St. Louis Blues fans are right to be bullish on their team’s outlook for the 2026-27 season. The club made meaningful additions to solidify what looks to be an emerging young core.
But it seems that’s not enough to convince the folks at Tankathon.
Tankathon’s early projections for the 2027 NHL Draft show the Blues picking sixth overall.
What does that mean?
Well, the algorithms don’t seem to be bullish on the Blues having a strong season. If anything, the models seem to believe that St. Louis will finish at the bottom of the league.
That’s no bueno, especially for a team that’s committed to improving upon last year’s disappointing season.
In fact, the early projections show that the top six picks will go to Western Conference teams. The Vancouver Canucks look to finally win the first-overall pick, with the Calgary Flames, Seattle Kraken, Chicago Blackhawks, and Nashville Predators all picking 2, 3, 4, and 5, respectively.
It has to be mildly concerning that the early returns show three Central Division teams picking in the top six and four picking in the top 10.
If that’s the case, the season could be a long one for Blues’ fans.
Why would early projections discount the Blues?
All right, so let’s look at why the algorithms could be discounting the Blues from the get-go. The most notable roadblock could be goaltending. The Blues weren’t particularly good last season, even with Joel Hofer emerging as a solid starting option. However, the algorithms look at data. And Hofer hasn’t put up enough data to convince the models that he’s the real deal.
Then, there’s the matter of Jordan Binnington’s bad statistical year. Numbers trending downward, plus his age catching up, could be a major red flag for the algorithms.
Plus, the biggest offseason addition, Mason McTavish, is coming off a bad year. That’s something that will likely weigh on the models’ evaluation of the Blues’ season. The loss of Jordan Kyrou is another factor that the models are likely holding against St. Louis. There’s no guarantee that McMichael or McTavish will make up the scoring. In addition, Jimmy Snuggerud, Jake Neighbours, and Dalibor Dvorsky, as talented as they are, are not yet bona fide NHL forwards.
Lastly, the defense remains a little suspect, with Logan Mailloux and Theo Lindstein likely capturing spots. Again, it’s not that they’re bad players. It’s just that the algorithms just won’t know what to make of them.
And when algorithms can’t figure something out, they’ll hold it against a team.
Ultimately, the Blues have the sort of lineup that can prove every mathematical model woefully inaccurate. But it will take a solid effort from Game 1 to Game 84 of the 2026-27 NHL season.
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