A lot of the 2022 low season for the St. Louis Blues has been centered on the long run.
Other than some slight tinkering in re-signing Nick Leddy and swapping out Ville Husso for Thomas Greiss, the majority of the Blues’ efforts this summer season centered across the group’s path forward, with the membership losing no time in securing their two offensive pillars by signing each Jordan Kyrou and Robert Thomas to similar eight-year offers only a few weeks aside.
If each gamers proceed alongside their present trajectories, these offers will grow to be bargains sooner relatively than later. Kyrou and Thomas are among the many most tantalizing younger forwards within the recreation, with every bringing their very own comparatively distinctive strengths to the desk that ought to give the Blues a strong base upon which to construct within the years to return.
However this is not precisely a rebuilding staff, both.
With lower than $700,000 in cap area heading into 2022-23 and a roster crammed with veterans, the Blues are very a lot in “win-now” mode, hoping to eke out one ultimate Stanley Cup banner earlier than the core that helped seize the franchise’s first title again in 2019 leaves utterly. Ryan O’Reilly is a free agent following this season. The clock is ticking.
Can they do it? Properly, it could be robust.
Given how three of the Blues’ 4 main strikes this offseason concerned holding gamers on the roster that had been already there, it is robust to think about this 12 months’s model being higher than the final.
There are nonetheless glimmers of hope, although. Kyrou and Thomas will doubtless take respective steps ahead, enhancing upon their point-per-game outputs from 2021-22 and due to this fact elevating their staff’s offensive assault that surprisingly ranked fourth within the NHL in goals-for.
As for the remainder of the roster? Properly, the crease could be an issue. A giant one.
Gone is the goaltender who kind of saved the Blues’ season final 12 months, successfully leaving Jordan Binnington, who misplaced his job to Husso and in addition hasn’t posted a save share above .910 since 2019-20, because the membership’s main hope. That is not splendid. And as a substitute of a 26-year-old who almost posted a .920 save share after being thrust into motion whereas main the Blues to a 109-point season, the protection internet behind Binnington is now a 36-year-old who barely cracked .890 final 12 months whereas permitting near 14 objectives above common in simply 28 begins.
If Binnington returns to the shape that earned him his profitable contract that has not too long ago inched in direction of the precipice of catastrophe, nice! However Binnington’s ceiling, even throughout that magical 2019 Cup run, appears to be like much less spectacular within the harsh glare of hindsight, with the previous journeyman posting an albeit respectable .914 save share in these 26 postseason video games to go along with a dicey -2.0 GSAA.
The Blues of 2021-22 had been a fantastic hockey staff, one which completed third of their division and punched a ticket to the second spherical of the playoffs earlier than being dusted by the eventual Stanley Cup champions. That group has since misplaced franchise staple David Perron for nothing and changed him with a group of journeymen and AHLers in Noel Acciari, Josh Leivo, Logan Brown, and Nathan Walker.
Even when factoring within the aforementioned enhancements from Kyrou and Thomas, it is onerous to think about the Blues enhancing upon their output from final season — which, as has been established, was solely adequate to internet them a single collection win.
It is not as if the remainder of their division has taken an enormous step again, both.
The Colorado Avalanche re-signed almost their complete championship roster whereas changing the departed Nazem Kadri with Evan Rodrigues at a fraction of the value. The Minnesota Wild stored Marc-Andre Fleury round, swapped out his growing older and sad understudy with an intriguing 24-year-old, and can profit from one other enormous season from their very own star ahead. The Nashville Predators maybe improved the a lot of the bunch, including Ryan McDonagh to an already efficient blueline without cost and signing Nino Niederreiter as phenomenal scoring depth.
Even in essentially the most beneficiant of outlooks, the Blues stayed stagnant whereas their closest opponents both did the identical or improved upon their earlier iterations.
That will not reduce it in at the moment’s NHL. The Blues will undoubtedly problem for a Western Convention playoff spot as soon as once more, doubtless even repeating their third-place divisional end from the 12 months earlier than. However on the subject of extending their competition window within the hopes of 1 final magical run, the percentages will not be in St. Louis’ favor.