Blueliners, blueliners, and more blueliners rightfully made up much of the St. Louis Blues 2024 draft, and the same could be the case come 2025, depending on how the current season plays out. Still, it’s never too early to speculate how the cards will fall when the draft (presumably) rolls around in June 2025, and it’s something Lyle Richardson of Bleacher Report has already done.
Overall, the 2025 draft’s projected order in the article isn’t horribly distinct from what we saw this past season and it, therefore, has the Blues selecting 15th overall. And while general manager Doug Armstrong may be satisfied enough at that point with his prospects pool to go with the best on the board, he may want to keep building the pipeline with defensemen.
Why? Well, while the Blues definitely stocked up on blueliners this past June, they could still use a right-shot player, so it made sense for Richardson to mock Luka Radivojevic to Gateway City. Radivojevic is currently playing in Sweden, and he’s done quite well in J20 Nationell.
An early mock draft has a right-shot defenseman going to the St. Louis Blues
Four goals and 33 points across 43 games is definitely a good way to get NHL fan bases to notice you, and Radivojevic did just that last season. Sure, he’s vastly undersized at 5’10, 161 lbs, and that could cause fans to stop and think about whether he’d ever reach an NHL-caliber build. But still, there’s no denying he could evolve into an outstanding offensive defenseman.
Admittedly, he’s one of those players whose size will entice NHL scouting departments to rank him lower than they should. But it’s also only right to admit that there have been a plethora of players out there whose lack of size was nothing more than a small obstacle, if that, and that could be the case with Radivojevic.
Overall, we still have a long while before we need to undergo any serious speculation here, but since it’s August and we’re still roughly a month out from anything interesting going on in the NHL universe, why not start the speculation now, especially amidst a potential rebuilding year.