St. Louis Blues: Training Camp Preview (Forwards)

The St. Louis Blues open training camp on September 14 and head coach Mike Yeo has plenty of options when it comes to mixing up the Blues forward lines.

The St. Louis Blues were one of the busiest teams in the offseason, adding four forwards to a struggling offensive unit a year ago. The Blues should be ready to bounce back and be one of the top offensive teams in the league.

The additions of Ryan O’Reilly and David Perron should give the Blues some depth on the top two lines. The struggle Mike Yeo will have is figuring out the best combination of players to use in the regular season.

Mixing the new and returning players, especially when the turnover is as extreme as the one the Blues are facing, could take some time to find the right combination that translates to goals on the ice.

The top returning forwards for the Blues should be ready to make the next step toward leading this team back to the postseason. Brayden Schenn led the team in points last year with 70. Acquired from Philadelphia at the 2016 entry draft, Schenn was the top line centerman for St. Louis all year.

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There is not much more that needs to be said about the offensive ability of Vladamir Tarasenko that has not already been said. You might be able to consider last season a “down year” for Tarasenko but he still put up a team-high 33 goals and had the second highest point total on the team at 66.

If there was a real team MVP award, Jayden Schwartz would be my pick from last year. Schwartz had another injury-plagued season, missing 20 games due to an ankle injury but still managed to record more than 20 goals and 59 points.

Alex Steen‘s struggles have been well documented by both the Blues and Blues fans, but it might be time to start a new chapter with the team.

Steen played in 76 games last season and only scored 15 goals despite playing on the second line for the majority of the season.

Schenn and Schwartz will likely begin the season on the top line together. When healthy, those two were one of the top producing linemates in the entire league.

Robby Fabbri might as well be a new addition, he has missed the past two seasons with back to back ACL injuries. All signs early on from the Blues say that he is fully healthy and ready to go but time will tell how effective he can be for St. Louis this year.

Steen and Tarasenko might be paired with some of the new additions brought in over the offseason. Yeo has hinted at pairing O’Reilly with Tarasenko on one of the two top lines and we will probably see those two forwards early on in training camp.

Speaking of the new additions, this training camp could be one of the most important in recent memory. Some of the new players have been filtering into the St. Louis area over the past month as they gear up for the regular season.

New players like Tyler Bozak, Ryan O’Reilly, David Perron, and Patrick Maroon will need to get acclimated to the new players they will be competing with.

O’Reilly has had some experiences playing with current Blues on an international level with Team Canada. Players like Schenn and Pietrangelo have had opportunities to play with the Blues new forward.

Tyler Bozak has spent his entire career with the Toronto Maple Leafs and will slot in as the Blues center on the third line. Bozak could also find some extended time on the power play due to his effectiveness with faceoffs.

David Perron is back, again, and he should have the easiest transition of the “new” players that have been brought in over the summer.

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With such a drastic turnover from last season, it will be important for the coaching staff to play the new guys with some of the returning Blues so that when the regular season begins there will be enough chemistry to hit the ground running and find some early success.

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