The St. Louis Blues had three picks in the first two rounds of the 2024 NHL Draft, and general manager Doug Armstrong wisely used them on blueliners. It began with the wise decision to take Adam Jiricek in Round 1, but the Blues weren’t done yet, rolling with Colin Ralph in Round 2 and, finally, Lukas Fisher.
Overall, you couldn’t have asked for a better trifecta of defensemen so early in the draft, and of the three, Colin Ralph is the best pick here. Sure, Adam Jiricek went earlier and he will be a force for the Blues once he’s wearing the uniform. But for a player who is 6’5 and 227 pounds who put up 66 points, you can’t help but like a lot about Colin Ralph.
Okay, yes, I’ll concede that Ralph’s level of competition wasn’t the greatest, so it inflated his numbers. But his productivity is still something you would expect out of a two-way player, and he’s also someone who will have the physicality and strength of a two-way defenseman. I thought he should have warranted strong consideration late in the first round, and maybe he did, but it was great to see him fall to the 48th pick.
St. Louis Blues had an outstanding draft, but it had its flaws
Now that we talked about the best pick, let’s elaborate a little on who the worst picks were, and the one I just didn’t get was picking Ondrej Kos so high when, ideally, Doug Armstrong should have went with another defenseman here. He picked Kos over Luca Marrelli, Veeti Vaisanen, and Matvei Shuravin, three prospects I would have easily chosen over Kos to solidify the blue line in the system.
It’s something I won’t even begin to try and understand, especially since Kos strikes me as an ultimate boom-or-bust. Okay, so maybe I’m exaggerating that last point since we’re talking about a third-round pick here, but there were better options and more pressing needs that Armstrong ignored.
Alright, enough negativity: Let’s fast-forward to the fourth round of the draft so you can hear about why I’m such a big fan of their 113th overall pick. Thomas Mrsic has put up numbers that will impress you, and he was nearly a point-per-game player with the WHL’s Medicine Hat Tigers, where he put up 23 goals and 62 points in 63 regular season outings.
But this is a forward who can be versatile, capable of playing center or winger, and he's got enough length to carry decent size in time. One of the better shooters taken in the middle rounds, Blues fans should be excited to follow Mrsic’s progress.
(Statistics powered by Elite Prospects)