The Carolina Hurricanes have beaten the Vegas Golden Knights in six games to secure the second Stanley Cup in their franchise history. It was a wonderful series, filled with drama and surprise, and both teams should be thrilled with their performance.
Naturally, just like when you go into a Costco and see a giant skeleton blow-up for Halloween in mid-June, ESPN released their way-too-early power ranking for next season. The St. Louis Blues got a rough placement, which is already casting a large shadow on a potentially bright campaign in 2026-27.
Let's talk about it.
Started from the bottom
At No. 27, it does not get a whole lot worse for the Blues. At least the Chiacgo Blackhawks are behind them, sitting at No. 31.
The Blues have made strides with the recent trade deadline, and now with the upcoming NHL Draft. Things are looking better, but it is a shaky happiness. There is not a whole lot of concrete evidence supporting the legitimacy of this team, thus the really bad ranking.
The movement of the current core is going to tell the true story. If General Manager and President of Hockey Operations Doug Armstrong can pull together a masterclass on draft night, shipping off the No-Movement Clause-ridden contracts of Jordan Kyrou, Pavel Buchnevich and Colton Parayko, his legacy will live on forever.
If that was to happen, the Blues could turn this whole thing around, completely obliterating their lowly ranking.
No need to panic
This low 27th place rank, with an entire summer left to go, is not a need to panic. Sure, it does not look great right now, but once the roster is tweaked and established, and actual hockey is played again, they can rise to the top.
For now, looking at it from a far-distance, the Blues have to figure a lot of things out this summer. if not, that ranking plummets very shortly to No. 32.
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