St. Louis Blues Top 5 Players Of 2018-19 Regular Season

5. Jordan Binnington

We will get this one out of the way first. There are going to be plenty of fans out there that will wonder how anyone could not list Jordan Binnington as the top player for the Blues this regular season.

Despite their beliefs to the contrary, Binnington is no savior. He had the good fortune to be put in the net when the team was finally coming together. I am still of the belief that the Blues would have done just as well with Jake Allen in there if they played the same kind of defense.

This section is not for that debate, however. The bottom line is that Binnington took advantage of his good fortune and gave no reason for anyone to ever take him out again.

We can debate whether he is actually the best goaltender in the league, with various factors backing up either side. The truth of it is that Binnington put up stats that outshined a lot of his counterparts and not all of that was due to a good team around him.

This is not a situation like the Washington Capitals of last year or Detroit Red Wings in their hayday. There was not this supreme crop of talent propping up the goaltending and covering up every mistake. Binnington still had to go out there, make the saves and win the games.

His calm demeanor seemed to calm the team in front of him. In turn, that turned into confidence in all other areas of the game, knowing Binnington was not going to crumble like some rookie and he was going to have their back when they made a mistake.

Gone were the early season SNAFU’s and awful mistakes that plagued the Blues earlier in the season. Binnington was not the only reason for the change in the team, but it cannot be argued that he was one of the reasons.

He had more help than his predecessor, but you do not get a 1.89 save percentage by sheer luck. The defense was improved, but it is still difficult to get five shutouts in a year.

I may not hold him or his efforts in the esteem others do, but nobody can deny he has won. He has been the backbone of this team and save for the odd mistake here or there, has been quite flawless on his way through this year.

4. Brayden Schenn

Brayden Schenn has to be considered one of your top five players for a few different reasons. Firstly, is the quality of his play.

Schenn might not have had the breakout season we saw in 2017-18, but he was a top line performer. Once he settled into this current squad, he was exactly what the team needed him to be.

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Like everyone, he struggled at the start of the season. Even so, he came alive with 17 goals and 54 points. We would love to have had the 70 points from the previous year, but maybe that was an outlier. Perhaps his average of 50-plus points in Philadelphia is more what he truly is.

There is nothing wrong with that. The Blues need a consistent 50-plus point player. They’ve thought they would have it in so many other guys in the past and been let down. Nobody is going to complain about Schenn’s point totals if he keeps hitting 50, even if he had one great year that outshined all of that.

Beyond his stats, Schenn showed he could lead too. It’s not the leadership you see from the stands or the kind you give captaincies for, but leadership by buying in and accepting your role.

Despite his fantastic play, Schenn showed glimpses of being a malcontent in 2017-18. There were whispers of that coming from Philly fans when the Blues acquired him, but we shrugged it off.

Then, he comes out in the media and criticizes his linemate. Whether you agree with what he said or not, you do not normally do that in public.

With all the turmoil going on in the locker room to start 2018-19, he could have just gone downhill. He could have easily told everyone he was going to be a center and they’d have to live with that. He did not.

Instead, Schenn handled everything like a professional. He accepted, willingly or begrudgingly, a move to the wing to stay on the team’s top line.

He formed quick chemistry with Ryan O’Reilly and that extended over to Vladimir Tarasenko. That trio playing together went undefeated for well over 10 games. It was only injury that finally knocked them off their perch.

Schenn had a big part in that. His tenacity kept things alive for the other two. He began to take up net-front position and got rewarded for it with big rebounds.

All of that combined make Schenn a big reason why this team is where it is. The Blues just need to do some convincing that he is just as well off staying on the wing here than going anywhere else just to be a center.

3. David Perron

When I am wrong, I am wrong. I have to admit that here.

When the Blues signed David Perron, I was mildly irritated. I bore no ill will toward him. I simply thought it was a bad move.

My logic was that he was not going to put up the same numbers he did in Vegas with the Blues. They were not going to play him as high in their lineup and he would not be free of defensive responsibility as he was with the Golden Knights.

It was a night and day scenario with the style the Blues played. Perron was familiar with that style, having only been gone a season, but it just did not make much sense to go to the well for a third time. Nobody is right all the time.

While I was correct in the point total argument, 46 points vs. 66 points, I was not right overall. Perron was huge for this team when they needed him the most.

