The NHL draft lottery is over, with the Toronto Maple Leafs taking home the top pick of 2026. The St. Louis Blues stay put at 11th overall, and their pick via the Detroit Red Wings sticks at 15th. For now, the Blues' third first-round pick is projected to be No. 31--but it could be higher if the Colorado Avalanche don't win the Stanley Cup (though they look fairly unstoppable right now).
With the lottery behind us, it's time to dig deeper into prospects--and the experts are beginning to do their mock drafts. There's going to be a lot of fluidity for the Blues over the coming weeks, since three picks leaves more room for interpretation. We're kicking off this year's mocks with none other than Scott Wheeler's, over at The Athletic.
With the 11th-overall pick Wheeler has the Blues taking left winger Ethan Belchetz of the Windsor Spitfires in the OHL. Belchetz, at times viewed as a peripheral top-five selection, has dropped down the boards a tad as the season progressed. He's got some warts, but the Blues lack anyone like him in the pipeline: he's six-foot-five and just under 230 pounds, and would bring a very different dynamic to the Blues' budding forward group of Jimmy Snuggerud, Justin Carbonneau and Dalibor Dvorsky.
A few spots later, at number 15, Wheeler has the Blues selecting Finnish center Oliver Suvanto. This might be a little early for a player like Suvanto (reliable, but unflashy), but centers often go early, and the Blues could really use some more support down the middle behind Dvorsky and Robert Thomas. The good news is that Suvanto, at 6-foot-3 and over 200 pounds, likely sticks at center in the NHL, which can't be said about a lot of forward prospects on draft day.
For their final pick, in this mock at 31, the Blues take right-shot defenseman Tommy Bleyl. Again, this pick could be in the 20s if the Avalanche get upset at some point but, for now, we should assume it'll be 30 or 31 (the Ottawa Senators are picking at 32 regardless of the Cup outcome). The Blues have some solid defense prospects in Adam Jiricek, Logan Mailloux and Theo Lindstein, but the undersized Bleyl could bring a new dimension to their blue line of the future.
As the draft nears and the CHL season wraps up, we'll get some more clarity on prospects--the risers and fallers--that could be in play for the Blues. This will be a pivotal draft for the franchise.
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