The St. Louis Blues have had quite the offseason. Doug Armstrong, in his final draft as general manager, made some risky decisions with the four first-round picks the Blues had amassed, including a trade for Mason McTavish that'll hopefully shore up the Blues' center depth.
Despite having a just-so-so draft, the Blues are sitting pretty in terms of young prospects. Over at The Athletic, prospect expert Corey Pronman ranked every team's under-23 player pools, and the Blues finished seventh in the league. That's a respectable spot to finish!
The Blues lack a true star-level, needle-moving prospect as crown jewel in their prospect pipeline--but what they lack in elite prospects, they make up for with strong depth.
The players at the top
Jimmy Snuggerud and Adam Jiricek are first and second, respectively, in Pronman's rankings. Both are given the "bubble top and middle of the lineup" grade, which in his rankings usually means a second-line forward and second-pair defenseman, with the potential to play up the lineup.
We've already seen plenty of what Snuggerud could be capable of after he finished his rookie season with 21 goals and 51 points in 70 games. Scoring goals is what it takes to win games, and Snuggerud is very good at it--he'll have a long career as the trigger man on the Blues' power-play unit. Jiricek is turning pro this season and may be a little further away from regular NHL minutes, but he's on track to be a reliable, minute-eating, two-way defenseman.
The mid-tier prospects
This is where the Blues make hay in the rankings, having five prospects ranked as "middle of the lineup" players by Pronman. In order, they are: Dalibor Dvorsky, Tynan Lawrence, Milton Gastrin, Maddox Dagenais, and Justin Carbonneau.
Three of those players joined the Blues this summer: two through the draft, and one through the trade that sent Jordan Kyrou to the Washington Capitals. These additions are why the Blues moved up from 16th in last year's rankings to seventh this year (and we're big fans of Lawrence here).
The depth
The Blues have a whopping 13 (!!) players ranked as "NHL prospects." For Pronman, that usually means prospects with a chance to play in the NHL in bottom-six/third-pair roles, though a sharp development curve could bump them up a tier down the road. This will be the last time Theo Lindstein (12th) and Otto Stenberg (16th) are ranked, as they'll age out by next summer. There are new additions form the 2026 draft like Lars Steiner (ranked 18th, who we're also a fan of), Landon Nycz (15th) and Colin Fitzgerald (11th) who, because of their youth, have the best chance of breaking out and moving up the list.
The Blues still need a star at the top of their roster to avoid becoming a perennial playoff bubble team, but they have the depth in place to contend--GM Alex Steen just needs to find a way to add an elite NHLer (or prospect on the cusp of being ready) so that everything falls into place.
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