NHL Network ranks Blues Prospect Pool as 4th best

[Aesa]

No where near the confrontational deliberate A-hole status of the other.

Swearing is not permitted here.

You gonna go cry to the mods again, A-hole?

[theograce]

No where near the confrontational deliberate A-hole status of the other.

Swearing is not permitted here.

You gonna go cry to the mods again, A-hole?

I probably should with the amount you follow me in your cliner Gerry.

You’ll be thinking about me on the way out lol

[SRV1990]

I think the drafting strategy will stay the same under Steen. I’m curious how Steen / Army develop and turn extra assets into upgrades over he next 2-3 years.

I certainly hope it does. Winning games, getting into the playoffs AND drafting quality players year after year. Smart hockey, to be sure.

[TheJackBurton]

Anyways, back to the original post...

While we do have some quality depth and we have a few guys that are showing they'll be pros and good ones, i kinda value specific positions over others, Centers and RD's. While i understand it's difficult to get the highest quality of these drafting in the teens, i think there are probably 5-6 farm teams that i would rate in front of us as having some solid players in those positions and some solid prospects in positions similar to ours.

Wouldn't change my thoughts on our ability to draft or acquire young talent. If you wanted to rate the best scouting departments in the NHL, i think 3rd-4th best is probably right where we'd be. 6th-8th best in terms of our overall prospect pool. Just my opinion.

That is true, but if we continue to draft top notch quality scoring wingers, top 4 left dmen, and 2nd and 3rd line centers, we can trade for those individual needs.

If you can't corner the market on those two, best to corner the market on something else.

[SRV1990]

Anyways, back to the original post...

While we do have some quality depth and we have a few guys that are showing they'll be pros and good ones, i kinda value specific positions over others, Centers and RD's. While i understand it's difficult to get the highest quality of these drafting in the teens, i think there are probably 5-6 farm teams that i would rate in front of us as having some solid players in those positions and some solid prospects in positions similar to ours.

Wouldn't change my thoughts on our ability to draft or acquire young talent. If you wanted to rate the best scouting departments in the NHL, i think 3rd-4th best is probably right where we'd be. 6th-8th best in terms of our overall prospect pool. Just my opinion.

That is true, but if we continue to draft top notch quality scoring wingers, top 4 left dmen, and 2nd and 3rd line centers, we can trade for those individual needs.

If you can't corner the market on those two, best to corner the market on something else.

Jack gets it. Some think there's only one way to build a good team, a contending team. But like most things in life, you can reach your end-goal in more than one way. And I'd prefer the way where we aren't near the bottom of the league year after year, hoping we eventually start winning and turn into contenders "some day".

[moose-and-squirrel]

Anyways, back to the original post...

While we do have some quality depth and we have a few guys that are showing they'll be pros and good ones, i kinda value specific positions over others, Centers and RD's. While i understand it's difficult to get the highest quality of these drafting in the teens, i think there are probably 5-6 farm teams that i would rate in front of us as having some solid players in those positions and some solid prospects in positions similar to ours.

Wouldn't change my thoughts on our ability to draft or acquire young talent. If you wanted to rate the best scouting departments in the NHL, i think 3rd-4th best is probably right where we'd be. 6th-8th best in terms of our overall prospect pool. Just my opinion.

That is true, but if we continue to draft top notch quality scoring wingers, top 4 left dmen, and 2nd and 3rd line centers, we can trade for those individual needs.

If you can't corner the market on those two, best to corner the market on something else.

Jack gets it. Some think there's only one way to build a good team, a contending team. But like most things in life, you can reach your end-goal in more than one way. And I'd prefer the way where we aren't near the bottom of the league year after year, hoping we eventually start winning and turn into contenders "some day".

yup , the Bolduc for LM trade is a perfect example

[TheJackBurton]

Anyways, back to the original post...

While we do have some quality depth and we have a few guys that are showing they'll be pros and good ones, i kinda value specific positions over others, Centers and RD's. While i understand it's difficult to get the highest quality of these drafting in the teens, i think there are probably 5-6 farm teams that i would rate in front of us as having some solid players in those positions and some solid prospects in positions similar to ours.

Wouldn't change my thoughts on our ability to draft or acquire young talent. If you wanted to rate the best scouting departments in the NHL, i think 3rd-4th best is probably right where we'd be. 6th-8th best in terms of our overall prospect pool. Just my opinion.

