Blues will give Bolduc opportunity in training camp
MARYLAND HEIGHTS, Mo. -- Rest assured, Doug Armstrong and the rest of the Blues management brass will have their eyes glued to televisions Sunday at 6 p.m. Central Time.
They'll want to have keen eyes watching the 17th overall pick in the 2021 NHL Draft compete for a championship.
That's when the Quebec Remparts and Zach Bolduc will drop the puck against the Seattle Thunderbirds in Kamloops, British Columbia with the Memorial Cup on the line.
No doubt it's been an incredible season for the 20-year-old Bolduc, who followed up a 99-point season last year by finishing with 110 points (50 goals, 60 assists) in 61 regular-season games this season, followed by 19 points (11 goals, eight assists) in 18 playoff games; he has a goal and three assists in three games at the Memorial Cup for a grand total of 133 points (62 goals, 71 assists) in 82 games.
Translate that to the NHL, and you've got yourself quite a player.
Well, let's not get ahead of ourselves here, and whether he's crowned a champion again tonight or not after winning the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, Bolduc then will get a bit of a reprieve before focusing on training camp in St. Louis in mid-September.
Bolduc is part of a group of players the Blues will build around in the near future, which includes Zach Dean, a first-round pick in 2021 (30th) the Blues acquired when they traded Ivan Barbashev to Vegas before the trade deadline who had himself quite a year with the Gatineau Olympiques of the QMJHL (33 goals, 37 assists in 50 regular-season games and 10 goals, 16 assists in 13 playoff games), along with Jimmy Snuggerud, a 2022 first-round pick who fell one game short of winning an NCAA title with the University of Minnesota, where he will play again this fall.
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"Obviously he's playing in the final game in Canada, so he's in the championship game," Armstrong said Friday. "He's a top player in the Quebec League, scores lots of goals. I think he's rounded out his game, but I don't want to put any expectations on a date if he's not here by a certain date, it's not a success or a failure, however you want to look at it.
"I view all three of those players [Bolduc, Dean and Snuggerud] as players we're going to count on. If we're counting on those guys next year or the year after to be dominant players for us, then other guys aren't pulling their weight, but I think they're progressing well and I think the thought around the league is (they're) players that are progressing very well."