The St. Louis Blues have gone a different direction for their starting goaltender in 2019-20. Even so, Jake Allen is set to top some lists for the Blues.
As we continue our progression toward the 2019-20 season and predictions about what players may do, I need St. Louis Blues fans to take a deep breath and relax. Rarely do I go for the “click-bait” sort of titles, but I could not help myself with this one as we look at number 34 with 34 days left before the banner gets raised.
For any of you frothing at the mouth, thinking this article will suggest Jake Allen will re-ascend to the starting role, you can go splash some cold water on your face and relax. Jordan Binnington will be the Blues starter for the upcoming season and, barring injury, will likely stay in that slot all year long.
However, Allen is about to become the Blues all-time best on one list. That’s right, you do not need glasses.
Allen is about to become the team’s all-time winningest goaltender. It may shock some out there, since the vocal portion of Blues fandom like to flex their mighty throats in one voice about how terrible Allen has been his entire career.
Despite this “fact” the truth of the matter is that Allen has amassed a good number of wins and did so on his own merit. Anyone that tells you the Blues won because of Binnington but won in spite of Allen is a pea-wit.
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A good goaltender is a good goaltender. You can argue stats and look into analytics, but Curtis Joseph won a lot of games for the Blues despite his goals against average being above 3.00 almost every year in St. Louis. Allen has also won a lot of games for the Blues despite what some consider lackluster stats.
To some, it is blasphemous to suggest Allen is on the level of CuJo, mostly because fans like to hold on to their fond memories of Joseph. They forget that, in a pre-internet age, Joseph might have been athletic and supremely talented, but he choked in the playoffs. Joseph failed to win a Stanley Cup even with the Detroit juggernaut. That does not take away from how great he was, but it is a fact.
It is also a fact that Allen is about to ascend to the top of the list for Blues goalies. Allen needs only three wins in 2019-20 to pass Joseph and become the second leading goaltender in team history for wins. That is going to happen.
Allen only needs 16 wins to tie and 17 to become the all-time wins leader in Blues history. He is going to achieve that.
Binnington is going to get the larger amount of work, but that does not automatically mean he is going to be the next Grant Fuhr. Trying to play Binnington 70-plus games as the Blues did with Fuhr would be madness. Even 60-plus games is unrealistic.
As great as Binnington was and as great as we hope him to be, he has never played a full NHL season. In his NHL career, he has 33 regular season games and 26 playoff games to his credit. That is a total of 59.
You cannot expect him to immediately shoulder an entire season by himself. Matt Murray faced a similar situation with the Pittsburgh Penguins following his first Cup win and he played 49 regular season games the following year. (Speaking of Murray, it might come as a shock that some of Allen’s career worst numbers are lower than Murray’s, but we’ll leave that alone.)
The playoffs are one thing, but the regular season is different. You have to grind it out over several months.
The playoffs have incredible pressure, but that can force you to keep sharp. A long regular season can be mentally taxing and Binnington has not had to do that yet. The Blues will need to rely on Allen to relieve some of the pressure.
The Blues will have the flexibility to change their minds if a player gets injured or hot during the year. Still, a 52-30 split in favor of Binnington would be more than fair.
Ben Bishop has not played more than 53 games in a season with Dallas yet and he was nearly unbeatable in 2018-19. When Chicago was winning, Corey Crawford regularly played 55-58 games.
Andrei Vasilevskiy played 53 games in 2018-19. Tuukka Rask played 46. There simply needs to be a good split, if for no other reason than to keep Binnington fresh.
So, if Allen plays 30 games, he is going to go at least .500. If the Blues are clicking, 20 wins is definitely possible and even if not, 15 wins is doable.
15 might put him short of Mike Liut, but I do not see that happening. If we stick with an even number of 30, I see Allen going 19-9-2. If there is injury to number 50, those win numbers will go up.
I still believe in Allen’s talent, in and of itself. However, even if you do not, you also have to think about him being in the last year of his contract.
He is going to want to do as well as he can for the Blues to set himself up with a good contract elsewhere next season or to set himself up with a team on the cusp of contending come the trade deadline. Either situation is positive for the Blues because you will have a focused, motivated goaltender.
If Binnington gets hurt or falters, the Blues still have a steady goaltender to rely on. Hopefully neither of those things happen, but despite the outcries of internet general managers, it makes more sense to have a proven commodity as your backup than it does a rookie that had a poor AHL season in 2018-19. It still makes no sense fans are willing to pay one goaltender $10 million, but have issue with paying two a total of under $9 million, but I digress.
Allen is going to win games this year. Unless the Blues get a sweet trade offer, he is going to become the team’s all-time wins leader.
That will not make him the best to ever wear the sweater. There is a list of people in front of him for that. It does devalue these claims of how bad he has been though.
I will always say Crawford has been overrated due to the team he played with, but the bottom line is he won those games. The same will hold true for the Snake.
Think of Allen what you will, but he played a part in winning 135 games for the Blues coming into the 2019-20 season. You will likely have to wait quite a few years before anyone passes him up.