St. Louis Blues Early 2024-25 Roster Prediction: Good, Bad And Ugly
By Todd Panula
A Little Less Hopeful:
Line 1: Jake Neigbours, Robert Thomas, Jordan Kyrou
Line 2: Pavel Buchnevich, Brayden Schenn, Zach Bolduc
Line 3: Brandon Saad, Alexandre Texier, Alexey Toropchenko
Line 4: Mathieu Joseph, Oskar Sundqvist, Radek Faksa
This lineup still has the potential to be competitive on a nightly basis. The main disadvantage with this roster is that guys like Dvorsky or Dean wouldn't have done enough in camp to break the top 12.
Additionally, the issue with this potential roster is that Buchnevich can't form the chemistry with Thomas and Kyrou. You could make a case to keep Buch with Thomas and drop Kyrou, but I'd rather have the offensive upside to start the season. Neighbours has shown he can be defensively stable enough to even out the other two on the top line.
The benefit of this lineup is you give Bolduc more veterans. This line for him would be similar to what Thomas had in 2018-19 when he was with Tyler Bozak and Pat Maroon for a long spell.
The third line is intriguing. Saad still can score and you've got offense and grit with Texier and Torpo.
The fourth line is a little more disappointing, but it's much more reminiscent to a classic fourth line. Faksa and Joseph bring more size and toughness than the Blues had last year, but even with Sunny's potential, this line just wouldn't be counted on to score much.