The St. Louis Blues made two fantastic selections on night one of the 2026 NHL Draft. They got a complete two-way center in Tynan Lawrence, and a chaos-bringer in Maddox Dagenais, as well as a significant right-now trade in Mason McTavish from Anaheim.
Blues General Manager and President of Hockey Operations Doug Armstrong had a very strong night, but he may have missed one key piece.
Ethan Belchetz was selected right after Dagenais was at No.17 by the Utah Mammoth. This kid is going to be something special, and the Blues missed him.
Belchetz is going to haunt the Blues
The OHL product has been labeled as a wrecking ball, and his combine performance backed it up. A certified garbage picker in front of the net, he will have a fantastic career on the power play with his unique skill set.
Outside of that, Belchetz aggressive play and big-body would have molded perfectly into the Blues system. Imagine a line of Dalibor Dvorsky centering Belchetz and Jake Neighbours. Bodies will drop all over the ice.
Missed him twice?
Obviously, Belchetz is a winger, and the Blues made it very clear that their strategy was to gain some centers. McTavish, Connor McMichael, Lawrence, and Degenais were the end result of night one, and all play down the middle.
Taking Belchetz and then trading the 15th and 29th pick to get McTavish might have meant the miss of Lawrence at No. 16. Not to say that Lawrence is not a home-run of a pick, but it is going to be interesting to see how his and Belchetz's careers will coincide.
The Blues missed on Belchetz twice.
Facing off against the Mammoth was hard enough last season for the Blues, and now, with a new nuclear weapon in their arsenal coming soon, it is going to be interesting to see how they handle Belchetz. I would suspect some heavy battles between Neighbours and Belchetz in the future.
Do you think the Blues made a mistake in not grabbing Belchetz?
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