The St. Louis Blues won’t have any Hart Trophy candidates for 2024-25 unless someone shocks the league so much that they put up Connor McDavid numbers. But someone has to be the Team MVP, so today, we’re listing a trio of players who could vie for the honor.
And no, you won’t just see the top three scorers from last season because that would be no fun. Instead, we’re talking about one player who is the likeliest one on the team to be its most valuable player and two others who, should they build off their respective successes from last season, may find themselves in the running.
Robert Thomas
Robert Thomas is easily the obvious choice here since he ended the 2023-24 campaign in a big way with 86 points and 26 goals. Thomas is a true playmaker, but he’s yet to become an elite goal scorer despite a sound 14.8 career shooting percentage.
But after finishing his first 82-game season with a career-high 170 shots on goal, he’s trending upward. Add in the career-high in goals scored, and he’s further trending in the right direction. For someone with such an accurate shot, we need to see Thomas challenge opposing goaltenders more while maintaining his playmaking ability.
If Thomas does that, he’s the shoo-in for Team MVP in 2024-25, and nobody else on the Blues will even come close. But there are two youngsters who could surprise us, so let’s talk about them.
Jake Neighbours
Wow, 27 goals in 77 games is a great way to make a statement in your first season with the big club, so now that Jake Neighbours knows what to expect, let’s talk about what his encore presentation might look like.
At first glance, Neighbours’ output is exactly the opposite of Robert Thomas’; he can score, but he didn’t show as much playmaking ability. So, in Neighbours’ case, we only need to see him contribute more in the latter category, and bam, he will transform into a 55-60-point player.
While that wouldn’t be enough to supplant Robert Thomas for Team MVP unless the latter takes a step back, it’s still worth adding Neighbours to this list as opposed to Pavel Buchnevich, Brandon Saad, and Brayden Schenn, all of whom have likely hit their respective ceilings or close to.
Joel Hofer
This one may come as a shock to some Blues fans because Joel Hofer will enter the season as the No. 2, or in a best-case scenario, the 1B to Jordan Binnington. But if Hofer evolves from his epic leap that started last season, he’s definitely cutting into Binnington’s time in the crease.
While Binnington has gotten a bad rap in Gateway City last season when you can pin many of his ‘bad games’ on poor team play, I also wouldn’t be surprised if he became the subject of trade rumors as the 2025 deadline nears. With Binnington getting older and Hofer pegged in as the future, it makes sense to play the latter more and try to, at some point, move the former.
Now, if the Blues are somehow hot to start the season, then you can completely disregard this section. But should Hofer get more ice time and string together good, consistent performances, he’s a dark horse for Team MVP.