Twelve St. Louis Blues forwards. The Blues have revamped their roster over the offseason, and now the lineup features twelve forwards capable of producing.
The St. Louis Blues are middling in the NHL standings, but that is because of underperforming players, not the lack of talent on the team. Much of the criticism coming from Blues fans has been directed at general manager Doug Armstrong, but that might be a little off base.
Lucky for the Blues and their fans, the team is composed of professional hockey players that are capable of turning the season around and have already begun to do so.
St. Louis is sitting just nine points out of a playoff spot with two games in hand of the team who is currently holding the second wild-card spot, Edmonton Oilers.
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Although many of the forward lines for the Blues have fluctuated throughout the season, there have been players who have been paired together for the majority of the season.
When healthy, Jaden Schwartz and Brayden Schenn have continued their success from last season as linemates and have been playing together all year.
Both Craig Berube and Mike Yeo have also placed Vladimir Tarasenko on the Schenn/Schwartz line occasionally. This was one of the best lines in the entire NHL last season when all three were healthy and have continued to produce.
Ryan O’Reilly has been maybe the best offseason acquisition in the entire NHL. He leads the team in points and has been the Blues best player all year long. The O’Reilly line has fluctuated dramatically throughout the season.
Early in the season, the Blues attempted to play him with Tarasenko and Pat Marron. It then developed into a line with David Perron and Zach Sanford that was one of the team’s best lines for a few weeks.
It seems as though O’Reilly gets stuck with whichever player is playing the best at the time. O’Reilly has seemingly played with every single forward on the Blues roster, and he continues to make everyone around him better.
Recently, Tyler Bozak has been centering the third line in St. Louis alongside Maroon and Robert Thomas. This has been a sneaky good line for St. Louis over the past month. The combination of Bozak’s faceoff ability, Maroon’s physicality, and Thomas’ playmaking ability, has made this line one of the Blues most effective.
Quite possibly one of the best and most unheralded lines the Blues have is their fourth line. Jordan Nolan, Oskar Sundqvist, and Ivan Barbashev have given the Blues four solid lines.
Sundqvist and Barbashev have spent time on the penalty kill and are likely to stay in the lineup for the foreseeable future. With the imminent return of Robby Fabbri, it is likely that Nolan would be the odd man out and will be taken out of the lineup in favor of the young forward.
The Blues have played the fewest amount of games in the NHL and with reinforcements on the way, expect the forward depth of the Blues to carry them back into contention in the Western Conference.