The draft has come and gone and so has the frenzy of free agency. While the St. Louis Blues dashed the hopes of many, they still had an interesting week regardless.
The St. Louis Blues seemingly had plans to make several changes to their team during the 2016 NHL Entry Draft and at the beginning of free agency. In the end, it was a lot of hot air coming from rumors and amounted to nothing.
The St. Louis Blues did not pull off any trades involving players coming to the team at the draft. Then free agency went by without a peep from the Blues as well.
Needless to say, fans went nuts. Some were cursing the heavens, some were blasting management and some seem to feel that the team has regressed to the depths of the early 2000’s. None of that is necessary, but it’s not to say that each one of us was not justified in feeling let down in our own ways.
Focusing on things in chronological order, the draft came first. Going into it, there were all sorts of reports that the Blues were on the verge of something pretty big. It seemed to have boiled down to two teams, with the Blues either trying to pull back the fourth overall pick from Edmonton, a player from the Oilers, the 14th overall pick from Boston, a player from the Bruins or some combination thereof.
For whatever reason, nothing ever materialized. The Blues ended up trading their 28th pick for the 26th and used it to draft Tage Thompson, who may have still been there at 28.
Thompson is definitely a project, but has NHL qualities. He’s already 6’5 and at 18 years of age, still has plenty of room to grow both up and outward.
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He had a great year this past season at the University of Connecticut, scoring 32 points in 36 games. Still, he has been a bit up and down in terms of production, so it is hard to get a read on how he would translate into the professional game.
The Blues also drafted Jordan Kyrou, Evan Fitzpatrick, Tanner Kaspick, Nolan Stevens, Conner Bleackley, Nikolaj Krag Christensen and Filip Helt. The interesting name in that group could be Bleackley.
Bleackley was drafted by the Avanalche in 2014, but since he never signed, his rights went back into the draft this past season. He was almost an afterthought, and the Blues snatched him up in the late rounds. He’s already been signed and will play for the Chicago Wolves immediately next season (barring some sort of surprise from him in camp).
View from the Midwest Weekly Division Review
In terms of the moves the Blues did make, they traded away another popular player for the second summer in a row. This time it was Brian Elliott going to the Calgary Flames for a draft pick and a conditional pick. Some people were resigned to the idea that Elliott may go, but the return on the deal, though consistent with the other trades of the time, was not at all palpable.
The Blues seemed like they were in a position of power with all the other goaltenders having such expensive contracts. A second round pick did not come off as an appropriate haul even if you only considered Elliott to be the best backup in the league, let alone an elite starter.
The Blues also signed a new assistant coach. Steve Thomas, the former Blackhawk, will now join the Blues bench after spending the last two seasons with the Tampa Bay Lightning. It is unclear what his role with the team will be, but given the fact he left a team one year removed from a finals appearance, one would assume it is not a token role.
Now, moving onto free agency, that might be the biggest cause of concern for most Blues fans. Most people were somewhat willing to accept the idea that David Backes and Troy Brouwer were likely to leave. However, when David Perron was the only addition, it was understandable that people were not happy.
On the flip side though, some carry it to disturbing lengths. The Blues have not regressed as much as people think and they really haven’t done things in this offseason much differently than they did the prior one and the team ended up in the Western Conference Finals.
We all had our hopes up that the Blues were going to make a splash and pick up that player where fans could say, yes, this is the missing piece of the puzzle. When that didn’t happen, we were all left to scratch our heads but it doesn’t mean the team is in a rebuild mode because they still have the core group that actually matters.
The Blues have made smart signings even if they aren’t the splashy ones. Perron was a puzzling move, but he isn’t breaking the bank and if he can be a 20 goal scorer then he’s worth the money. Scottie Upshall and Kyle Brodziak were signed for cheap and provide that veteran leadership that the Blues are going to need since they seem to be trying to get younger.
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St. Louis is going to be ok. October will roll around and this team will figure out ways to win the same as it did last year. Goals may be an issue, but they already were even when the team had Brouwer and Backes. It’s time for the younger crew to step it up even further.
The future is already upon us. Prospect camp will start this week. We might not be able to make it every day, but I’m going to attempt covering most of the practices. Keep it right here for the latest on that. Have a happy 4th of July or had one if you read this afterward.