Confident Adam Jiricek Impresses on Blues' Blue Line During Prospect Tournament

[zamadoo]

While I agree that it is foolish to rush a young player, I also believe it is foolish to think that there is no damage as you wait.

1) A later prospect that may be great will pass you by because are married to the wrong one.

2) Expensive old free-agents are continually signed and cycled, leaving no continuity in it's wake. See Faksa and Bjugstadt and Fowler as examples. None had a chance of being on the roster for long. Most teams sign older FA's to round out the roster for a Cup run. The Blues sign them to cover up roster holes and draft mistakes. Show me a Bjugstadt, and I'll show you failed Center draft selections by Army.

3) There is an old NHL adage. The longer it takes for a player to make the NHL, the LESS IMPACT he will bring. "Waiting for 3rd-liners" makes no sense as they are a dime a dozen. The team should be laser-focused on finding young top-liners. They NEVER bring up the topic, because the never make any progress on it (VIA THE DRAFT which is the traditional way of finding them)

4) The Blues have one of the oldest rosters in the league. The primary reason for this is poor drafting by Doug Armstrong. Based on past results, Doug Armstrong's draft picks should be a on a SHORT LEASH, not a SLOW ROLL. See Scott Perunovich for an example.

For someone who spends so much time thinking and typing up posts related to roster construction...well...at least typing them up...it's quite interesting how little time has been spent looking around the league at other rosters, or even having gained an understanding of how rosters change over time

Army has inferred that the most valuable and worthwhile acquisitions do not come via UFA signings. Every team makes short-term bottom-6 signings, and Army does a great job forcing competition to make the team. If a prospect is knocking on the doorstep, he provides the opportunity to take a roster spot but does not grant it. Faksa and Fowler were not free agents, but trade acquisitions that filled important roles. Fowler is cheap for what he is bringing. ANA even ate part of the contract. Bjugstadt adds an element to the bottom 6 we didn't have, and is very cheap.

Snuggerudd has just made it to the top-6 in the fastest possible time period (as a college player).
It took Thomas several years, after playing his entire rookie season on the 3rd line to help win a Cup, and is now one of the best centers in the league. Kyrou was drafted 2nd round and is now top-6. Neighbours has bounched around in the top-9 and is looked at as future Captain material.

Dvorsky, Stenberg, and possibly Stancl are 20 year old top-6 players who will arrive in the next several seasons, probably with some time on the 3rd line first (maybe 4th for Stancl). This thread is about Jiricek, who along with Lindstein are looking to be top-4 defenseman. Defenseman typically take longer to develop, but they'll arrive over the next several seasons as well. Mailloux was acquired for a player who is a top line forward and will be taking Faulk's spot very soon.

The team became old because we won a Cup and tried to keep that winning rolling, and then had to tear it down. What you've described is what happens to teams in that position as they go through the transition to getting young again. It's not anyone's fault but yours that you're too impatient to let it happen, yet you blame Army's drafting which landed 9 WJC players last year (most of any team). In 2 years we'll be a young team and very good. We're even a good team right now. Good luck keeping up your schtick while that happens.

[STL fan in MN]

The guy spouts opinions based on things he considers “facts” but his facts are all wrong too. He keeps regurgitating that Army is bad at drafting and thus needs the advantage of a top-5 pick to keep up with the better drafting teams. Many of us have provided data to show that is far far from the truth and the Blues have been way above average in drafting under Army. Does he care? Nope! Just keeps spouting the same [nonsense].

Now the Blues have one of the oldest rosters in the league he says. Again, nope! Pretty easy to look up. Obviously the exact rosters of all 32 teams aren’t fully set yet but just go to eliteprospects.com and sort the teams by age and you’ll find the Blues are the 18th oldest…ie, the 14th youngest. So on the younger half of the league. The oldest? WPG, PIT, LA, FLA, DET and EDM. The Blues have infused a ton of youth into their lineup in recent years.

The guy is simply full of poo and can’t be reasoned with. He’s a lost cause.

[keithinwr]

The guy spouts opinions based on things he considers “facts” but his facts are all wrong too. He keeps regurgitating that Army is bad at drafting and thus needs the advantage of a top-5 pick to keep up with the better drafting teams. Many of us have provided data to show that is far far from the truth and the Blues have been way above average in drafting under Army. Does he care? Nope! Just keeps spouting the same [nonsense].

Now the Blues have one of the oldest rosters in the league he says. Again, nope! Pretty easy to look up. Obviously the exact rosters of all 32 teams aren’t fully set yet but just go to eliteprospects.com and sort the teams by age and you’ll find the Blues are the 18th oldest…ie, the 14th youngest. So on the younger half of the league. The oldest? WPG, PIT, LA, FLA, DET and EDM. The Blues have infused a ton of youth into their lineup in recent years.

The guy is simply full of poo and can’t be reasoned with. He’s a lost cause.

I feel sorry for the poor guy. Imagine being that much of a clown.

[TimmyVee]

Note to self:
- Lindstein is nothing special
- If Jiricek can stay healthy, he will be about 1/2 as good as Buium. Did you see the reviews of Buium? Take a gander so that you know what impressive looks like.

