Many fans of the St. Louis Blues had high hopes for the team coming into the 2025-26 season given the team's success in the back half of the 2024-25 campaign. Unfortunately, the team proved that it is very difficult to extend momentum from one season to the next and were a basement dweller in league standings from the first month onward. Despite this, there are absolutely reasons to look back on this year more positively than most currently are.
Joel Hofer's breakout
Hofer came into the year as the backup for Jordan Binnington and half of what many considered one of the best goalie tandems in the league. Unfortunately, what Blues fans got to start the year were the two worst goalies in the league by nearly every metric. While Jordan Binnington continued on this trajectory for the entire season, Hofer bounced back and was one of the best goalies in the league throughout the back half of the season.
In his final 20 games, Hofer posted a save percentage of 0.914, just 2.43 average goals against, and 11.8 goals saved above expected. These stats would put Hofer in the dicussion for being a top 5 goaltender in the league during that time. Because of this excellent play in net, Hofer became the Blues unofficial starter in December and he continued to play well in that role. As the starter heading into next year, the question remains if Hofer can play at this level for an entire season but based on the last 4 months fans should feel very comfortable with Hofer between the pipes.
Youth performance and development
As the Blues shift their core to a younger group, this year was pivotal to the development of these pieces meant to lead the team in the coming years. Jimmy Snuggerud is the biggest name of these, and given his stellar play in a short amount of time last season expectations were high coming into the year. Despite being sidelined by injury early, he still managed to have a great rookie season - the 21-year-old put up 21 goals and 30 assists for 51 total points in just 70 games. Even more importantly, he was part of the Blues' top line with Thomas and Holloway - a line that would end up being one of the statistical best lines in the entire league for the season.
Other notable players part of the new youth movement in St. Louis include Otto Stenberg, Dalibor Dvorsky, Theo Lindstein, and Logan Mailloux. All of these skaters saw their fair share of adversity during the season, but they all got noticeably better and more comfortable on the ice and fans would be shocked to find any one of them missing from the starting roster of game one of the 2026-27 season.
Trade deadline moves
Once it became clear this season was not going to be a competitive one from the Blues, a few names immediately came up as possible trade pieces for the deadline. Schenn and Faulk were the two being brought up most, and they were the ones that Doug Armstrong ended up shipping out in the final minutes of the deadline. Many were concerned that the value they held may not return much given the "buyer's market" rumors swirling around the league at that time.
However, the hauls Armstrong got for these two aging veterans were huge for the organization moving forward. For Schenn, the Blues received Jonathan Drouin, a goaltending prospect, a 2026 first round pick, and a 2026 third round pick. For Faulk, the Blues received defenseman Justin Holl, a skilled Russian forward prospect, a 2026 first round pick, and a 2026 third round pick.
With the many picks the Blues have collected going into the draft, they have the kind of capital and flexibility to do a lot of good for the organization's future. They could keep all three firsts and trust that their scouts hit a home run like in 2023 (Dvorsky, Stenberg, and Lindstein), or they could package some picks as part of a deal to move up in the draft and add a potential superstar to the team. All of this was possible thanks to the trading of two veteran players that no longer aligned with the projected competitive timeline of the Blues.
As easy as it is to call the last 6-months an utter failure, sometimes fans need to take a step back and see how good they were for the club long term. The future is bright in St. Louis.
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