Are The St. Louis Blues The Sleeper Team In The NHL's Western Conference?

[callitwhatyouwant]

the Blues are currently in the top 4 youngest teams in the NHL.

It looks like they dropped considerably from last season.



Chicago was the youngest up until they signed Kane.

it's because they drop off with stuff like Krug and others who are applied to the roster limit until they are moved to LTIR and all the other junk. Puckpedia doesn't play nice because of the adblocker that my work uses it seems (which is a bummer it always worked), but once day 1 rosters come out, I'd venture to guess the blues are in the top 5 youngest rosters unless there are some late moves here by a couple teams who are playing for the tank right away.

quick edit: it will depend on who makes the team out of camp. If a couple guys like Dube make the roster than the team will be somewhere around 10. Right now, the old heads being applied are krug (not going to be there) dube and walker. Sunny isn't being applied so he has a chance to make the age go up. Stenberg is a guy that would drastically shift it down.

but again, we will see. With just the subtraction of krug, the team will move from 14th to 9th youngest. and then it will remain to be seen what they do at the end.

[TheHighHat]

The Blues roster of last year has been significantly altered via both addition and subtraction. They are now a faster team, bigger team, more gritty team, more experienced team with a goalie tandem not likely to stumble out of the gate, on the contrary, they should be a source of team strength.

They improved in the areas they needed to address, most all of them, and with their age group where it is the chemistry should be there as well.

As for special teams, not sure they can get any worse off anyway but thing is a few of the additions to this roster should provide some PP pop (McT 5/6 last year, 2/4 year before) along with a more dependable PK.

No surprise from this homer....the Blues are your classic sleeper for the coming season.

You briefly touched on something that I haven't seen written about enough: Special teams.
The Blues were horrible last year on both units.

The McMichael & Carlo acquisitions should help the PK big time.
McMichael can take the load off Thomas playing on the PK. Keep Robert rested for more even strength play.
Unless another player emerges, McMichael, Suter, Buchnevich, and Toropchenko will be the main forward killers for the Blues.
I think many people forget the PK units when casually tossing Toro and/or Suter to the press box.
I suppose the argument is that STL sucked with them, but who are the other options?

Carlo averaged over 3 minutes per game on the PK under Monty in Boston!
The Bruins finished with the best and 6th best PK units in those 2 full years under Monty.
Obviously it wasn't all because of Carlo, but it's noteworthy that he and a Monty coach team had great PK success.
You should see the 4 veteran d-men killing the penalties this year.

The goaltending should be better this year because I expect a big comeback season from Binner in his walk year.
That alone should help the PK% immensely.

The McTavish & McMichael acquisitions should keep Suter off the PP now.
The Blues now have 8 forwards that are used to getting significant PP time.
STL has 2 pretty good sophomore shooters on opposite sides in Snuggerud and Dvorsky.

I'm still concerned about someone running the PP from the point.
Perhaps Broberg takes another step with that part of his game this year.
Fowler's overall game including the PP fell off last year. Can he rebound?
Does Mailloux get a little bit more time on the PP?

Besides the special teams my main concern will be the middle 2 lines.
Will they generate enough offense?
What players are the playmakers? What players are the finishers?
Those 2 lines will be wildly interchangeable.
Expect to see Holloway and Snuggerud dropped down on occasion to balance out the offense.

I have some money on the Blues to make the playoffs at +260
I have a lot more money on the Blues to finish over 84.5 & 86.5 points.
DraftKings now has them at 84.5, but you have to pay -125 for the over. I did without hesitation.
Keep in mind that it is now 84 games.

[dhsux]

The Blues roster of last year has been significantly altered via both addition and subtraction. They are now a faster team, bigger team, more gritty team, more experienced team with a goalie tandem not likely to stumble out of the gate, on the contrary, they should be a source of team strength.

They improved in the areas they needed to address, most all of them, and with their age group where it is the chemistry should be there as well.

As for special teams, not sure they can get any worse off anyway but thing is a few of the additions to this roster should provide some PP pop (McT 5/6 last year, 2/4 year before) along with a more dependable PK.

No surprise from this homer....the Blues are your classic sleeper for the coming season.

You briefly touched on something that I haven't seen written about enough: Special teams.
The Blues were horrible last year on both units.

The McMichael & Carlo acquisitions should help the PK big time.
McMichael can take the load off Thomas playing on the PK. Keep Robert rested for more even strength play.
Unless another player emerges, McMichael, Suter, Buchnevich, and Toropchenko will be the main forward killers for the Blues.
I think many people forget the PK units when casually tossing Toro and/or Suter to the press box.
I suppose the argument is that STL sucked with them, but who are the other options?

Carlo averaged over 3 minutes per game on the PK under Monty in Boston!
The Bruins finished with the best and 6th best PK units in those 2 full years under Monty.
Obviously it wasn't all because of Carlo, but it's noteworthy that he and a Monty coach team had great PK success.
You should see the 4 veteran d-men killing the penalties this year.

The goaltending should be better this year because I expect a big comeback season from Binner in his walk year.
That alone should help the PK% immensely.

The McTavish & McMichael acquisitions should keep Suter off the PP now.
The Blues now have 8 forwards that are used to getting significant PP time.
STL has 2 pretty good sophomore shooters on opposite sides in Snuggerud and Dvorsky.

I'm still concerned about someone running the PP from the point.
Perhaps Broberg takes another step with that part of his game this year.
Fowler's overall game including the PP fell off last year. Can he rebound?
Does Mailloux get a little bit more time on the PP?

Besides the special teams my main concern will be the middle 2 lines.
Will they generate enough offense?
What players are the playmakers? What players are the finishers?
Those 2 lines will be wildly interchangeable.
Expect to see Holloway and Snuggerud dropped down on occasion to balance out the offense.

I have some money on the Blues to make the playoffs at +260
I have a lot more money on the Blues to finish over 84.5 & 86.5 points.
DraftKings now has them at 84.5, but you have to pay -125 for the over. I did without hesitation.
Keep in mind that it is now 84 games.

Well I'll say this....you put your money where your mouth is!

Nice write up I am in agreement on most everything you covered.

Mailloux belongs on the PP point. I'm looking for a break out year from him and his shot.....perhaps the best on net point shot the Blues have....is part of that reasoning. The Blues absolutely have to fix their PP.

This is a team that will need multiple sources of power and skill to execute play off hockey.

I believe they have the horses to do just that but in the end they have to play the games like every other team.