3 Reasons Why The St. Louis Blues Will Win 2024 Stanley Cup
It’s been five years since the St. Louis Blues and captain Alex Pietrangelo hoisted the Stanley Cup for the first time in team history. Since the magical 2019 season, the Blues have left hungry fans who are hungry for another championship disappointed.
By most expert accounts, the 2023-24 season will also result in a Stanley Cup-less season for the St. Louis Blues. They will say it is likely Blues will pay close attention to the lottery balls again next summer.
Beginning on October 10, the Blues will have the same record as the eventual Stanley Cup champions, and this gives the Blues as good a chance as any to lift the Cup again in 2024.
To do so, St. Louis will have to finish in at least third place to guarantee a spot in the playoffs, though they could and likely will sneak into one of the two wild card slots available in an underwhelming Western Conference.
St. Louis didn’t do much of anything in the offseason in terms of adding substantial talent or shaking up the team as a whole. The main additions to the squad were the returns of Oskar Sundqvist and Mackenzie MacEachern and the trade for Kevin Hayes.
The defense was a big issue for the club last season, and the Blues will return the same core to the ice on October 14 in Dallas. Despite Torey Krug‘s early injury in camp, the team appears to be fully healthy going into the season.
After dominating the minor leagues, Joel Hofer is finally ready to take the backup NHL role. Jordan Binnington will look to put together his first consistently great regular season since he debuted in 2019.
While it doesn’t look like much has changed on paper, the slate is whipped clean for the Blues to start the new campaign.
Going into a season knowing you are not destined to win the Stanley Cup is no way to go about life. So here are three reasons why the St. Louis Blues will win it all for the second time in five years in 2024.
3. The Blues Play in The Western Conference
The Western Conference in the NHL has been the weaker conference over the last few seasons despite capturing back-to-back Stanley Cup champions from the Colorado Avalanche and the Vegas Golden Knights.
While the last two champions have come from the West, the regular season standings have been kind to Western Conference teams. The Western Conference’s eighth and final playoff position has been far more attainable than the final spot in the East.
Last season, the eighth-seeded Florida Panthers upset the greatest regular season team in NHL history in the first round. They proceeded to take the eventual champions to five games in the Stanley Cup final.
The Central Division is also shaping up to be one of the worst in hockey. The Avalanche and Stars will likely occupy the top two spots in the central, and the Minnesota Wild appear to be a lock for third place.
Despite acquiring Connor Bedard in the draft, the Chicago Blackhawks will likely finish at the basement of the division, leaving the Blues, Arizona Coyotes, Nashville Predators, and Winnipeg Jets to capture a potential wild-card spot.
Looking at the Pacific Division, the Edmonton Oilers, Seattle Kraken, LA Kings, and Golden Knights will battle for three guaranteed positions in the West, leaving the Calgary Flames, Vancouver Canucks, San Jose Sharks, and Anaheim Ducks to fight for playoff aspirations.
Assuming that the Pacific Division has four spots locked up, the Blues will realistically be battling with the Flames, Canucks, Jets, and Predators for the final playoff position.
With a deep forward core and better defensive play, it isn’t crazy to think that the Blues can grab 95 points to at least sneak into the playoffs and go from there.
2. The Defense Can’t Be That Bad Again… Right?
Look, we all know the defense was historically bad for the Blues in 2022-23. Absolutely nothing went right for anyone on the Blues’ blue line, and many fans were calling for the Blues to tear it all to pieces.
A lot of the problems from Blues fans about the team’s defensive core trace back to the salaries many of the players are making. Watching Colton Parayko, Justin Faulk, and Krug play as poorly as they did while taking up a combined $19.5 million of salary cap warrants criticism.
The thing to remember with the Blues defense, and the three aforementioned players in particular, is that general manager Doug Armstrong does not throw around $6.5 million deals to everyone.
All three players earned the right to be making as much money as they are. Krug was a Stanley Cup-winning defenseman and was the best player on the market available after it was clear Pietrangelo was not going to resign.
Krug has failed to live up to his defensive expectations and has struggled to stay on the ice for an entire season. He has already been sidelined this preseason, but he looks to be ready to go on Thursday.
Two seasons ago, Faulk looked like he could finish in the top five of the Norris Trophy conversation for the league’s best defenseman. He has been the most steady defender for the Blues since arriving in a trade from the Carolina Hurricanes. He is primed for another big season.
Speaking of big, Parayko is a curious case. The massive defenseman was a big reason why the St. Louis Blues won the Stanley Cup in 2019. His partnership with Jay Bouwmeester was critical to the Blues’ success.
Since the retirement of Bouwmeester, the team has been searching for a full-time partner for Payarko. His long reach and booming slapshot will keep him in the Blues’ lineup. If the Blues end up moving on from him, they will spend the foreseeable future looking for a player that fits his description. He is a solid NHL defenseman.
1. The Forward Group Is Deep
With the offseason additions of Sundqvist and Hayes, the St. Louis Blues forward group is starting to resemble the depth that the 2019 team had. Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou will anchor the top line with Pavel Buchnevich, and all three have looked great throughout the preseason.
Newly-named captain Brayden Scheen will have Brandon Saad on his left wing and a combination of Kasperi Kapanen and Jakub Vrana, leaving Hayes to center Sammy Blais and one of Kapanen or Vrana.
The team’s fourth line finally has an identity going into the new season. With the return of MacEachern, Sundqvist, Alexey Toropchenko, Jake Neighbours, and Nikita Alexandrov, the depth of this team is something to be excited about.
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St. Louis has elite offensive scoring potential with Thomas, Kyrou, Buchnevich, and Vrana, and they also possess the physical presence of Hayes, Sundqvist, Schenn, and Blais.
If the group can stay healthy, it looks like the team should be able to score at will, and it might cover up any defensive shortcomings that could arise this season.