St. Louis Blues All-Time Best All-Star Team Players
Even with all the big names to come through the St. Louis Blues doors over the years, only a select few made the All-Star team. Only a select few of those make our all-star roster of All-Star greats.
With the St. Louis Blues’ All-Star hosting duties in the rear view mirror and the season in full swing down the stretch, it occurred to look back one last time. With the game being hosted in St. Louis for the third time in franchise history, why not look at the best from the Note to play in that game?
The Blues have had their fair share of All-Stars. Some made their name prior to the Blues and some got bigger afterward, but all of them made the All-Star game while wearing the Blues sweater.
With that in mind, let’s look at the best team of All-Star players the Blues could assemble
Line one: Shanahan, Federko, Hull
Everyone in St. Louis has certain favorites based on when they grew up or when they began following the team. However, it would be hard to argue against this trio as the top line.
Bernie Federko remains Mr. Blues. He might not be the absolute most talented player to ever wear the Blues crest, but he’s still synonomous with St. Louis hockey.
Federko remains the franchise’s all-time leader in games played, assists and points. None of those categories are really even that close. He leads the games played by 124, the assist by a whopping 312 and the points by 137.
Amazingly, for all his talents, Federko only made the All-Star team twice.
Brendan Shanahan‘s time in St. Louis was brief in the grand scope of things, but he was a superb player.
In only four seasons with the Blues, one of which was a lockout shortened season, Shanahan still scored over 300 points. He ended his tenure with the Blues with a 69 point season, a 94 point season and a 102 point season in addition to having 41 points in 45 games. He had a total of 156 goals.
Shanahan only made the All-Star game once during his 102 point season, but it’s too hard to not put him on here.
Brett Hull might be the biggest national name the Blues have ever had. He was known around the league for being the type of goal scorer that Alex Ovechkin is today.
Hull averaged more than a point per game over his career. He also averaged just over a goal every other game.
The Golden Brett made the All-Star team every year but once in his Blues career. That was a total of eight appearances, only missing his final year in St. Louis when he would still have 72 points but only 27 goals.
I was fortunate enough to grow up while Hull was in St. Louis. While I did not attend that many games growing up, you went to the game expecting him to score, not just hoping.
Line two: Unger, Berenson, Tarasenko
There is a strong argument to be made for putting Gary Unger on the top line. Even after all this time, Unger is still in the top ten in all four stats for the Blues – games played, goals, assists and points. He is top four in goals and points.
Unger spent nine seasons with the Blues in a career that spanned parts of three decades in total. He finished with 292 goals and over 500 points. Unger fell just short of Hull’s mark with seven All-Star appearances. Really, the only reason I slotted him on the second line was because Hull and Shanahan had chemistry together.
Red Berenson remains one of the best names in Blues history, along with his nickname of the Red Baron. Despite being a center, Berenson could score and ended his Blues career with 172 goals.
He played in St. Louis twice, once at the very beginning of the franchise and again in the mid-late 1970’s. Even at the end of his career, he could still score more than 20 goals per season. Berenson would end his Blues tenure with three All-Star appearances.
Last, but not least, we come to the modern-day scorer. Vladimir Tarasenko was billed as the next Hull and will almost surely fall short of those expectations, but he’s still a fantastic goal scorer.
At only 28, and with a few injury problems, Tarasenko is already top five in goals for the franchise. He also cracked the top 10 for total points.
Tarasenko made the All-Star game three years in a row. He could have made it four, but he had a poor start to the 2017-18 season, though he would still end up with over 30 goals by the end of the season.
Line three: Sutter, Oates, Demitra
The third line has an interesting makeup. It starts with one of the best leaders the St. Louis Blues ever had.
Brian Sutter was a no nonsense player and coach that had success at both, though not as much as he would have liked since his brother won some Stanley Cups. However, as a player, he was a model of consistency and toughness.
He had a 12-year career with the Blues and never really let up. He ended his career with over 300 goals and over 300 assists. Both those numbers keep him in the top 10 for goals assists and points. Sutter started at such a young age that only knee problems kept him from potentially being in the top 2 in most categories for the Blues. He was an All-Star on three occasions.
Adam Oates was only in St. Louis for a cup of coffee really. However, despite only two seasons in town, he was an unbelievable player and left an impact that we all still remember.
The Hull and Oates combination was unstoppable. Blues fans still wonder if they might have won a Stanley Cup earlier if that duo had been kept together longer, but we’ll never know.
Interestingly, Oates made the All-Star team twice in his two and a half seasons with the Blues. The odd thing is he actually was not voted in during his 102 point season in 1989-90, but did make it in during the season he was eventually traded away during.
Line four: Sabourin, Ryan O’Reilly, Tkachuk
Gary Sabourin is a name most younger fans have never heard of, including myself until you do the research. Most of that is due to him beginning his career with the Blues. Many of the big names fans of today know of actually played for other teams before coming to St. Louis.
Sabourin played his entire career with the Blues until he was traded to Toronto in 1974. Sabourin was acquired by the Blues from the New York Rangers in a deal that also brought Bob Plager and two others.
He ended his Blues career with 136 goals and 267 points. Those aren’t eye-popping numbers, but they’re pretty good for that era. Sabourin would take the ice in two All-Star games, including the one St. Louis hosted in 1970. The 1971 All-Star game featured both Sabourin and Tim Ecclestone, another player acquired in that Rangers deal.
Up the middle, we have one of the best centers the Blues have had in quite some time. You can’t compare Ryan O’Reilly to any of the great names in team history since he’s only been here one full season. However, based on pure talent, you can pool him in there with some of the biggies.
