The St. Louis Blues have a good and bad problem to have. With an influx of new and important players entering the doors of the Enterprise Center, there is a buildup on the wing. Particularly the right side, which was held by Jordan Kyrou and Pavel Buchnevich.
Buchnevich has shown the ability to play on both the left and right side, but his time on the right side is slowly coming to an end to make room for Jimmy Snuggerud and the eventual arrival of Justin Carbonneau. Carbonneau has a very good chance of being up at the NHL level much sooner than expected.
Even on the left side, Dylan Holloway exploded onto the scene as a valuable player in his debut season. Not to mention that there is also Jake Neighbours, who is knocking on the door for potential top-six minutes.
Pavel Buchnevich might be the odd man out
With all of those names mentioned above, Buchnevich at $8 million AAV might be the odd man out, eventually. It really all comes down to his individual performance. There is a No-Trade Clause attached to his brand-new and current deal.
He is on the hook with the Blues through the 2030-31 season, and Carbonneau will certainly be a mainstay by then. These two will have to battle it out for a winger spot, which has seemingly been jammed up.
His expectation in 2025-26?
With a fresh slate, the expectation for Buchnevich in 2025-26 should be for him to improve on last season. In 2024-25, he had 20 goals and 37 assists for 57 points, which continued his trend over the past couple of seasons. Since his first season with the Blue Note in 2021-22, he went from 76 points to 67 in 2022-23, to 63 in 2023-24.
At $8 million a year, Buchnevich has to break that initial milestone he set four seasons ago. Reaching the high-70, low-80 point range would be a good benchmark for him. Snuggerud and Holloway are nipping right behind him for more playing time. Let's see if Buchnevich can handle the pressure.