NHL 2022 Offseason Guide: The St. Louis Blues
In a Central Division that will likely regress, the St. Louis Blues have another year with the main core of this team to try to repeat their Stanley Cup heroics from 2019. It gets a lot tougher for the Blues and General Manager Doug Armstrong after the 2022-23 season but if they go into it with a second Stanley Cup the heartache to come will be all forgiven.
The Roster
As mentioned above the majority of the core will be back for the St. Louis Blues for at least another year, including last season’s points leader Vladimir Tarasenko. His most common line-mate Rob Thomas will also be returning for another season that should see the Blues push for playoffs. They will be hoping this time around defenseman Torey Krug can stay healthy having featured in only three games this past postseason. With a CF% of 54.92 during the regular season and 60.22 in the playoff games, Krug was a driving force behind the Blues offensively, coming in second behind David Perron (minimum 20 games played).
There are also some nice prospects coming through with forward Zachary Bolduc putting up a 99-point season in the QMJHL with the Québec Remparts before averaging a point a game in the playoffs. Forward Jake Neighbours also had a fantastic season with the Edmonton Oil Kings of the WHL after getting a nine-game stint with the Blues. He scored his first NHL goal during that time against the Los Angeles Kings before heading back to juniors and putting up 45 points in 30 games.
Team Needs
What the team needs is some long-term stability, especially in the forward core. After the 2022-23 season only Brayden Schenn, Pavel Buchnevich (an absolute steal from the New York Rangers), and Brandon Saad remain under contract from the core who finished the season. Getting some of these deals done this off-season for the likes of captain Ryan O’Reilly, Jordan Kyrou and Rob Thomas (to name but a few) should be a priority.
The Blues should also look to get deeper in the defense core. The injury to Krug was huge during the playoffs but it showed the gap in talent as you went down the Blues’ defensemen. Colton Parayko is a decent second-pairing defenseman but playing top-line minutes with Justin Faulk during the playoffs showed just how out of his depth he was. Scott Perunovich should relieve some of that should the Blues re-sign him.
Cap Situation
And this is where it gets interesting. With just above $9 million in cap space, the St. Louis Blues have to tender offers for RFA defensemen Perunovich and Niko Mikkola, UFA goaltender Ville Husso, UFA forwards David Perron and Tyler Bozak, and UFA Nick Leddy. Call me pessimistic but I don’t think it can be done.
If you re-sign Leddy and Perron alone to their previous AAV you have already surpassed that. Realistically, Perron is probably signing a team-friendly deal to stay with a franchise he’s had three stints with, but how friendly will it have to be to fit everyone? VHusso in particular outplayed Jordan Binnington during the regular season and although he lost the starting job back to the former Stanley Cup winner during the playoffs Husso will likely get a decent-sized hike on his $750k AAV salary from last season. But will that be with the Blues? All this without even considering Perunovich and Mikkola who are the defensemen of the future for the Blues.
The Draft
The St. Louis Blues have the No. 23 pick in the 2022 Draft and with EliteProspects.com predicting Danila Yurov in that position we are going to dig a little deeper into someone we have mentioned for previous teams. Yurov is a 6’1” winger who can play either side and has one year remaining on his KHL deal with Metallurg Magnitogorsk. This means the Blues can get him across to North America sooner rather than later and with fellow countrymen Vladimir Tarasenko and Pavel Buchnevich to help the youngster settle in, he couldn’t ask for a better landing spot.
Yurov already tore up the MHL with 36 points in 23 regular-season games and ‘played’ 21 times in the elite Russian league. I use ‘played’ lightly though as below you can see there were games his skates never hit the ice and others; they would have been better off not.
Most other draft boards have Yurov going top 15 but if Eliteprospects.com is correct the Blues could very well pick up the steal of the draft.
Conclusion
If the St. Louis Blues can make it a second Stanley Cup in four years what is about to happen to the franchise will be a lot easier to take. There are still a lot of decisions Doug Armstrong needs to make like who their starting goaltender is going to be moving forward and deepening the defensive core. The Blues should be back in the playoffs next year and once there anything is possible.
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