St. Louis Blues: Klim Kostin And Jordan Kyrou Will Get Their Chance

The St. Louis Blues recently made some insurance signings, which is smart. However, fans are fearing that highly valued prospects will never get a look.

The St. Louis Blues, like all sports franchises, are looking to do what is best for their chances to win immediately and into the future. However, there are rumblings that they are giving up on the future with recent insurance signings.

For those that missed the news, the Blues signed Troy Brouwer and Jamie McGinn to professional tryout contracts. These are going to be team friendly deals one way or the other because players that are in a position to be on PTO deals are not in a position of power.

Viewing those two players in a vacuum, the reason the Blues would look at them is because they have been through the battles before. If you are only going to give a player a short look due to injuries elsewhere that will eventually heal, you do not bring up your prized prospect players knowing this is only temporary.

Another thing people are overlooking is that the Blues would likely offer Brouwer or McGinn or both a two-way contract. That would give them the flexibility to send them to the AHL when other options present themselves.

That means their salary would come off the salary cap. It also means the Blues would be paying them less while they are in the minors.

However, as fans are want to do, there is a growing concern that the Blues either have no faith or are giving up on prospects like Jordan Kyrou or Klim Kostin. Rarely do I fully buy into statements released by a team or general manager, but I do believe Doug Armstrong’s comments.

Armstrong basically said that the team still has a lot of faith in those two players. He simply wants to explore all his options. Armstrong wants experienced players that the team will know exactly what they are getting, not players that could have weeks of growing pains and then maybe show a spark right as Alex Steen gets healthy.

There is nothing sure about rookies. They could come up and light the world on fire or they could go five games without a point and barely a handful of shots on goal.

Additionally, both of those guys are top-six forwards when they make the NHL – at least that is their playing style. Unless the bottom falls out and two or three more guys got injured, Brouwer or McGinn would not be playing top-six roles. Frankly, it would be surprising if they played on the third line for any other reason than the Blues reliance on keeping their current fourth-line trio together.

This is not about a lack of belief or confidence, rather than a realization of the situation the Blues have and what would be best for the prospects. It makes no sense to take guys with that kind of talent and use them once in four games and only give them six to eight minutes of ice time.

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What can be learned from that little on the ice in an NHL rink that would not be better to see in 18-20 minutes of icetime in the AHL?

We saw this countless times under Ken Hitchcock. The Blues would be forced to bring up a highly-touted prospect and they would languish in a fourth line role. When you know you are asking your fourth line to bring energy and physicality, why would you plug a scorer into that role?

Kostin seems more adaptable, given that he has shown a propensity for fighting and hitting, but that’s not what you want from those guys. Do we really want to see Kyrou flying around, trying in vain to hit people when he should be focusing on scoring?

Someone made the argument that if you keep waiting, their contracts will run out because the Blues have their top six locked up. I see the point, but the Blues know the ceiling for Kyrou or Kostin is much higher than Zach Sanford.

David Perron is lighting things up right now. However, the Blues used him in a third-line role quite a bit in 2018-19 and he still thrived with 23 goals. When St. Louis thinks Kostin or Kyrou was ready, there is no reason they will not find a spot.

Unfortunately, there are those that want to view these potential additions as roadblocks. It simply is not so. Armstrong is just being prudent.

When St. Louis lost Vladimir Tarasenko and Steen, they did not just lose NHL talent, but they lost depth. If you pull two players up from the AHL, you still have a lack of depth.

What happens when the next person gets injured? Even if Kostin and Kyrou came up, what happens if Tyler Bozak gets hurt or Robert Thomas‘ wrist acts up again? Why not have these depth pieces in your back pocket AND still have the option to look at your forward prospects later?

Another thing is these PTO deals are basically risk free. Any money agreed to is paid to the player to cover costs etc, but they do not count against the salary cap until the team actually signs them to an NHL deal.

Now to play in a game, you have to have an NHL contract, so you can’t completely skirt the system, but the Blues are not costing themselves anything. If they don’t think Brouwer or McGinn is a fit, all they have lost is a little bit of time.

If they sign Brouwer of McGinn and sit them in the press box, they lose nothing but around the cost of the prospect’s contract. The difference is those two players lose nothing by sitting in the press box. Kostin and Kyrou lose valuable developmental time if they do not play.

Perhaps I am in the minority, but I would prefer to leave them both in the minors for as long as possible if the team can afford it. I would much prefer them both get high-volume, quality minutes as opposed to sitting four of five games and only getting seven minutes of ice time.

Even if you make the argument that these guys are better than Sanford, which they are, that guarantees them nothing. Sanford is playing on the team’s second line and only averaging over 11 minutes. For comparison, Ryan O’Reilly and David Perron are averaging over 20 and 17 minutes respectively. They play special teams minutes, but that is still not enough to account for the difference.

The Blues simply feel Sanford fits a role and are ok giving him diminished minutes. That would not be beneficial for their prospects.

Let us all just take a deep breath. The Blues are almost a quarter through the 2019-20 season and are right in the mix for the top record in the conference. The San Antonio Rampage are off to a decent start too. Let’s not disrupt everything just because fans want to be able to say Kostin or Kyrou is in the NHL.

They will get their shot and when they do, I believe they will stick in the NHL. That does not mean it has to be right this second. Sometimes patience is a virtue.