St. Louis Blues: Guesses At Alumni Game Roster

The St. Louis Blues announced their Alumni game against the Chicago Blackhawks will take place on December 31 as part of their Winter Classic celebration. While some names were dropped as to who might play, it’s a guess as to the rest.

Trying to figure out who is going to play for the St. Louis Blues as part of their Alumni game against the Chicago Blackhawks prior to the 2017 Winter Classic is a futile effort, but we’re going to do it anyway. There’s no real way to know who is going to accept or who is going to be healthy enough.

For example, Chris Pronger was already named as one of the Blues players that will take part. While he’s more than young enough, it was wondered if his concussion problems might keep him from playing. However, one would think the organization would have made sure he was going to play before dropping his name. Sure, he could be brought in as a coach, but that’s not near as fun and much less deserving of an announcement during the press conference at Busch Stadium.

Some of the other names that were said to be playing were the ones almost nobody could figure would not be there. Brett Hull, Al MacInnis and Bernie Federko were all listed with Pronger as guys that will suit up one more time in an effort to take down their rivals from the north.

So, who else should be on there? Who else will be on there?

We’d all like to see Bob Plager suit up one more time. He’s a mainstay at the alumni functions around town, but whether or not he’s healthy enough to lace up the skates or whether he might just be a coach would be left up to him.

Some of the other names would be quite interesting in terms of a combination of whether they would want to and whether they would have buried old hatchets. Adam Oates seems to show up for some of the various ceremonies the Blues have had in recent times, such as Hull’s number retirement etc. So, you could figure he has held no hard feelings for how things ended with the contract dispute and he would be able to play.

What about Craig Janney and Brendan Shanahan? They were important pieces to the team in the early 90’s, but we’ve discussed how things fell out between them in earlier articles. Janney would likely be the more available player since Shanahan might use his job with the Toronto Maple Leafs as an excuse not to come, if he chose.

It’s almost impossible to imagine the Blues Alumni board members not on there, even if some of them aren’t the highest profile names. Kelly Chase is going to be there and should be as is Bruce Affleck. Terry Yake, Larry Patey, Blake Dunlop and Reed Low are both on the board, so you would assume they’d be on the ice as well.