Recently, Bleacher Report administered grades for all 32 NHL teams' prospect pools. For the St. Louis Blues, it was nice to see that the direction that they are going in is being respected by the masses.
Receiving a B+ is absolutely the right call, as there is no clear prospect that is of the same level as a Gavin McKenna or Ivar Stenberg. There are a bunch of players who could reach that point one day, but not this day. This lot of good-to-great up-and-comers will stitch themselves into this franchise's future success, and fans will be very appreciative of the hard work and risk that was done to draft them.
Step in the right direction
If the Blues were given a grade of a C or below, then what they are doing right now with embracing the younger core of players and promoting from within instead of buying external superstars would have looked plain silly.
Instead, their B+ is pretty spot on, and it is a good indication of the future. Tynan Lawrence, Maddox Dagenais, Justin Carbonneau, and Colin Ralph are going to be great NHLers one day, as they are amongst the top of the prospect food chain.
There are a bunch of teams around the NHL with exciting prospect pools, but the Blues certinaly have one of the deepest. Every position is filled with about three or more prospects that are itching for the opportunity.
The young core will continue to grow
Right now, this franchise has stepped in a direction that embraces the youth. We have seen it this season, with Philip Broberg being the top defenseman at just 25 years old. With the injuries to Logan Mailloux and Tyler Tucker, the arrival of Adam Jiricek has been everything that this fanbase has wanted to see.
And on the offensive side, Jimmy Snuggerud and Dalibor Dvorsky continue to improve with every game played. And now, both Connor McMichael and Mason McTavish join this core group of players under the age of 25 as fantastic new additions.
From here on out, the prospects currently in the farm system of the NCAA, CHL, and International levels will be brought up to be a Blue. We will see firsthand how much they grow and if they can make an immediate impact or not.
This also sets up the exciting thought of the Blues having a relatively long championship window, as they can consistently return to the playoffs year after year with the same team.
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