Now that junior season is finished, Dvorsky has best chance among prospects to make jump to NHL next season

10th pick in 2023 NHL Draft had successful season, his first, with Sudbury; season ended on sour note with second round sweep at hands of North Bay

MARYLAND HEIGHTS, Mo. -- Now that Dalibor Dvorsky's first season in junior hockey has disappointedly come to a finish after being swept in the second round of the Ontario Hockey League playoffs, the next looming question for the 10th pick in the 2023 NHL Draft is what's next?

Dvorsky, who began last season playing for Oskarshamn IK of the Swedish Hockey League (zero points in 10 games) before being whisked out of there to join the Sudbury Wolves of the OHL, capped off an incredibly strong season with 88 points (45 goals, 43 assists) in just 52 regular-season games and 10 points (three goals, seven assists) in nine playoff games. He had just a goal and an assist in the second round, a four-game sweep at the hands of the North Bay Battalion.

It would up being the best move for the 18-year-old's career coming to North America, and his season was so good that Blues general manager Doug Armstrong even indicated at the season-ending press conference on Thursday that Dvorsky has the best chance of any of the prospects to perhaps start the season in St. Louis.

"The one player that looks like he's going to push for a really good look in training camp is Dvorsky," Armstrong said. "Partly because he's in North America and the other guys are in Sweden. But Dvorsky, what I saw what he did at the World Junior, what we see him doing against his peer group in the Ontario Hockey League and how we've seen players that do what he did in the Ontario League progressed in the NHL, there's a path there, but that path won't be rushed. We can say that we have young players in the NHL and that's for [Zack] Bolduc and that's for [Zach] Dean and that's for [Matthew] Kessel quite honestly, they ended the season here. The only way they guarantee they start it here next year is to have a great summer and a great training camp because we have to push them to be better than they were when we ended the year, and it's up to them to do the work. I have the utmost faith they're going to do it, but this isn't a charity case that we're running here in the sense that ... to show growth, we have to put players in the NHL that aren't ready for it. The NHL fails as many players as players fail the NHL and I don't want to fail these guys."

Dvorsky could be the next exception to this thought process though. He did have six points (three goals, three assists) in five games playing for Slovakia at the World Junior Championship in Sweden earlier this year, and then continued to light it up playing for the Wolves in Ontario.

And after the experience of what turned out to be a disaster in Sweden, then coming to play in the OHL, wound up being the best move the Blues could possibly make for the center.

"I thought it was a great benefit," Armstrong said. "You never know how it's going to work. The one thing that concerns you is Dvorsky has had five different coaches in the last five years and five different cities in five different leagues. This kid's had no stability and it's because he's better. He gets better every year. He went to a situation he thought was going to be really good and Sweden was really bad. So you're hoping it's better when he gets to the OHL, and he made it a great situation. The way that he was perceived in his draft years as a top player, top ten pick, that's where we took him, they usually have good years in the OHL, and he certainly didn't disappoint. I think there's going to be debate, if the draft was held again this year, where would he go? Probably, in our opinion, maybe a little bit higher, but certainly no lower."

Dvorsky will be eligible to join Springfield of the American Hockey League if the Blues feel he's ready to go there and not to the NHL, or he could return to Sudbury.

Regardless of where he winds up, Dvorsky will get a shot in the NHL come September.

"He thinks he's going to be here in St. Louis and I'm not going to dash that dream," Armstrong said, "but if it's not, we'll find a nice home for him."