ST. LOUIS – The words were simple from the St. Louis Blues [http://thn.com/stlouis] going into the 2025-26 season after the season ending so excruciatingly painful in the playoffs the previous season: they’ll come back hungrier and motivated as to not experience such a feeling again. Well, they got one part right: they won’t have to experience the pain of losing a Game 7 of a playoff series in double overtime, after leading by two like they did against the Winnipeg Jets [http://thn.com/winnipeg], at least not for this season. That’s because they never gave themselves a chance to join the party of the Stanley Cup playoffs for a second straight season with a terrible start to their season. General manager Doug Armstrong, who was hoping for a much better swan song as his last as GM before Alexander Steen takes the reigns on July 1, had used the words ‘disappointing’ and ‘embarrassing’ in interviews at times describing the Blues’ play. Yes, they finished the season above .500 when all was said and done (37-33-12) because of another strong finish to the season post-Olympics (17-5-3), but as Armstrong said in his season-ending comments, “This group, when we got back into it and we had to put our own money back on the table, we didn’t get the job done. There’s just a different feeling on the winning percentage post-4 Nations (than) post-Olympics for me. I assume they’re somewhat close, the winning percentage but there’s a much different feeling going into the summer now than I had, and it’s not based on making or missing the playoffs, it’s based on those massive games where we didn’t perform to the level that was necessary.” The Blues missed out on the playoffs this season by four points, and there’s a plethora of games we can point to as to why, but that’s not why we’re here. We’re here to determine if anyone had a good year, if anyone had a great year. Who was meh? Who didn’t perform up to expectations? Trust me when I say that if the end of season doesn't happen, there would be a number of F's handed out. But ... I give you my grades for the 2025-26 roster, the job Montgomery and his staff did as coaches and Armstrong in putting together this roster. FORWARDS Robert Thomas – If you want to make the comparison of player and the team he plays for, how reflective said player and team was from pre-Olympics to post-Olympics play. Look no further than the 26-year-old. Just like last season when Thomas tore up the league after the 4 Nations Face-Off, he ripped through the league again with 31 (14 goals, 17 assists) of his 64 points (25 goals, 39 assists) in the final 22 games played and an exceptional plus-25. Sure, it all came with the Blues buried at the bottom of the league standings when the post-Olympic schedule resumed Feb. 26. And most importantly, this play came after A) being fully healthy following a leg procedure that had apparently been bothering him since late last season and B) formulating a line with Dylan Holloway and Jimmy Snuggerud. Now we under stand that Thomas was playing less than 100 percent the first 42 games he played; he finally said enough was enough and played his last game Jan. 10 before returning on March 1. Thomas finished as a point-per-game player (64 in 64 games) and that’s on pace for 82 points in a full season and averaged 19:01 per game (down from 19:58 last season), but I think to a fault, how good could he have been had he had this procedure done last off-season? I think he chose not to address it before because he wanted to see if he could play through what was bothering him to see if he could still produce but to also not louse up a chance at playing for Canada in Milan. And as it turned out, it was to his own detriment. Putting up 33 points (11 goals, 22 assists) is not terrible by any stretch, but there was obviously was something off in his first 42 games of the season And that was when the Blues needed to perform most as to be relevant at the end. I just feel like he left something on the table trying to play hurt. My grade – B Jimmy Snuggerud – There’s some similarities here between the rookie and Thomas, only in the sense that he may have been dragged down prior to injuring himself, Snuggerud’s being his wrist. He played 26 games before stepping away after a Nov. 29 game to get his wrist fixed with surgery, which cost him roughly a month. But it was a really good first full season for the 21-year-old, and he exploded as well post-Olympic break with 27 points (11 goals, 16 assists) in 25 games and a plus-21 rating. Snuggerud finished with 51 points (21 goals, 30 assists) in 70 games playing 16:42 a game, but like Thomas, just wasn’t quite there early on, by his own admission. And that’s natural, since he’s learning the nuances of the NHL in his first full season. This kid is so smart and has such a feel for the game, not only with his shot