Is the St. Louis Blues 2025-26 season on ice?

The St. Louis Blues have done little other than disappoint in the 2025-26 season. Is it too late for them, and is their season over? Should the team and front office pivot to recouping value on what assets we do have, and start over again next year? Or is there hope for this team to turn it around?

Let's analyze both cases and determine which path forward is best and most probable for the Blues.

Let the tank begin

The Blues have some notable veterans with big contracts on the roster, putting them in a tough spot. They are not too old a team, hosting the 13th youngest roster by age, with an average age of 27.58, but still have some notable veteran pieces not pulling their weight.

The tricky part about these veteran players is that many of them hold partial or full no-trade clauses, meaning they would have to approve a move to be traded. This adds another step of uncertainty in the dealings of what can be done to help turn this team around.

Moving on from some of the veteran pieces on the roster would certainly put the team in a worse spot, and the depth waiting in the wings is starting to thin out. The Blues have plenty of options to play down the lineup, but the top-6 spots are not as easy to fill if some veterans become available.

However, the depth can certainly take a hit. It would put the Blues in a worse spot, true, but not a completely unsalvageable one. Prospects like Juraj Pekarcik and Otto Stenberg are waiting in the wings as the next crop of young forwards to potentially crack the roster and make an impact, and Theo Lindstein and Adam Jiricek fill out the depth on the back end. This doesn't even mention last year's first-round pick, Justin Carbonneau, either.

However, these players are much further out in their developmental timelines. Playing them with the Blues now would get them invaluable experience, but would also look something similar to what Logan Mailloux offered in his short stint with the team.

A youth movement would absolutely mean punting on the season for the Blues. Wins would become few and far between, and the product on the ice would drop significantly. While the established players are struggling, they at least know how to hold up in NHL minutes, unlike the unknown quantity of the Blues prospects. Furthermore, diving in headfirst into the NHL could mess with the development of these prospects and have a negative effect on their progression.

There are no guarantees with a tank. No guarantee things get better, no guarantee the Blues land a top draft pick with the draft lottery system, no guarantee of progression forward. A tank could set the Blues back years in their timeline if they blow it all up now and aren't strategic about how they sell.

Finally, the projected first overall pick. Gavin McKenna is not having the start to his season in the NCAA that fans expected. There is a chance the projected first overall pick is not who we thought he might be, which would spell further disaster for the Blues if they could even land the selection. There are too many variables, too many things that could go wrong; it all has to line up perfectly for a tank to have any positive effect.

The season can be saved

So what's the alternative? Hoping things turn around for the better? I think there's reason to do more than just hope.

The Blues have had a lot of advanced analytics go their way, showing that they are a good team getting bad luck. To start the season, they were one of the better offensive teams in the league with great team defense. That offense has come down a bit, but their defense still grades out very well (it is difficult to see, but the Blues are pictured right behind the Montreal logo on this graph):

Per this graph from Top Down Hockey, the Blues are an above-average defensive team and only a slightly below-average offensive team. Their team's finishing has fallen behind, leading to them missing out on goalscoring opportunities.

Let's take a look at one more graphic. Consider this graph like a "luck index" that highlights how teams are performing versus how they are expected to be playing:

That's right, the Blues rank dead last. This means that per the advanced analytics, they should be one of the better teams in the league based on points %, but that's not what is playing out.

There are two ways to look at this: one is that they are a team with issues that is underperforming because they are just plain bad, and the other is that they're on a historic streak of bad breaks going against them. Neither is truly correct or incorrect, but I choose to think that there is a good hockey team playing within the product on the ice right now that will emerge at some point during the season.

The reason I choose to believe is based on what we've seen so far: the Blues have played good or great periods of hockey and even a few full games, but can't seem to string it together for a consistent stretch of hockey. I believe this means they are capable of more but are getting in their own way, something that can be coached out of a team.

Is the season over?

Look to Jim Montgomery to get this season back on track and turn the Blues luck for the better, because time is running out. You never want to start from behind, and the further they dig, the further they have to climb.

However, the Blues sit only 5 points out of a playoff spot. That's only one or two good weeks of hockey away from being a playoff team. Furthermore, they are a three-game win streak away from being north of .500 points % once again, which would go a long way to assuring fans' doubts.

The Blues are far from out of it. There is a lot of hockey left to play, and a lot of good can still happen. They are digging themselves a hole, but it is not too deep a hole to climb out of, yet. Whether or not you think the Blues should give up on the season and look to the future, keep that fact in mind. It would only take a good week or two to be right back into the playoff mix, something Jim Montgomery and the boys have proved before they are capable of.