What is everyone’s best position?
Springboarding off the previous topic, the Blues need to figure out what everyone’s best position is. It seems to come up every year that this person should be at center and isn’t etc. Best to put that to bed early.
The Blues now seem to have plenty of options defensively. The forwards are still a little bit of a mixed bag.
They play very well together, but the pairing of Steen and Stastny together seems odd. Not because of the combination, but because the Blues had been playing Steen at center at various times last season.
If your two best centers are on a line together, that could cause problems further down the lineup. If you want to move Steen back to center, it would be on a different line.
Apparently there are also discussions of having Schwartz play center as well. While that doesn’t seem the best option, it is an option.
Hitch said that they're playing Schwartz at center early in camp in case Sobotka doesn't come. #stlblues
— Jeremy Rutherford (@jprutherford) September 23, 2016
All these things need to be figured out by the time the season starts so everyone hits the ground running.
If for no other reason, it needs to be decided so Stastny can have a good start. Each year he has some sort of hitch, whether injury or switching lines, that prevents him from getting going.
Personally, I’d still like to see Stastny and Tarasenko get a run together. As of right now, that seems unlikely.