The 3 Most Intriguing New Blues this Season

After a somewhat quiet offseason where St. Louis virtually only resigned some of its key players to new contracts, the Blues at least made efforts in bringing in some new faces for 2022-23. Who are these new Blues and what can they bring to the team while they wear the Note?

Noel Acciari: Rebounding New Blue

Despite only signing a 1-year deal with St. Louis, the former Panthers center is still an interesting signee by the Blues. Unfortunately, he might not make much of an impact as last season he only played in 20 games with a minuscule 3 games and 5 assists for 8 points.

Before that, he didn’t do much better, playing in 41 games. A definite GP improvement but not so much on goals and assists, logging 4 and 7 for 11 points respectively.

Acciari has only 2 double-digit goal seasons.  One as with Boston in 2017-18, the team who he started his career with in 2015-16 after being undrafted. His other came with Florida in 2019-20. All things considered, I’d be surprised if Acciari suddenly found a solid footing again in St. Louis. He could even become a free agent again after this season should his contract not be extended.

Thomas Greiss: New Blue, Older Goalie

After losing Ville Husso to the Detroit Red Wings this offseason, St. Louis managed to clap back by signing a Wing of their own in fellow goaltender, Thomas Greiss. Greiss is a solid addition to a Blues team that desperately needs new and fresh goaltending.

It’s not that Jordan Binnington isn’t great.  St. Louis needs bolstering in the backup goalie department.

Greiss has years of experience with multiple teams, starting his career in the Shark Tank with San Jose before moving to Arizona and Pittsburgh for 1 year each consecutively. He then spent 5 years with the Islanders before spending his most recent time in goal with the Wings.

Greiss played in a combined 65 games with 57 starts in his time in Detroit, further proving his mettle. He’s also a Jennings Trophy (goalie with least goals allowed in a season) winner with the Islanders in 2018-19.

Martin Frk: The Most Interestingly-Named New Blue

Yes, that’s how his name’s spelled. He’s Czech.

Frk is a guy that is actually eerily similar to Acciari stat-wise. He only logged 6 games and 2 goals in 2021-22, and it’s been quite a while since he last made a big impact. His last 20-goal season was in 2018-19, while he was still with the Los Angeles Kings.

Frk is much more experienced in the AHL than NHL. His tenure in the AHL saw him spend time with the Grand Rapids Griffins for 5 seasons (2014-2019) and the Ontario Reign for 3 (2019-22), which includes the last two seasons.

Although now back in the NHL, he’s spent time with the likes of the Kings and Hurricanes before coming to St. Louis on a 1-year, $750k contract that’s also a two-way agreement. We’ll see how good he is with St. Louis and maybe on occasion Springfield.

In 2021-22 with Ontario, he scored an astonishing 40 goals in 58 games with 33 assists for 77 points total. Not bad at all for a new Blue.

So besides these 3 new Blues, what other players may be out there for St. Louis? And how well will the current new Blues do this upcoming season?