Colin Ralph was one of the final skaters to make the roster for Team USA as a member of their group for the 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship, but it came as no surprise to the St. Louis Blues. Just ask assistant general manager Tim Taylor. 6-4, 216-pound defenseman was selected in the second round of the 2024 NHL Draft "I saw him at he evaluation camp, I think it was early August there," Taylor said. "He was really good. He's a big-bodied defenseman that really shuts down plays quickly and is a first-pass guy." The Blues saw enough of Ralph (6-foot-4, 216 pounds), who they picked in the second round of the 2024 NHL Draft, in 2021-22 playing hockey right here in St. Louis to know what they have. [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/st-louis-blues/players/colin-ralph-part-of-plan-to-draft-develop-bigger-stronger-pipeline-for-blues] So much so, that the St. Cloud State defenseman has received some lofty comparisons to another top Blues defenseman. "He might be a left-shot version of Parayko," Taylor said of Blues top defenseman Colton Parayko. "Those are big shoes to fill and I don't want to think that I'm saying he's Parayko right now, but that's the type of player that he is, that he's a shutdown guy. He closes out quickly. He's a little more physical than Colton was at that age and he's strong. But he's come a long way." Ralph is having a strong season with the Huskies, who are 10-7 this season, with one goal and three assists but joins a group of an NHL high and Blues franchise-best nine prospects to participate in this year's tournament, which gets underway Thursday and concludes with medal games on Jan. 5. USA is the defending tournament champion and opens Thursday against Germany at 1:30 p.m. (CT) on NHL Network in the US and TSN in Canada. But the 19-year-old Ralph will get his first taste of international competition representing his country and the Blues couldn't be more pleased, which is why they felt so highly of him when they drafted him 16th in the second round. "With our amateur staff when we picked him, they were really high on him," Taylor said. "From where he came from last year to where he is now, he's taken huge steps and huge strides. He seems to get accustomed to the level he's playing at very quickly. That leads me to believe that at the end of the day, you're going to see a guy now that's on this team that's going to be playing big minutes and big times in games for Team USA. I'm excited to see what he's brought, but at the end of the day, was I surprised? No, because I saw him in August and saw where he'd come from, prior year his draft year to where he was in August. He just seems like a guy that adapts very quickly." Image [https://thehockeynews.com/.image/c_fit,h_600,w_600/MjA5MjcwNjk1MDQ0MTI5OTk4/subscribe2024-tag-carousel.jpg]
