St. Louis Blues: Re-Drafting The 2012 NHL Entry Draft

Every draft in every sport has its hits and misses. However, some stand out more than others. 2012 was just that for the NHL.

The St. Louis Blues go into every draft hoping to find their next superstar player. Some years have come up more money than others.

For example, 2010 was a huge year for the Blues draft. They managed to get both Jaden Schwartz and Vladimir Tarasenko in the same year.

Other years have not been as kind. 2012, was sort of in the middle, but stands out more for it’s oddness. The prime example of that is how some players just get overlooked at younger levels.

Colton Parayko is one of the league’s up and coming players right now. He was drafted in the third round while Jordan Schmaltz, who has barely seen any NHL time was drafted in the first.

With that in mind, let’s revisit that draft. For those who don’t know how I usually do these things, I don’t re-draft every team. I merely assume most of the draft played out as it did and then select the better players from below where the Blues had their picks.

Starting with the Blues first pick, you’d almost have to swap the third and first picks, knowing what we know now. There weren’t a bunch of excellent players from the second round, so Parayko probably moves up to that 25th overall pick. The only other real option would be Chris Tierney, who just had a 40 point season. That might be a reach though.

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The second round pick is a bit more interesting. The Blues took Samuel Kurker, who has bounced around a lot. He went from Boston University to two different teams in the USHL, back to college with Northeastern and then split time between the ECHL and AHL. It’s unclear if the Blues even hold his rights any more.

As far as the pick itself, you’d likely switch it to Damon Severson. He’s been a solid defender for New Jersey since 2014-15 and is coming off 31 and 24 point seasons.

Your other option in that second round spot, of course, would be Jimmy Vesey. The problem there is how much of what played out do you take into account?

Vesey assured, or at least Nashville thought he assured, the Predators he was interested in playing there. However, he held out long enough to become a free agent and went to New York. He’s had a modest amount of success in the NHL, but not near what the hype suggested around his free agency. Personally, I’ll take another solid defender over a potentially egotistical forward.

The third round saw St. Louis pick twice. I won’t change that up too much, so we will slot Schmaltz into that 67th overall pick.

The 86th overall pick is tough. Your stereotypical Blues fan will say to pick Matt Murray, and I would be tempted to do so.

He’s a solid goaltender and has a lot of wins under his belt. He has also played on a more successful team and his personal stats have gotten worse each year, including quality starts and really bad starts. I admit bias, but I’m not 100% convinced he is a true upgrade from Jake Allen. It would be another person pushing the Snake, but it would also hold Ville Husso back as well.

If I’m not going to take Mackenzie MacEachern or go with a goaltender, Frederik Andersen might be more my speed. Also making things confusing is there was an Erik Karlsson drafted that year, but not the one you’d be hoping for.

Let’s just go crazy with this draft. We’ll go almost all defenders here and take Jaccob Slavin in the fourth round. Slavin has averaged 30 points as a defender for Carolina the past two years. He’d be fine as a fourth rounder.

You have a couple interesting pieces at your disposal in the fifth round. You could go with Alexander Kerfoot, who just put up 40-plus points in his first season in the NHL.

Matthew Benning is a decent choice. Eventually you have to not pick a defender though.

You could also take Vinny Hinostroza. You keep him away from the Blackhawks and pick up a guy with plenty of potential.

Last but not least, there were not a bunch of good players taken at the bottom of the draft, so we will assume Petteri Lindbohm falls down to 205. He was on the doorstep of making the Blues full-time before Parayko and Joel Edmundson cut the line. He still has enough talent to play in the NHL and would be a solid get at the end of the draft.

Next: One Difference In 1994 Could've Changed The Blues Forever

None of these are Earth-shattering moves, but every little change could prove to be big. As mentioned, it is funny how odd the 2012 draft was. It was heavy in goaltenders and defenders and missed on some forwards – most notably, Nail Yakupov.

Check out the full draft list here and let us know what changes you would have made.