Perron went on a career high personal scoring streak. From December 20 to March 23, there was not a game he played in that he did not record a point. Only injury broke up his 17-game streak, but keeping it going after coming back might be more impressive.

Just as interesting was his reemergence as a goal scorer. Most of his points in Vegas came from assists. 23 goals for the Blues was his most since 2013-14, his first year with Edmonton. That’s turning back the clock.

As mentioned, these came during the team’s most desperate hour too. When nobody was scoring and the team was in the basement, Perron was helping to keep the offense afloat.

He was also keeping a putrid power play afloat too. His seven goals on special teams was the most for him since that same 2013-14 season and ranked second on this team.

He could not have gotten healthy at a better time. The Blues need him to carry it all over to the playoffs, but his regular season was impressive on its own merit.

2. Vladimir Tarasenko

Let’s be honest, you knew Vlady was going to be on here. He is the team’s best offensive threat and, though he went missing for long stretches in 2018-19, he showed he is still their best offensive player.

The frustrating thing about Tarasenko is how he continually teases us. We see him string together the goals and the points in so many games, but he can’t keep it up throughout a season.

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Tarasenko, like the entire team, was absent to start the year. Outside of one two goal performance, he did not score in seven of the team’s first eight games.

Tarasenko was equally horrid in November. He went 10 straight games without a goal. There were points in those games, but you need your goal scorers to score.

It was once the team settled on a top-six and more a top-three that Tarasenko finally took off. Once January hit, he was scoring more regularly and in bunches.

More important, Tarasenko was scoring at key times. If the team fell behind, he would tie the game. If the game was tied, he managed to find the go-ahead goal.

In years past, we saw Tarasenko chip in with plenty of scores, but some of them were in garbage time when the game was not on the line. In 2018-19, there were plenty of games on the line and he found ways to score in the bigger moments.

Tarasenko might always be a frustrating player. We see and know he has the talent to get 40-50 goals and yet we have to settle for the 30’s.

Still, only two players in the NHL have more goals than he does over the last five seasons. We might always want more, but he gives a lot. From how he started, scoring scoring 33 goals and being second on the team in points is pretty impressive.

1.  Ryan O’Reilly

There was only one other option to put in the top spot, but I don’t think many would have bought into my argument about Jake Allen leading from the bench. In all seriousness, there is no other option for the best Blues player in 2018-19 than Ryan O’Reilly.

Other publications have made a case that he should be considered for the Hart Trophy for most valuable player. There is a snowball’s chance in hell of that happening, but the logic is sound.

First, he ended up being the team’s leading scorer. That sounds simple given the guy’s talent, but it is not always easy to do. You come in to a new team and often look to defer, whether that be passes or shots or in the locker room.

We did see a little of that from O’Reilly. He seemed hesitant to really show himself on the ice at the start.

Even so, he was scoring right from the start for the Blues. Despite the team’s poor start, he had four points in his first two games and 14 in his first 10 as a Blue.

O’Reilly never really let up either. He had one cold spell of five pointless games in late February. Other than that, he never went more than three games without a point.

He finished the season with a team-high 77 points. That’s the most points by a member of the Blues since Pavol Demitra had 93 back in 2002-03.

In addition to the pure scoring, he made everyone around him better. The only linemate he had that didn’t really benefit was Pat Maroon.

The connection was slow, but he formed a great partnership with Tarasenko. Then, when the team needed to try other things, he was instrumental in kick-starting Perron’s surge up the goal chart. O’Reilly and Schenn also formed some very good chemistry that they kept rolling once Tarasenko got healthy from a brief illness.

Also, he found a way to lead this team by example. You could tell he was reluctant to lead in the locker room since so many guys had been here longer and there were clearly issues behind the scenes.

You cannot help but follow a guy that works as hard as he does. He’s the stereotypical first to the arena and last to leave kind of player.

He would stay after practice to help young guys like Robert Thomas with their faceoffs and would also do the same with youth players in the St. Louis area. While there were plenty of games where the entire team had no energy, there were very few, if any, that spring to mind where it looked like O’Reilly was taking the night off.

Going forward, there will be arguments about whether he should be given the C or not. That is for a different time.

For now, you need that kind of drive and work ethic to push other guys to be their best. In 2018-19, and hopefully for years to come, O’Reilly really was the rising tide that lifted all the ships.