St. Louis Blues Low On Options Despite Depth

The St. Louis Blues have plenty of players that they think will be good or fans are quite high on. However, when all is stripped away, their options are actually quite few.

When the St. Louis Blues were busy winning the summer, all us fans were giddy thinking about all the potential line combinations. We were all asking will this guy play or that guy and who fits best with whom. It was a grand time. Reality stinks.

We have come to find out that potential is always there but it never quite pans out the way we want. With that in mind, the Blues are somewhat stuck with their current lineup until guys step up or the staff changes.

There are a couple glaring issues going on with this team right now. If you look at social media or take some very generalized fan polls, most are fully on the Jay Bouwmeester hate bandwagon. Unfortunately, even for those of us that like him, he has given us no reason to support him.

While plus/minus is never a complete barometer of how an individual is doing, Bouwmeester is still a minus-6 through seven games played. In over 20 minutes of ice time per game, he is on the ice for an average of one goal per game and only has one point to his name. Now, Alex Pietrangelo has only one point right now too, but that is no longer a ringing endorsement. The two seem to compliment each other in their faults instead of picking up for the other as they used to.

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Bouwmeester, like plenty of other defensemen on this team, just looks lost right now. His positioning is off, his skating is not good and luck is completely against him as well. While his injuries play a role, his general play has just not been good. He currently ranks in the bottom 15 of all defensemen with possession metrics in the third period. That is exactly when the Blues seem to implode, so it is easily conclusive that he is a part of the problem. Unfortunately, the other problem is the Blues do not have suitable replacements for how the team is using him.

In an ideal world, you would slot Joel Edmundson in the top defensive pairing and either drop Bouwmeester to the third pair or replace him with someone who fits in the third pair. Unfortunately, Edmundson and Pietrangelo have given no indication that they can play well together. In fact, it has usually been quite the opposite, which drops Edmundson further down the lineup.

If you can’t trust Edmundson or Bouwmeester on the top pairing, then the Blues do not have anyone capable of filling that role that is not on the roster. Jake Walman has been an iffy player when putting on the Blue Note. Even if you ignore his defensive inefficiencies, he is not currently a top line defender. At his best, Walman is an offensive defenseman and right now, the Blues need someone to help lock things down defensively.

Sadly, Chris Butler is your only other option to come up from the minors. I have nothing against him personally, but the minors is where he needs to stay unless there is another rash of injuries. Butler has a goal in the NHL this season and more hits in two games than some of the other defenders have in eight. However, his metrics are usually mediocre-to-bad. He regularly has negative relative possession metrics, essentially meaning the team is better when he is off the ice than on it.

Your other defensive prospects currently with San Antonio are Joey Laleggia, Tyler Wotherspoon and Mitch Reinke. All of them are doing reasonably well in the AHL in their first 10 games, but all of them got sent down so early in training camp that it is hard to imagine the Blues have any plans to play them in the NHL this season.

Personally, I liked Laleggia’s game in the preseason, but he was one of the first guys cut. Reinke has NHL experience from last season, but you don’t get the sense the team wants to pull him back and forth.

So, the Blues real options are limited. It basically boils down to having to play Bouwmeester until Robert Bortuzzo gets healthy. Even then, you have the issue of who to play on the top pairing, but at least we have a small sample that shows they can do it as a team.

Another issue that has popped up recently is a growing discontent with Sammy Blais. Outside of the horrendous decision to ice the puck mere inches from the redline in Winnipeg, I have not really seen what so many are complaining about. Blais has not played great, but does not seem like he should be part of the firing squad yet.

However, even if you put him there, the Blues are in a similar situation, even if by their own making. A quick peek at the AHL shows that nobody is lighting the world on fire yet.

Klim Kostin has one goal in six games. Jordan Nolan would be a good fit for the fourth line, but that jumbles up the lines even more since Blais has been playing with the top-nine and sometimes even in the top-six. You can bring Chris Thorburn back up, but that limits you with the rest of your fourth line.

Then there is the odd Robert Thomas situation. Thomas has missed three straight games, but the Blues have given no indication of sending him back to the juniors. Nobody deserves playing time, but when the team is not clicking anyway, would it not make sense to get your top prospect some ice time instead of sitting in the press box? Also, why is there hesitance to play him on a wing if his talents might help this team?

The Blues have only ever used him in a center role and on the fourth line. I fully admit he has given them no reason to play him higher, but it is also hard to get in a grove playing fourth line minutes. A move up the roster to take Blais’ spot, while having less pressure by playing a wing might spark him. The Blues did it with so many other guys that were supposed to be centers, so the reluctance to do it with Thomas is puzzling.

The bottom line is that, despite online reaction, the kids are not really being held back. There are few, if any, that are ready to fill the roles the Blues are currently having issues with.

There are more options offensively, but those are still few. Defensively, this current group just has to get their stuff together. Nobody in the minors is a defensive defenseman right now and the Blues have defensive problems. Bringing up a puck mover won’t really solve a bunch.

So, it boils down to the entire group just needing to do their job. It sounds simple enough, but clearly it has not been.