That is true, but if we continue to draft top notch quality scoring wingers, top 4 left dmen, and 2nd and 3rd line centers, we can trade for those individual needs.

If you can't corner the market on those two, best to corner the market on something else.

Jack gets it. Some think there's only one way to build a good team, a contending team. But like most things in life, you can reach your end-goal in more than one way. And I'd prefer the way where we aren't near the bottom of the league year after year, hoping we eventually start winning and turn into contenders "some day".

I mean St. Louis for a lot of players was a destination team, then we fell off for a few years and now the Panthers are.

Being a top contending team year in and year out is how you get back to being a destination team.

[callitwhatyouwant]

Anyways, back to the original post...

While we do have some quality depth and we have a few guys that are showing they'll be pros and good ones, i kinda value specific positions over others, Centers and RD's. While i understand it's difficult to get the highest quality of these drafting in the teens, i think there are probably 5-6 farm teams that i would rate in front of us as having some solid players in those positions and some solid prospects in positions similar to ours.

Wouldn't change my thoughts on our ability to draft or acquire young talent. If you wanted to rate the best scouting departments in the NHL, i think 3rd-4th best is probably right where we'd be. 6th-8th best in terms of our overall prospect pool. Just my opinion.

That is true, but if we continue to draft top notch quality scoring wingers, top 4 left dmen, and 2nd and 3rd line centers, we can trade for those individual needs.

If you can't corner the market on those two, best to corner the market on something else.

Jack gets it. Some think there's only one way to build a good team, a contending team. But like most things in life, you can reach your end-goal in more than one way. And I'd prefer the way where we aren't near the bottom of the league year after year, hoping we eventually start winning and turn into contenders "some day".

yup , the Bolduc for LM trade is a perfect example

I mean it's clear there are multiple ways to get to the end. Vegas basically doesn't believe in youth. They built that team very wisely with the expansion and then they trade assets for players now. That's 1 end of the spectrum. And then you have teams that do the long haul like an Avalanche. But the Avalanche were supposed to have this big window of championship success. What happened? Players priced themselves out and they had to move them or not resign them. That multi championship run turned into 1 so far. And if they won again, the team would be fairly different than the one that won. 2 of their biggest points getters during that run in Kadri and Rantanen aren't apart of the team anymore.

The more entertaining thing for the Blues will be to see who gets dealt and who stays. The team is already trending younger. With this influx of prospect talent it's going to continue that way. But there's too much stock to stick around. Going to have to trade value to get value. You can trade potential for now value if a team is committing to stinking for a few more years. But even then, they want to have information on where their big league roster is at before they make those decisions.

[DawgDad]

Anyways, back to the original post...

While we do have some quality depth and we have a few guys that are showing they'll be pros and good ones, i kinda value specific positions over others, Centers and RD's. While i understand it's difficult to get the highest quality of these drafting in the teens, i think there are probably 5-6 farm teams that i would rate in front of us as having some solid players in those positions and some solid prospects in positions similar to ours.

Wouldn't change my thoughts on our ability to draft or acquire young talent. If you wanted to rate the best scouting departments in the NHL, i think 3rd-4th best is probably right where we'd be. 6th-8th best in terms of our overall prospect pool. Just my opinion.

That is true, but if we continue to draft top notch quality scoring wingers, top 4 left dmen, and 2nd and 3rd line centers, we can trade for those individual needs.

If you can't corner the market on those two, best to corner the market on something else.

Jack gets it. Some think there's only one way to build a good team, a contending team. But like most things in life, you can reach your end-goal in more than one way. And I'd prefer the way where we aren't near the bottom of the league year after year, hoping we eventually start winning and turn into contenders "some day".

yup , the Bolduc for LM trade is a perfect example

I mean it's clear there are multiple ways to get to the end. Vegas basically doesn't believe in youth. They built that team very wisely with the expansion and then they trade assets for players now. That's 1 end of the spectrum. And then you have teams that do the long haul like an Avalanche. But the Avalanche were supposed to have this big window of championship success. What happened? Players priced themselves out and they had to move them or not resign them. That multi championship run turned into 1 so far. And if they won again, the team would be fairly different than the one that won. 2 of their biggest points getters during that run in Kadri and Rantanen aren't apart of the team anymore.

