St. Louis Blues Fortunate To Have Affiliates For Goalie Surplus

The St. Louis Blues are flush with goaltenders right now. Fortunately, the Blues do have spots for them now that their minor league situation is fixed.

One of the more messy things about the St. Louis Blues minor league situation over the past few years was their goaltending issue. It reared its head the most when Ville Husso was left without a landing spot.

The Blues did not have an ECHL affiliate two seasons ago, so they came to a working agreement with the Missouri Mavericks. However, the Mavericks were the official affiliate of another team, so Husso was not made the featured goaltender as the Blues would have liked.

So, they had to jam three goaltenders in with the Chicago Wolves. It was not exactly a great situation.

The same thing, or a similar thing, happened in 2017-18. The Blues had no AHL affiliate. They were fortunate enough to have good relationships with their future affiliate, so Husso went to San Antonio.

That left Jordan Binnington without a home. So, the Blues had to loan him out to the Providence Bruins.

Luckily, both goalies got a good amount of playing time despite not being that team’s affiliated goaltender. The Blues were also fortunate enough that their other goaltending prospects were junior hockey aged.

That all changes for 2018-19. The Blues could have as many as four goaltenders in professional hockey. All four have personal expectations and hopes to be playing in the AHL or higher. Thankfully, the Blues should have spots for them all, even if some have to accept disappointment.

Binnington seems to be penned in at the AHL level. Depending on who his partner is, he may have fallen to a backup role or perhaps a 1b type of scenario.

Husso is the intriguing option. The Blues have enough confidence in him that they believe he might actually beat out Chad Johnson and join the NHL team. The only problem there is how much game time would he see. Would he be better suited with another full season as a starter in the AHL versus a year as a backup in the NHL?

That will be decided in training camp, but I still see it likely he ends up in San Antonio. Binnington would be the backup and Husso the main starter with the Rampage.

However, the Blues have two other options also hoping to have a spot in San Antonio. Despite three surgeries on his hips, Luke Opilka is still highly regarded by the team.

“It’s been tough for him,” said Tim Taylor, the Blues’ director of player development. “He looked really good in development camp (last year), and the Kitchener coaches were really excited to get him back (before the surgeries in September and October)” – Jim Thomas’ article on STLToday.com

Opilka’s dream is still to play for what is essentially his hometown team. However, since he is too old to return to junior hockey, he might not even have a spot in San Antonio.

As pointed out in the Jim Thomas article, Opilka’s best hope would be for Husso to be in the NHL and then backup Binnington. Evan Fitzpatrick will have something to say about that.

Though Fitzpatrick still has junior eligibility, there seems to be a bit of a push toward him playing professionally this year. Clearly, his goal is to be in San Antonio as well. He is also coming off an OJHL championship and Memorial Cup win, where Opilka is just getting back into playing shape, let alone being at a top level.

The likelihood is that both end up with Tulsa of the ECHL, if they are both playing in the pros. The only potential complication there would be the Tulsa Oilers did extend a qualifying offer to goaltender Jake Hildebrand, but he has not yet accepted it.

It would be sad if Opilka did not make any of the teams within the Blues organization now that they actually have control over their minor league situations. However, it would be Blues luck if they finally have spots for their own prospects instead of sharing and ended up with too many goaltenders to go around.

It will be interesting to see how it all plays out. As Taylor said in the Thomas article, Opilka’s spot will be determined by his training camp, as will all the netminders.