Note to self:
-stop being lazy and ALWAYS sign in to the forum so these inane, trolling posts are always blocked.
-remember the time spent signing in will come back tenfold in time saved not wasted reading his posts.

[Boomac]

He was on Strickland's Hockey Sense Podcast:

https://youtu.be/9AX38hi1CeA?si=fNqdECEHTgmOERqL

Some interesting tidbits:

- He talked a little bit about how injuries affected his weight going into the draft and adding 25 LBS since then.

- He played forward until he was 14 / 15

- He has no real preference on where he plays this year. He said he'll go where the Blues feel will best serve his development.

[seattleblue]

He was on Strickland's Hockey Sense Podcast:

https://youtu.be/9AX38hi1CeA?si=fNqdECEHTgmOERqL

Some interesting tidbits:

- He talked a little bit about how injuries affected his weight going into the draft and adding 25 LBS since then.

- He played forward until he was 14 / 15

- He has no real preference on where he plays this year. He said he'll go where the Blues feel will best serve his development.

Now I understand why this RHD repeatedly positions himself in the o zone next to the net like LW David Perron and puts himself the farthest possible distance from his defensive spot in his own zone

[a smell of green grass]

Buium was drafted 12th overall, he’s terrible.

See false statement above. No one thinks that, not even the author.

See true statement below.

Buium was drafted 12th overall, well out of the reach of Doug Armstrong EVERY YEAR. Armstrong wants to pick no lower than 15.

When picking >15...
- There are no expectations on Army. If the draft pick never makes the NHL, it is the draft pick's fault 100%. Isn't it amazing how Army has acquired a reputation of being a great draft expert, but he has NEVER had to prove it in St Louis. He drafts so late in the draft that the hard choices are over and left to the other GMs. Army drafts so late that every pick is a long-shot, and won't be sniffing the NHL for 4 years.
- Picking later in the draft correlates with making it into the playoffs, and that correlates with cash register ring.
- Even though Minnesota had nearly the same record as the Blues in 2024, MN gets Buium who is going to be a star now, while the Blues get Jiricek who is about 10 months and 10 lbs away from even playing in the AHL.

What’s wrong with players taking longer to make the NHL? I’d be more worried about how many players in the top 2-3 rounds make or don’t make the team. Most teams try not to rush players and usually it helps their development. Have you listened to any of the player interviews talking about the current culture of the team? That’s the environment you want to expose young players to. Every young player in the blues organization now knows they have to earn a job and not have it handed to them. The Blues have created a healthy competitive culture and in return the team will reap the benefits over the coming years. Last year was one of the most exciting years as a Blues fan for myself. Can’t wait for the next few seasons. What if Jiricek ends up being a better D than Buium?

While I agree that it is foolish to rush a young player, I also believe it is foolish to think that there is no damage as you wait.

1) A later prospect that may be great will pass you by because are married to the wrong one.

2) Expensive old free-agents are continually signed and cycled, leaving no continuity in it's wake. See Faksa and Bjugstadt and Fowler as examples. None had a chance of being on the roster for long. Most teams sign older FA's to round out the roster for a Cup run. The Blues sign them to cover up roster holes and draft mistakes. Show me a Bjugstadt, and I'll show you failed Center draft selections by Army.

3) There is an old NHL adage. The longer it takes for a player to make the NHL, the LESS IMPACT he will bring. "Waiting for 3rd-liners" makes no sense as they are a dime a dozen. The team should be laser-focused on finding young top-liners. They NEVER bring up the topic, because the never make any progress on it (VIA THE DRAFT which is the traditional way of finding them)

4) The Blues have one of the oldest rosters in the league. The primary reason for this is poor drafting by Doug Armstrong. Based on past results, Doug Armstrong's draft picks should be a on a SHORT LEASH, not a SLOW ROLL. See Scott Perunovich for an example.

The Blues rank very well for how they draft.
Binner, Parayko, Kyrou, Neigbours would all be redrafted much higher
Thomas would be top 5 of his draft, Kyrou would be top 10-12, Jake will probably end up being top15 but brings intangibles that won't rate him higher, Tucker is still establishing himself as regular as well as Kessel but both players would be redrafted much higher. Tage Thompson would probably be top 10.
Add in Broberg and Holloway could both be redrafted into the top 10 already
Another approach you could take is to look at what players the team drafted since Petro. They could easily put together a contending team.
Two teams i followed closely were the Devils and Wings and they brought players up slowly and had high success rates. They moto was you can't hurt a players development by bring them up slow but you can by doing it too fast.
I'll probably follow their strategy, worked well for them. I'm just a fan but I think it's great for a player to play a year or two in the AHL.
Every team has Perunovich's.
What do you actually like about how the team is run? It's too bad you're not getting to enjoy the excitement of training camp like the rest of the fans. Future looks bright.

Great to hear your optimism. I hope that you are right.

[Mr.Snuggleupagus]

He's a Kyrou on D

A frail hotdog that can't play D