The more entertaining thing for the Blues will be to see who gets dealt and who stays. The team is already trending younger. With this influx of prospect talent it's going to continue that way. But there's too much stock to stick around. Going to have to trade value to get value. You can trade potential for now value if a team is committing to stinking for a few more years. But even then, they want to have information on where their big league roster is at before they make those decisions.

A team in the Blues position needs to ensure they are opening spots to maintain a flow of prospects into the roster, at least one or two a season. Roster atrophy can set in very quickly when that flow is blocked or runs dry. Time never stands still, tomorrow is never the same as today, players WILL come and go. Even on the Cup team the Blues had Thomas plus emerging young players like Dunn, Sanford, Barbs, Sunny, Blais, MacMac --- and Binner.

[callitwhatyouwant]

Anyways, back to the original post...

While we do have some quality depth and we have a few guys that are showing they'll be pros and good ones, i kinda value specific positions over others, Centers and RD's. While i understand it's difficult to get the highest quality of these drafting in the teens, i think there are probably 5-6 farm teams that i would rate in front of us as having some solid players in those positions and some solid prospects in positions similar to ours.

Wouldn't change my thoughts on our ability to draft or acquire young talent. If you wanted to rate the best scouting departments in the NHL, i think 3rd-4th best is probably right where we'd be. 6th-8th best in terms of our overall prospect pool. Just my opinion.

That is true, but if we continue to draft top notch quality scoring wingers, top 4 left dmen, and 2nd and 3rd line centers, we can trade for those individual needs.

If you can't corner the market on those two, best to corner the market on something else.

Jack gets it. Some think there's only one way to build a good team, a contending team. But like most things in life, you can reach your end-goal in more than one way. And I'd prefer the way where we aren't near the bottom of the league year after year, hoping we eventually start winning and turn into contenders "some day".

yup , the Bolduc for LM trade is a perfect example

I mean it's clear there are multiple ways to get to the end. Vegas basically doesn't believe in youth. They built that team very wisely with the expansion and then they trade assets for players now. That's 1 end of the spectrum. And then you have teams that do the long haul like an Avalanche. But the Avalanche were supposed to have this big window of championship success. What happened? Players priced themselves out and they had to move them or not resign them. That multi championship run turned into 1 so far. And if they won again, the team would be fairly different than the one that won. 2 of their biggest points getters during that run in Kadri and Rantanen aren't apart of the team anymore.

The more entertaining thing for the Blues will be to see who gets dealt and who stays. The team is already trending younger. With this influx of prospect talent it's going to continue that way. But there's too much stock to stick around. Going to have to trade value to get value. You can trade potential for now value if a team is committing to stinking for a few more years. But even then, they want to have information on where their big league roster is at before they make those decisions.

A team in the Blues position needs to ensure they are opening spots to maintain a flow of prospects into the roster, at least one or two a season. Roster atrophy can set in very quickly when that flow is blocked or runs dry. Time never stands still, tomorrow is never the same as today, players WILL come and go. Even on the Cup team the Blues had Thomas plus emerging young players like Dunn, Sanford, Barbs, Sunny, Blais, MacMac --- and Binner.

No doubt. I just meant, they have a legit logjam of guys so it will be interesting. Assuming this team is another playoff team this year, I think the guys you see walk after the year is over are Joseph, Texier, Walker. Realistically, that's 2 spots that open because I think those 3 are already too much. Torpedo is going to have to be hard looked at. The Blues would probably love to keep him. But he once had upwards trajectory of 3rd line and it looks like he is being stashed on the 4th. Is he comfortable with that? If he is, he could be a long time Blue. Sunny will probably be asked to come back on 1 year style renewables or maybe a 2 year but be asked to be the 4th line/bench guy.

So you can start weaving in our prospects there, but at a certain point, Stenberg, Carbs, Dvorsky, Peterson, etc etc. Someone is going to get impatient waiting for the next crop of guys to move on.

[seattleblue]

I heard there was only one road to the store through potholes and construction delays. There's an antisocial sad person screaming in the middle of the road too

[DawgDad]

Anyways, back to the original post...

