The St. Louis Blues are closing in on their draft day. Drafting so low, they’ll have plenty of time to figure things out, but they need to have a good idea of their plan by now.
The St. Louis Blues and the rest of the NHL are resting up before the NHL Draft. They have roughly two weeks before the fireworks begin.
The annual NHL Draft has become one of the most exciting days of the NHL calendar for the pure speculation it produces. It has essentially become a second trade deadline. Sometimes more deals, or at least more exciting deals, are made on that day than during the actual season.
The 2018 draft promises to have plenty going on. Whether that ends up being trades of players or simply jockeying positions for drafting players remains to be seen.
For now, we all have to go under the assumption that teams will keep their picks and take someone in their preselected slot. So, with the Blues drafting down at 29, their possibilities are a little more limited.
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A recent mock draft posted on AZCentral.com has the Blues looking to the blue line. Their pick for St. Louis is Alexander Alexeyev.
It’s a strange thing that so many have the Blues looking to bolster their defensive core given their weakness elsewhere. However, if a defender is the best player available, that’s who you take. You don’t know what your roster will look like when these players actually roll into the team.
Looking at Alexeyev himself, he’s a good sized defender. He’s listed at 6’3, so he has some height and some 18 year olds still have room to grow upward.
The converse of that is his weight. He’s listed at 190 lbs, so that’s pretty thin for his height. He has a good base. It’s not as though he’s a bean pole, but he needs to get bigger and stronger to play the pro game.
Back on the plus side, he’s a decent offensive defenseman without trying too much to do too much. He puts up numbers you want from today’s defenders.
Alexeyev is capable of scoring the occasional goal, with 11 in his last two junior seasons. Assists is where he butters his offensive bread though. He had 30 assists this last year with Red Deer and 47 in 86 games in the WHL.
That is another positive if you select Alexeyev. Though he is Russian born, you don’t have to jump through the hoops to get him on your team.
He’s already been playing in Canadian junior hockey, so he can jump right into the minor leagues as soon as you want/need him. Other Russian players are harder to get a timetable on since the KHL teams have the clamps down on them.
You can never truly tell how a player will adapt to the North American game, even going from junior to the pros. It is much less of an issue going from the Canadian league to the ECHL or AHL though.
The website with the draft points out that Alexeyev could go as high as the 20th selection. That might ease the fears of some fans who say you can’t get anyone good that low.
There would be plenty of doubters wondering what the Blues were doing selecting a defender. However, you can only select what you think is best in that moment.
“We’re always looking for the best player available,” said Doug Armstrong regarding his team’s draft philosophy. “Because these players are so young, usually when they get to the NHL, unless you are picking in the top two or three, your dynamics of your team have changed from where they are today. So we take the best-player approach. At the same time, you look at moving up or moving down, so you can explore to maximize your picks.”
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So, Alexeyev is a fine selection, should he be available by the time the Blues pick. The speculation continues until we find out for sure on June 22 and 23.