So I only have visual proof his last 2 year of Jrs but unless he was dealing with some sort of shoulder issue as the reason he wasn’t taking faceoffs the season before, he hasn’t been a C since the first 2 months of his 17 yr old season. The odds of him converting back to C now are near nil.

[LGB73]

We recognized we had a C issue last year, and tried to solve by converting another winger(Buch) and that didn't work. Let's just acknowledge its still an issue and solve it with an actual center. Dvorksy might be several years from filling the 2C role. Schenn only filled it once he had two speedy skilled wingers to cover for his deficiency and he's not getting younger. Schenn probably shouldn't be our 3C in 2 years if he continues to decline.

Need to get a legit 2C on a 5 year contract and assume he's going to fill that role for 3 years while Dvorsky hopefully goes from AHL to NHL 3C to 2C eventually in that timeframe. If that guy ends up being an overpriced 3C for 2 years, that's probably not the worst thing that could happen to the team.

[danno]

I agree. No more trying to convert W to C. Just ask Buch.

[dhsux]

We recognized we had a C issue last year, and tried to solve by converting another winger(Buch) and that didn't work. Let's just acknowledge its still an issue and solve it with an actual center. Dvorksy might be several years from filling the 2C role. Schenn only filled it once he had two speedy skilled wingers to cover for his deficiency and he's not getting younger. Schenn probably shouldn't be our 3C in 2 years if he continues to decline.

Need to get a legit 2C on a 5 year contract and assume he's going to fill that role for 3 years while Dvorsky hopefully goes from AHL to NHL 3C to 2C eventually in that timeframe. If that guy ends up being an overpriced 3C for 2 years, that's probably not the worst thing that could happen to the team.

Agree but if DA can land a traded 2C it may not even be 5 years.

If not mistaken, DA has said this is the teams biggest priority, before D concerns, right?

[Phil McCrakin]

We recognized we had a C issue last year, and tried to solve by converting another winger(Buch) and that didn't work. Let's just acknowledge its still an issue and solve it with an actual center. Dvorksy might be several years from filling the 2C role. Schenn only filled it once he had two speedy skilled wingers to cover for his deficiency and he's not getting younger. Schenn probably shouldn't be our 3C in 2 years if he continues to decline.

Need to get a legit 2C on a 5 year contract and assume he's going to fill that role for 3 years while Dvorsky hopefully goes from AHL to NHL 3C to 2C eventually in that timeframe. If that guy ends up being an overpriced 3C for 2 years, that's probably not the worst thing that could happen to the team.

I agree 100% with what you posted. Just wondering out loud if Bolduc ever played center after Blues drafted him or if he went straight to wing. The Buch experiment not only didn’t work I believe it contributed to his sub par year.

[Lone_Ranger]

He's a true winger all the way. Can't see him at Center. What the guy needs is a playmaking Center, someone that can feed him the puck. The sooner they find him a gifted Center, the better.

[seattleblue]

This issue is why ... for anyone who wants the Blues to draft Cootes as a center, get ready for a winger instead.