While we do have some quality depth and we have a few guys that are showing they'll be pros and good ones, i kinda value specific positions over others, Centers and RD's. While i understand it's difficult to get the highest quality of these drafting in the teens, i think there are probably 5-6 farm teams that i would rate in front of us as having some solid players in those positions and some solid prospects in positions similar to ours.

Wouldn't change my thoughts on our ability to draft or acquire young talent. If you wanted to rate the best scouting departments in the NHL, i think 3rd-4th best is probably right where we'd be. 6th-8th best in terms of our overall prospect pool. Just my opinion.

That is true, but if we continue to draft top notch quality scoring wingers, top 4 left dmen, and 2nd and 3rd line centers, we can trade for those individual needs.

If you can't corner the market on those two, best to corner the market on something else.

Jack gets it. Some think there's only one way to build a good team, a contending team. But like most things in life, you can reach your end-goal in more than one way. And I'd prefer the way where we aren't near the bottom of the league year after year, hoping we eventually start winning and turn into contenders "some day".

yup , the Bolduc for LM trade is a perfect example

I mean it's clear there are multiple ways to get to the end. Vegas basically doesn't believe in youth. They built that team very wisely with the expansion and then they trade assets for players now. That's 1 end of the spectrum. And then you have teams that do the long haul like an Avalanche. But the Avalanche were supposed to have this big window of championship success. What happened? Players priced themselves out and they had to move them or not resign them. That multi championship run turned into 1 so far. And if they won again, the team would be fairly different than the one that won. 2 of their biggest points getters during that run in Kadri and Rantanen aren't apart of the team anymore.

The more entertaining thing for the Blues will be to see who gets dealt and who stays. The team is already trending younger. With this influx of prospect talent it's going to continue that way. But there's too much stock to stick around. Going to have to trade value to get value. You can trade potential for now value if a team is committing to stinking for a few more years. But even then, they want to have information on where their big league roster is at before they make those decisions.

A team in the Blues position needs to ensure they are opening spots to maintain a flow of prospects into the roster, at least one or two a season. Roster atrophy can set in very quickly when that flow is blocked or runs dry. Time never stands still, tomorrow is never the same as today, players WILL come and go. Even on the Cup team the Blues had Thomas plus emerging young players like Dunn, Sanford, Barbs, Sunny, Blais, MacMac --- and Binner.

No doubt. I just meant, they have a legit logjam of guys so it will be interesting. Assuming this team is another playoff team this year, I think the guys you see walk after the year is over are Joseph, Texier, Walker. Realistically, that's 2 spots that open because I think those 3 are already too much. Torpedo is going to have to be hard looked at. The Blues would probably love to keep him. But he once had upwards trajectory of 3rd line and it looks like he is being stashed on the 4th. Is he comfortable with that? If he is, he could be a long time Blue. Sunny will probably be asked to come back on 1 year style renewables or maybe a 2 year but be asked to be the 4th line/bench guy.

So you can start weaving in our prospects there, but at a certain point, Stenberg, Carbs, Dvorsky, Peterson, etc etc. Someone is going to get impatient waiting for the next crop of guys to move on.

Yeah. The Blues will not [be able to] keep all of their prospects, but they will keep some of them. It seems almost assured we'll see Dvorsky get significant NHL ice time this season. Before the season is over I expect we'll see Stenberg, Peterson, Ellis, Kaskimaki, and perhaps Lindstein or Jiricek in smaller stints. Others could step up. Right now DD with Snuggerud and Mailloux seem like the only sure bets to log significant NHL time, Peterson could rotate in as a 4th liner. Something will be done with Alexandrov. Next season they'll need to clear ice time for a couple more forwards and likely another defenseman.

My hope now is they hang onto their #1 picks and keep thd pipeline flowing. There will be more Mailloux style trades, that is fine, but some of the core veterans will eventually move on, too. This is a pretty healthy organization, they need to get Broberg and Holloway wrapped up and keep it that way.

[STL fan in MN]

Anyways, back to the original post...

While we do have some quality depth and we have a few guys that are showing they'll be pros and good ones, i kinda value specific positions over others, Centers and RD's. While i understand it's difficult to get the highest quality of these drafting in the teens, i think there are probably 5-6 farm teams that i would rate in front of us as having some solid players in those positions and some solid prospects in positions similar to ours.

