Top St. Louis Blues prospects to get excited for in 2024
The St. Louis Blues prospects pool isn’t half-bad heading into 2024-25, and there is a chance several of them could end up in Gateway City come October.
The St. Louis Blues prospects pool has some upside, with a couple of players perhaps graduating to the NHL full-time when the 2024-25 season starts in October. In today’s piece, we will revisit a couple of those players potentially ready to take the next step, as we last discussed them in mid-March when there was roughly a month to go in the regular season.
But they won’t be the only players discussed below, as there is one major talent who could become one of college hockey’s more elite players in 2024-25, a player in the junior circuit more than worth keeping an eye on, and one still overseas. Even if three of the five names listed most likely won’t see time in a Blues uniform next season except for maybe a brief cameo, depending on the situation, there are plenty of reasons to get excited about all of these high-end prospects.
5 - Jimmy Snuggerud, RW
Jimmy Snuggerud will be entering his age-20 season in the NCAA, and it will be more than interesting to see what he does in Year 3 after what has now been 84 points and 42 goals in 79 college hockey games. If Snuggerud grows further into his 6’2 frame this summer, he will have the ideal size and strength to match what is already an incredible skill-set.
Every player listed will make a jump in productivity next season, but you can’t help but think Snuggerud will make the biggest leap of the bunch. Those toward the top of this list should find themselves in the NHL either full-time or on a generous part-time basis next year, so they won’t see as much ice time and must also adjust to the overall demands of hockey’s highest level.
The next two listed will also see substantial jumps, but with Snuggerud’s experience to go with what should be another five to 10 lbs of muscle and another full offseason of training, don’t be surprised if he’s putting up a goal in three out of every five games and threatening something along the lines of 1.5 points per matchup.
4 - Dalibor Dvorsky, F
We last visited Dalibor Dvorsky in the post talking about a trio of untouchable prospects Doug Armstrong can’t trade in the offseason. He was making good progress then, but his season wasn’t quite over. Now that it is, he’s taking the No. 4 spot in these rankings and fans should be very, very excited to see more of this prospect who is signed to the organization.
He finished the regular season with 88 points and 45 goals in 52 contests, and through an additional nine playoff games, Dvorsky tacked on another 10 points and three goals. It was a ‘Welcome to North America Tour’ that just saw him dominate during his first OHL season, and next year, the encore could involve 50-plus goals and 100-plus points.
This is assuming he doesn’t end up with the AHL’s Springfield Thunderbirds, as despite playing for a CHL team, he was never drafted out of the CHL, so Dvorsky is not required to wait until he’s 20 to play in the AHL.
He’s a versatile player who can play center and winger, but there is still too much established talent on the Blues for him to seriously compete for a spot this fall. But don’t fear, as he has a phenomenal chance to at least debut at some point late next season, depending on where the Blues and his OHL club, the Sudbury Wolves (or the AHL’s Thunderbirds), stand.
That said, look for Dvorsky to leave the junior circuit for good following the 2025-26 season at the latest, where he will either spend time in Springfield or immediately jump to the big club, depending on what kind of competition he’s facing.
3 - Otto Stenberg, F
Another versatile forward who has yet to leave Sweden, Otto Stenberg should take the professional ranks by storm the second he decides to come over. Per his profile on Elite Prospects, his North American debut appears to be 2025-26, as he’s listed to begin the 2024-25 season with the SHL’s Frolunda HC.
Predictably, Stenberg didn’t see much ice time in the SHL this season, but that’s expected for such a young player. He spent nine games in HockeyAllsvenskan, where he posted nine points for BIK Karlskoga, scoring four goals in the process.
Stenberg put up another seven points and five goals during an additional 12 contests when BIK Karlskoga played in the qualification tournament, and he also fared well in international play. During the World Juniors, Stenberg scored five goals and accumulated nine total points in seven games for Team Sweden.
Given his productivity in HockeyAllsvenskan and in the World Juniors, it should foreshadow some of what we will see in the SHL next season. Expect him to further develop his game and Stenberg will ultimately make an easy transition to North America, where he should produce right away. If by any chance he doesn’t, Stenberg will eventually get used to the game and produce once he’s acclimated.
2 - Zach Dean, C
Zach Dean was one player I was excited to see get his first taste of NHL experience this year, and he is one of two frontrunners in the prospects pool to end up with the big club for all of 2024-25. While Dean never scored nor recorded an assist, he still won 50 percent of his faceoffs, landed 10 body checks, and stole the puck five times, indicating that he will be a remarkable lower-liner in 2024-25, assuming he makes the cut.
There were some caveats, as not only did he register zero points, Dean was never on the ice for a single goal this season. That said, he was out there for four goals against at even strength, which was 0.9 fewer than his xGA.
Dean was never a scorer in Springfield, having put up just 14 points and nine goals in 45 contests, further indicating he may be no more than a third or fourth-liner in the NHL. But hey, just because those players don’t score, they’re pivotal to winning championships, especially when you consider how badly the Blues need players like him to help out in the defensive zone.
Dean may not bring an exciting game, but he’s already proving himself as a hitter who also has a penchant for getting a stick on opponents’ pucks.
1 - Zachary Bolduc, LW
Unlike Zach Dean, Zachary Bolduc showed a little more productivity in the AHL and NHL, so he brings more upside than the former in the offensive zone; at least, that’s the case for now. Either way, Bolduc scored five times and logged nine points in the 25 contests he played in Gateway City.
Bolduc wasn’t as much of a hitter as Dean, but his 15 takeaways is one number that jumps off the stat sheet. Take 15 and divide it by 25, and Bolduc ended his short stint with the big club in 2023-24 with 0.6 takeaways per contest. He was on the ice at even strength for 0.7 more goals allowed than expected, but he was also in the game for 13 goals for at even strength with an xGA of 9.0.
Bolduc could see an increase in overall ice time next season, plus more time on the man advantage, on which he logged 15.5 minutes. While it’s true he didn’t show an incredible edge to his game in his age-20 season, Bolduc is one player to keep an eye on in September following a full offseason of training.
There is a chance he returns in 2024-25 and gives fans a solid uptick in production after what were serviceable stints at both the NHL and AHL levels - 25 points and eight goals in 50 contests in the latter.
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(Statistics provided by Hockey-Reference and Elite Prospects)