Blues Will Select 5 New Players at 2022 Montreal Draft

The St. Louis Blues will look to select 5 new players at this year’s NHL Entry Draft in Montreal starting July 7 at the Bell Centre.

St. Louis makes their first selection at pick number 23, preceded by the Anaheim Ducks, who make their 2nd selection of the 1st round due to a trade with the Boston Bruins.  That pick came as part of their exchange of defensemen Hampus Lindholm and Kodie Curran for fellow defensemen Urho Vaakanainen and John Moore.

The Minnesota Wild succeeds the Blues at 24th overall. Anaheim first selects in this year’s draft at number 10 overall. St. Louis does not have a 2nd-round pick this year, due to a trade with the New York Rangers that sent Pavel Buchnevich to NYC in exchange for Sammy Blais.

The Blues make later selections in the draft in Round 3 and 88th overall, Round 4 at 120th overall, Round 5 at 152nd overall and Round 6 at 184th overall. St. Louis also will not make a selection in Round 7, as they made a deal with Montreal to give them the seventh round 2022 selection in exchange for two 2020 selections, which ended up being Dylan Peterson, who is currently with Boston University, and Noah Beck, who plays for Clarkson University.

Both players have their NHL rights with the Blues, but remain unsigned. St. Louis’ 4th round selection at 120th overall comes from a deal with Ottawa when they acquired Logan Brown in exchange for Zach Sanford. Ottawa maintains their own 4th round pick at 103rd overall.

In last year’s NHL Entry Draft, St. Louis made 4 picks, one in Rounds 1, 3, 5, and 7. 2 of those selections are currently in Canadian major junior leagues as of the 2021-22 season, while the other pair play in Russia and Sweden at this time.

St. Louis has had good success with their draft picks, even if they don’t make the pro jump as quickly as some fans like.  One particular prospect the Blues are looking forward to is the Edmonton Oil Kings’ Jake Neighbours.

Neighbours has already been with St. Louis after being originally drafted by the Blues in the 2020 1st round at 26th overall. Neighbours recently won the WHL championship with Edmonton and looks to compete with his major junior team in this year’s Memorial Cup alongside the OHL’s Hamilton Bulldogs, the QMJHL’s Shawinigan Cataractes along with the hosts, the Saint John Sea Dogs.

Neighbours played in 9 games for the Blues this season, logging a goal and an assist, his only goal being a game winner and totaling 8 shots on the year.

The Blues will look to add to their system depth with the upcoming five picks.  If nothing else, they may transition one, or more, of these picks in a possible trade.