Wouldn't change my thoughts on our ability to draft or acquire young talent. If you wanted to rate the best scouting departments in the NHL, i think 3rd-4th best is probably right where we'd be. 6th-8th best in terms of our overall prospect pool. Just my opinion.

That is true, but if we continue to draft top notch quality scoring wingers, top 4 left dmen, and 2nd and 3rd line centers, we can trade for those individual needs.

If you can't corner the market on those two, best to corner the market on something else.

Jack gets it. Some think there's only one way to build a good team, a contending team. But like most things in life, you can reach your end-goal in more than one way. And I'd prefer the way where we aren't near the bottom of the league year after year, hoping we eventually start winning and turn into contenders "some day".

yup , the Bolduc for LM trade is a perfect example

I mean it's clear there are multiple ways to get to the end. Vegas basically doesn't believe in youth. They built that team very wisely with the expansion and then they trade assets for players now. That's 1 end of the spectrum. And then you have teams that do the long haul like an Avalanche. But the Avalanche were supposed to have this big window of championship success. What happened? Players priced themselves out and they had to move them or not resign them. That multi championship run turned into 1 so far. And if they won again, the team would be fairly different than the one that won. 2 of their biggest points getters during that run in Kadri and Rantanen aren't apart of the team anymore.

The more entertaining thing for the Blues will be to see who gets dealt and who stays. The team is already trending younger. With this influx of prospect talent it's going to continue that way. But there's too much stock to stick around. Going to have to trade value to get value. You can trade potential for now value if a team is committing to stinking for a few more years. But even then, they want to have information on where their big league roster is at before they make those decisions.

A team in the Blues position needs to ensure they are opening spots to maintain a flow of prospects into the roster, at least one or two a season. Roster atrophy can set in very quickly when that flow is blocked or runs dry. Time never stands still, tomorrow is never the same as today, players WILL come and go. Even on the Cup team the Blues had Thomas plus emerging young players like Dunn, Sanford, Barbs, Sunny, Blais, MacMac --- and Binner.

No doubt. I just meant, they have a legit logjam of guys so it will be interesting. Assuming this team is another playoff team this year, I think the guys you see walk after the year is over are Joseph, Texier, Walker. Realistically, that's 2 spots that open because I think those 3 are already too much. Torpedo is going to have to be hard looked at. The Blues would probably love to keep him. But he once had upwards trajectory of 3rd line and it looks like he is being stashed on the 4th. Is he comfortable with that? If he is, he could be a long time Blue. Sunny will probably be asked to come back on 1 year style renewables or maybe a 2 year but be asked to be the 4th line/bench guy.

So you can start weaving in our prospects there, but at a certain point, Stenberg, Carbs, Dvorsky, Peterson, etc etc. Someone is going to get impatient waiting for the next crop of guys to move on.

I wouldn’t say they currently have a logjam. We have 14 forwards that project to the NHL roster plus Lucic and Dvorsky pushing for spots. If one or both show they’re better options than others, then I’d expect the Blues to look to waiving or trading away one or both of Texier/Joseph.

I do agree though that there’s a likely logjam coming though. But as you said, Tex, Joseph, Walker, Toropchenko and Sundqvist are all pending free agents. Tex is a pending RFA (assuming they keep him and decide to qualify him) while the rest will be UFAs. If some other prospects are showing they’re ready for spots later this season, then we can simply decide to not bring back some of these guys to make room for them next season.

But if they all hit, then yes, we almost certainly won’t have room for all of them but that’s when you can make trades to improve your team. Either trading from an area of strength for an area of weakness (like we did with Bolduc/Mailloux) or trading 2 good assets for 1 really good asset.

[dhsux]

Anyways, back to the original post...

While we do have some quality depth and we have a few guys that are showing they'll be pros and good ones, i kinda value specific positions over others, Centers and RD's. While i understand it's difficult to get the highest quality of these drafting in the teens, i think there are probably 5-6 farm teams that i would rate in front of us as having some solid players in those positions and some solid prospects in positions similar to ours.

Wouldn't change my thoughts on our ability to draft or acquire young talent. If you wanted to rate the best scouting departments in the NHL, i think 3rd-4th best is probably right where we'd be. 6th-8th best in terms of our overall prospect pool. Just my opinion.

