The NHL draft is upon us, which means the Blues have a great opportunity with the 19th overall pick to add some talent to their prospect pool. With only their only other picks in the fifth and sixth rounds this is their best chance to add someone who could one day turn into an impact NHLer. None too soon, either, as Jimmy Snuggerud and Dalibor Dvorsky seem poised to become lineup regulars next season.
Snuggerud and Dvorsky are, no doubt, the top two prospects in the Blues' pipeline--and one could argue they are a tier above the rest of the players in the Blues' farm system, as Scott Wheeler put it at The Athletic earlier this year when ranking the league's prospect systems (the Blues were No. 14). Those two are the most likely players to, at their peaks, be top six NHLers or, at the very least, very good middle-six players.
In the next tier of prospects behind Snuggerud and Dvorsky, you have Adam Jiricek, Otto Stenberg, and Theo Lindstein, and can put them in whatever order you feel is appropriate; when Elite Prospects ranked prospect pools last fall, they differed slightly from Wheeler's assessment. They had the Blues slightly higher in the rankings (No. 11) and swapped Stenberg and Lindstein around.
Barring a major trade that adds a high-profile prospect to the pool or a breakout season from someone already there, the Blues' pipeline will likely look less deep this time next year with Snuggerud and Dvorsky in the NHL. Perhaps the Blues' selection at this week's draft will help somewhat, but with how aggressively General Manager Doug Armstrong has been trying to retool the roster, the team may be better served trading the pick for a player who can help right now. However, depth in the prospect pipeline is never a bad thing, and making the 19th overall selection may also be prudent for the long-term health of the franchise.