O’Reilly was one of the few consistent players offensively for a team that eventually found its way into last place during their Stanley Cup season of 2018-19. Even with a rough patch or two and struggling to feel at home in the locker room, he still managed 77 points that year.
O’Reilly has made two of his three All-Star appearances in the Blues uniform. He was the sole member of the organization to go in 2019 and was one of four Blues to represent the Central Division in the 2020 game in St. Louis.
Last, but definitely not least, you have the old-school power forward of Keith Tkachuk coming up the wing for the Blues. Tkachuk’s style would definitely fit in and compliment both of these other guys.
Like Sutter, Tkachuk was all business on the ice. He had great personality when the puck was not going, but between whistles he was a bulldog.
The elder Tkachuk spent nine seasons with the Blues and had over 200 goals and 427 points with the Blues alone.
Tkachuk made the All-Star game twice with the Blues. The first time was during his 71 point season of 2003-04. The second was strangely in 2008-09 when he ended the season with just 49 points, but he got off to a hot start for goals that year and the team was not great so he was their lone representative.
Even so, you give me this line based on pure heart, soul and leadership and they’ll get the job done.
Top defensive pairing: Chris Pronger, Al MacInnis
It is impossible to go wrong with this defensive pairing. Between the two of them, they combined for 12 All-Star teams just with the Blues.
Interestingly, despite leading the Edmonton Oilers to the Stanley Cup Final and the Anaheim Ducks to the actual Cup, he only played in one All-Star Game after leaving the Blues. MacInnis played in 12 total, six of which were in St. Louis and was voted in one more time with the Blues but could not participate.
You have two Hall of Fame players, both Stanley Cup champions (though with other franchises) and teammates that will now both hang from the Enterprise Center rafters. I would not pick any other defenders over these two.
Second defensive pairing: Barclay Plager, Ramage
While the other Plager, Bobby, is more well known and revered by Blues fans now, it was his brother Barclay Plager that was the bigger star in the league, at least from a skills point of view. Both Plagers played with fire and tenacity, but Barclay had a bit more pure hockey talent as opposed to Bobby who relied on his physicality a tad more.
Barclay played in four All-Star Games, including the one in St. Louis. Unfortunately, he never got to play with his brother in one.
The odd thing about Rob Ramage is that he is often a forgotten man. Younger fans probably know him better for being traded to Calgary for Hull or the brief time he spent as a color analyst on Blues broadcasts.
However, Rammer was a top notch player in his day. Two of his three best statistical seasons came with the Blues, whom he played for six seasons.
Three of his four All-Star appearances were made with the Blues as well. He would go on to win two Stanley Cups, one with Calgary and one as a depth player in Montreal, but he was a good defender and player for the Blues and represented the team well.
Third defensive pairing: Pietrangelo, Stevens
Last, but not least, be have two of the most well known Blues defenders of all time. The main reason they are lower on the list is because of All-Star appearances.
Scott Stevens was known around the league even during his time with the Blues. He was the team captain, a player to be feared even then and made the All-Star team in 1991. Unfortunately, he made his name legendary with the New Jersey Devils.
Even so, for a player of that talent to be able to show his quality in only one season with the Blues and still be remembered for it shows how good he was and how you can’t leave him off this list.
Alex Pietrangelo might well go down as one of the best defensemen in team history, just based on his achievements. There have been better defenders or pure scorers from the blue line for sure, but Pietrangelo is a solid combination of both.
He defends well due to his wits and a good reach, due to his height. He also scores at a pretty good clip, putting his name in the top 10 in points and third in franchise history in assists. Of course, he is the only captain in team history to win a Stanley Cup, which does not hurt either.
The only downfall for Pietrangelo for this list is only having two All-Star appearances. For as good as he has been, in spurts granted, he has only been selected for the midseason exhibition twice in 12 seasons with the Blues. Of course, he earned his way on during the 2020 game since he is having a potential career year, so it was a nice touch that the game was in St. Louis.
Goaltenders: Elliott, Hall, Plante
Depending on format, sometimes the league has only had two goaltenders and other times they had three – one for each period. For this list, we will go with the latter.
Brian Elliott was loved during his time in St. Louis, but you would not necessarily think of him as an all-timer. However, he made the All-Star Game twice with the Blues. Couple that with the fact there have actually not been many Blues goalies at this event and there you have it.
Still, Moose is top five in wins and still number one in franchise history for save percentage, goals against average and shutouts.
The other two are on there for obvious reasons. Both are Hall of Fame players and both suited up for the Blues. Good enough.
Glenn Hall was voted into three All-Star games as a member of the St. Louis Blues. He played in two. He was voted into the game in St. Louis in 1970, but did not play due to injury.
His teammate, Jacques Plante did play in that game in addition to five other Blues and coach Scotty Bowman. Plante won a Vezina Trophy with the Blues.
Amazingly, though nobody remembers, he did not finish his career with the Blues. Plante went on to play for three more teams and four more seasons.
Like Hall, Plante played in two All-Star games while a member of the Blues. Both helped the Blues to three straight Stanley Cup Final appearances too, so they’ve got that going for them.
Perhaps Jordan Binnington can slide into this list later in his career. For now, his one appearance ties him with Mike Liut, Curtis Joseph and Ernie Wakley.
Overall, I’d take this team any day of the week if they were all in their primes. Every single one was a deserving All-Star and plenty of them played in eras where the names around the league were all giants among the game.
Those top two lines are fire.
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What do you think? Would you include any names that might have only made one All-Star appearance over any of the names listed?
Let us know and as always, Let’s Go Blues!