Unless you're one of those impossible to please social media jockeys, it's fairly undeniable that the St. Louis Blues have improved their roster in the summer of 2025. While there is still a possibility of more moves prior to the start of 2025-26, Doug Armstrong has made his usual shrewd moves and done what he intended - which is improve the team by at least five percent, give or take.
While a prospect is never a sure thing, all signs point to Logan Mailloux being a solid player and an improvement for the defensive corps. He's physical, quick and puts up pretty solid point numbers. The Springfield Thunderbirds broadcaster, the Blues affiliate, called him the best defender he had seen in the AHL last season.
The Blues added depth and got younger up the middle with the addition of Pius Suter. His faceoff percentage could be better, but he should be an offensive upgrade from Radek Faksa and allow the Blues to put Oskar Sundqvist on the fourth line. In the best case scenario, you could actually move Suter to the wing if Dalibor Dvorsky has an unbelievable camp.
Speaking of center depth, the Blues also brought in Nick Bjugstad. Although he's only 32, he's one of those guys that feels like has been in the league forever. Again, the 2019 Stanley Cup team taught us that you can never have too many guys capable of playing center.
Plenty of fans will bemoan the lack of anything splashy thus far. However, when you're trying to keep spots open for Dvorsky and Jimmy Snuggerud, as well as plan for eventual extensions for Dylan Holloway, Philip Broberg and maybe even Cam Fowler, you can't go balls to the wall this offseason anyway.
However, the bigger question is not about the Blues, but how they fit into the division. St. Louis has improved their depth on paper, but will it manifest in the games themselves.
As it was, the Blues squeaked into the 2025 playoffs on the last couple days of the season and needed a franchise-best winning streak to get there. There is also the small matter of the Central Division being one of the toughest in the NHL.
Fans and media may argue that point, but the Central is stacked
While they've lost a couple key guys, the Winnipeg Jets are still pretty close to the roster that just won the Presidents' Trophy and even if he is the team's kryptonite in the playoffs, Connor Hellebuyck is one of the best regular season goalies in the league.
Dallas' spending may catch up to them eventually, but they still have a well constructed roster with plenty of talent that has not hit the age of 30 yet. Colorado had an off-year and still managed 102 points and they still have a dynamite offense with a defenseman capable of hitting 30 goals and Nathan MacKinnon who was tied for most assists in the league.
The Minnesota Wild are a team that could take a step forward or backward. They don't have any household names other than Kirill Kaprisov, but as long as he's healthy, they'e dangerous.
The Utah Mammoth have had the St. Louis Blues number dating back to their last couple seasons in Arizona. They made some decent moves and improved a team that was already nipping at the Blues heels in the standings last year.
While Chicago will almost certainly still bring up the rear, the Nashville Predators are the biggest question mark. They went from a team many picked to challenge for the division in 2024-25 to only 30 wins. It would stretch the imagination for them to be that bad again, so if they improve, that's another team battling it out.
As happens every year, teams step up and others step back. Like with the Preds, you can never really predict it. Maybe Dallas hits an odd snag or maybe the Avs have injury problems.
The worry is that you cannot count on those things. We have to assume that everyone got better
So, even though the Blues got better, will it be enough? As of right now, I'd say they're still in that bottom group that will be clawing for a playoff spot.
I like the roster Armstrong has constructed, but it's not proven enough to say they're definitely a top three division team. Utah could easily make a jump and Nashville just doesn't seem like they'll be that big a flop two seasons in a row.
The thing that scares me is this roster could be remarkably improved and somehow miss the playoffs, simply because the division could be so tough. One thing that will be key is this current Blues team cannot continue to lose to teams like Chicago or San Jose.
If they don't drop points to the bottom dwellers, they should still be a playoff team and maybe challenge for that third division slot. A full season under Jim Montgomery should have everyone excited about the possibilities.
Still, their position within this division is tenuous until they prove themselves. At least we know they'll be better than Chicago, which is nice.
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