St. Louis Blues NHL Prospect Rankings: Honorable Mentions

As the anticipation for the 2026-27 NHL season grows, TheHockeyNews.com will be taking a look at the top 10 prospects in the St. Louis Blues' system, starting with some honorable mentions for players who just missed the cut.

The players in this ranking do not have extensive NHL experience and are all 23 and under. Therefore, players like Jimmy Snuggerud, Dalibor Dvorsky, and Logan Mailloux, among others, won't feature in this ranking for those reasons.

The order of these rankings reflects a mix of their ceilings and potential, as well as how they've performed over the past year with their respective clubs. 

The five honorable mentions include Love Harenstam, Marcus Gidlof, Juraj Pekarcik, Zach Dean, and Lukas Fischer.

Harenstam emerged last season as a potential steal for the Blues, who selected the 19-year-old in the sixth round of the 2025 NHL draft. 

Despite only being listed at 6-foot-1, Harenstam guided Team Sweden to gold at the World Junior Championship, taking home best goaltender honors and later earning a spot on Team Sweden's World Championship roster, but he did not see any action.

With his Swedish club, Harenstam took home Rookie of the Year honors, Junior of the Year honors, and Goaltender of the Year honors in HockeyAllsvenskan, Sweden's second-highest professional league. 

It was a positive D+1 season for Harenstam, who is looking to build off the momentum.

Acquired in the trade that sent Brayden Schenn to the New York Islanders, Gidlof is a 6-foot-6 Swedish netminder. The 20-year-old wasn't great in his second professional season in the SHL, but with his tools and young age, Gidlof has plenty of room for growth.

Gidlof's Swedish club was relegated to the HockeyAllsvenskan, which should help Gidlof find his confidence against weaker competition. 

Gidlof and Harenstam stand as the two most exciting goaltending prospects in the Blues pool.

Fischer will join the Springfield Thunderbirds for his rookie season this year after another positive OHL campaign. 

Fischer's goals and point totals will never stand out, but at 6-foot-3, Fischer is a lockdown defender who loves to throw his weight around. He's a solid enough puck-mover and skates well for his size, but his defensive acumen is where he receives his praise. 

There's plenty for him to tidy up or improve on within his game, but the 19-year-old possesses traits that could land him on the third pairing of an NHL roster. 

Pekarcik has the 6-foot-2 frame and skill to be an effective scorer, and he showed some flashes in his rookie season in the AHL.

Following a QMJHL campaign in which he posted 24 goals and 67 points in 53 games, Pekarcik has continued to emerge as a potential middle-six winger in the NHL.

The 20-year-old Slovakian winger is a constant threat with the puck on his stick, and improvements on his 11-goal, 35-point rookie season will go a long way in earning himself an eventual call-up to the NHL within the next couple of seasons.

It was a challenging 2025-26 season for Dean, who began the season in the NHLPA's Player Assistance Program. Upon returning, Dean scored four goals and 14 points in 36 games. While those numbers aren't much to write home about, especially for a former first-round pick, it was the slight improvement the Blues needed to see.

Dean signed a two-way contract with the Blues this off-season and heads into the 2026-27 season as a 23-year-old entering make-or-break territory. 

If Dean is unable to stand out with the Thunderbirds and earn a call-up to the NHL, it could spell the end of his Blues tenure, which would feel like a major disappointment considering he was the piece the Blues acquired in the Ivan Barbashev trade. 

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