That is true, but if we continue to draft top notch quality scoring wingers, top 4 left dmen, and 2nd and 3rd line centers, we can trade for those individual needs.

If you can't corner the market on those two, best to corner the market on something else.

Jack gets it. Some think there's only one way to build a good team, a contending team. But like most things in life, you can reach your end-goal in more than one way. And I'd prefer the way where we aren't near the bottom of the league year after year, hoping we eventually start winning and turn into contenders "some day".

yup , the Bolduc for LM trade is a perfect example

I mean it's clear there are multiple ways to get to the end. Vegas basically doesn't believe in youth. They built that team very wisely with the expansion and then they trade assets for players now. That's 1 end of the spectrum. And then you have teams that do the long haul like an Avalanche. But the Avalanche were supposed to have this big window of championship success. What happened? Players priced themselves out and they had to move them or not resign them. That multi championship run turned into 1 so far. And if they won again, the team would be fairly different than the one that won. 2 of their biggest points getters during that run in Kadri and Rantanen aren't apart of the team anymore.

The more entertaining thing for the Blues will be to see who gets dealt and who stays. The team is already trending younger. With this influx of prospect talent it's going to continue that way. But there's too much stock to stick around. Going to have to trade value to get value. You can trade potential for now value if a team is committing to stinking for a few more years. But even then, they want to have information on where their big league roster is at before they make those decisions.

A team in the Blues position needs to ensure they are opening spots to maintain a flow of prospects into the roster, at least one or two a season. Roster atrophy can set in very quickly when that flow is blocked or runs dry. Time never stands still, tomorrow is never the same as today, players WILL come and go. Even on the Cup team the Blues had Thomas plus emerging young players like Dunn, Sanford, Barbs, Sunny, Blais, MacMac --- and Binner.

No doubt. I just meant, they have a legit logjam of guys so it will be interesting. Assuming this team is another playoff team this year, I think the guys you see walk after the year is over are Joseph, Texier, Walker. Realistically, that's 2 spots that open because I think those 3 are already too much. Torpedo is going to have to be hard looked at. The Blues would probably love to keep him. But he once had upwards trajectory of 3rd line and it looks like he is being stashed on the 4th. Is he comfortable with that? If he is, he could be a long time Blue. Sunny will probably be asked to come back on 1 year style renewables or maybe a 2 year but be asked to be the 4th line/bench guy.

So you can start weaving in our prospects there, but at a certain point, Stenberg, Carbs, Dvorsky, Peterson, etc etc. Someone is going to get impatient waiting for the next crop of guys to move on.

I wouldn’t say they currently have a logjam. We have 14 forwards that project to the NHL roster plus Lucic and Dvorsky pushing for spots. If one or both show they’re better options than others, then I’d expect the Blues to look to waiving or trading away one or both of Texier/Joseph.

I do agree though that there’s a likely logjam coming though. But as you said, Tex, Joseph, Walker, Toropchenko and Sundqvist are all pending free agents. Tex is a pending RFA (assuming they keep him and decide to qualify him) while the rest will be UFAs. If some other prospects are showing they’re ready for spots later this season, then we can simply decide to not bring back some of these guys to make room for them next season.

But if they all hit, then yes, we almost certainly won’t have room for all of them but that’s when you can make trades to improve your team. Either trading from an area of strength for an area of weakness (like we did with Bolduc/Mailloux) or trading 2 good assets for 1 really good asset.

I guess Bolduc for Mailloux did not actually "make room" aside from position strength. But it's the 2 for one that will.

Some big decisions coming up.

[Harry York 37]

I heard there was only one road to the store through potholes and construction delays. There's an antisocial sad person screaming in the middle of the road too

We also have a psychopathic Ghoul whose intellectual toolbox is so bereft that he routinely faps for the impending deaths of many of the senior posters on this board.

Its about all he has. Anyone who faps for an accolade that was achieved when one's "hero" spoils a game seven shutout by screening their own goalie... is working with a Fisher-Price toolbox of hockey knowledge.

[Tabasco Flowers]

Guys this has gone on forever with this clown yet he continues to get the attention of some of our best posters.

He's not changing. Mind or message. It's not going to end no matter what you say.

I'll respect your own judgement It just bugs me he gets the play he gets here.

Agree