but is a smart passer and reads and reacts to the game as it happens. I’m probably being hard on him by not pushing his grade higher but when he tells us he wasn’t good enough early in the season (24 points; 10 goals, 14 assists in 45 games) when the Blues has to have better play, that’s just a mature kid being honest with himself. I love his upside and see a 30-40 goal scorer, point-per-game player in the league very soon. My grade – B+ Dylan Holloway – Another player whose season was derailed by injury, but this stems to coming back from a major surgery to repair a torn abductor muscle off his hip that really put the 24-year-old up against it. Like his two linemates, he tore it up post-Olympics to the tune of 34 points (14 goals, 20 assists) in 25 games and a league-best plus-26; he finished the season with 51 points (22 goals, 29 assists) in 59 games averaging a career-high 18:15 per game. And it was no coincidence either. Holloway was finally(!) healthy. You knew it was going to be a challenge to pick up where he left off after last year’s 63-point (26 goals, 37 assists) season. It was going to take some time to fully be back from such a serious injury, but Holloway had – like the team – an inconsistent way of producing early. But then things got worse on Dec. 14 when he suffered a high right ankle sprain in practice. That cost him a total of two more months of action. To that point, he had just 17 points (eight goals, nine assists) in 34 games, far below his pace of a year ago. But one thing that never wavered to me, even fighting through getting back from the pelvic injury, was Holloway’s willingness to affect the game through his forechecking and skating ability. When he was effective in those areas, he had such an impact on the Blues’ results. It was at peak performance from Feb. 26 on. I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt for the early-season point drought because it’s not an easy injury to come back from, and the sprained ankle didn’t help things. I think post-Olympic Holloway is that guy, but now he has to go prove it with his next contract that he can stay healthy. But this dude is someone the Blues should build around, and they will. He’s a RFA this summer; all that’s left to decide is whether a long-term contract now comes with it or a bridge contract. My grade – B+ Pavel Buchnevich – There’s going to be a couple that I will describe with such words: I needed to see more … way more. Here’s another player that had a decent (not as good as the aforementioned trio) finish to the season with 16 points (eight goals, eight assists) in 24 games and a plus 5 post-Olympic break, but 48 points (20 goals, 28 assists) and a minus-10 in a career-high 81 games played this season for a player that started his $8 million AAV contract for six seasons was just not good enough. In his five seasons as a Blue, the 31-year-old has gone from 76 to 67 to 63 to 57 to 48 points with five years left on his contract. If I’m a Blues fan, I’d be concerned. I just didn’t see that consistent bite in his game, and that includes being a fundamentally sound defensive player. There were moments but not nearly enough for someone playing a top six role. Buchnevich’s ice time has gone from 19:48 to 19:02 to 17:56 this season, and it’s been reflective in his play. He did match his goal total of last season, but too many games this season be looked ineffective. Coming back, he’s got to have more of an impact on games moving forward. My grade – D+ Jordan Kyrou – I’ll get the injury to his knee which evidently required a minor procedure here recently out of the way now. Maybe it affected his play, maybe it didn’t, but I’ll say the same thing as I said in the Thomas capsule: if you’re healthy enough to play, you’re healthy enough to perform. I don’t know when a knee issue popped up, but 18 goals, 28 assists and 46 points in 72 games isn’t nearly good enough for someone getting paid as much as Thomas. This is one of the offensive catalysts – or is supposed to be – on this roster and those numbers are Kyrou’s fewest since first full season in 2020-21, and he only played 55 games that season. Someone whose ice time has gone down the past three seasons (18:20, 17:29, 15:44) has been reflective, especially this season. I didn’t think Kyrou’s defense was poor for a second straight season (although he was a minus-5), but he’s paid to affect the game offensively, and that wasn’t nearly good enough. Kyrou, like Thomas, has four years left on his contract that pays him an AAV of $8.125 million per season, and I don’t know if a fresh start is in the cards for him, but if he returns to St. Louis next season, he’s got to get back to the player that averaged just under 35 goals and 70 points per season for the Blues to take those next steps. Because 18-28=46 just doesn’t cut it. My grade – D+ Jake Neighbours – Hard worker, motivator, voice in the room and on the bench. Never in question. Now comes the production, and when the 24-year-old scored six times in the first eight games of the season, you may have been thinking – I know I was – here comes the guy that scored 27 goals two years ago storming back. But from Nov. 20 on, which includes 61 games, Neighbours put up nine goals the rest of the season and 29 points, scoring in only seven of the remaining 61 games; he finished with 36 points (15 goals, 21 assists) in 69 games who missed time with a lower-body injury early in the season blocking a shot in Detroit. His average time on ice was 15:14, slightly below the 15:54 he played a season ago, and his shooting percentage slightly dipped to 17.4 percent from 18 percent, but the power play points also dropped from 14 two years ago to 12 last year to just seven this season. This is a guy that makes his living around the net, and he will get high percentage looks. That’s what makes his goal production a bit concerning, going from 27 to 21 to 15. He is only 24 years old and hasn’t reached his peak yet, at least we don’t think. The work ethic is always there, and that’s not going to change. And when Neighbours was in the midst of a 23-game goal scoring drought late in the season, he was as critical of himself as one would be. He took accountability knowing he’s a factor in this lineup that was 22nd in goals for this season (2.82 per game). Neighbours is such a wild card in Jim Montgomery’s lineup that he played anywhere from the first to third lines, but that versatility has to produce results, too. When Neighbours scored 27 two seasons ago, maybe the bar was set that he could push 30 or more. That’s not his standard, but getting into the 20s is not out of his reach on a regular basis. He didn’t get there this year and needs to be better moving forward. My grade – C- Pius Suter – Another player who’s expectations were probably elevated after putting up 25 goals last season with the Vancouver Canucks [http://thn.com/vancouver]. The Blues signed the 29-year-old to a two-year, $8.25 million ($4.125 million AAV) contract to fill a void down the middle and actually was very serviceable in the 64 games he played this season that included some down time due to injury and included 29 points (13 goals, 16 assists) that averaged 15:54 ice time per game (down from 17:21 last season). Suter was good on a penalty kill that for most of the season, wasn’t, and was a solid defensive option that provided stability down the middle of the ice. Here’s another player, despite his smaller stature, doesn’t shy away from making his living in and around the net, which makes the 13 goals a little shorter than perhaps expected, although last season’s goal total is likely an anomaly after scoring 14, 14, 15 and 14 his first four seasons. Was I expecting 25? No, but closer to 20 was more of a realization and going from 46 to 29 points was a a bigger dip than I thought. I liked the player’s defensive habits; the Blues would like to see them moving forward into the final year of his contract. The offense, though, as Suter was at times used on the power play and given top six minutes, can use an uptick. My grade – C+ Dalibor Dvorsky – Like Snuggerud, first full season in the NHL can be a challenge, learning all the nuances of playing and living life in the NHL can have its ups and downs, and Dvorsky certainly had his share. He finished with 21 points (12 goals, nine assists) in 71 games while averaging 14:20 per game The Blues fluctuated Dvorsky’s ice time and responsibilities, giving him good ice time, then pulling him back throughout the season. It’s as if they were testing him to see how much he could handle and how much he couldn’t. The results were a bit mixed. There were certainly good stretches but also stretches where you would like to see more. He’s a shooter, and seeing 93 shots (1.31 per game) needed an uptick, and quite frankly, given a role behind Thomas down the middle, the production is OK for a first-year player. We’ll see if those numbers can get a boost moving forward. But at 5-on-5, you would have liked to see a little better than 14 points. He’s going to get a bigger chance to boost his value next season, and the 20-year-old that represented Slovakia at the Olympics is the player the Blues hope to see grow more. Dvorsky also learned the valuable lessons of winning face-offs against top-tiered guys in the NHL is a little more difficult than he expected (46 percent). I would call skating efficiency one of Dvorsky’s main areas of improvement. The shot mentality, one-timers from the right circle specifically, was one area I saw as something I think Dvorsky can build on, and I can’t really say he was really deficient in other areas. Again, for a first-year player, we’ll see what he can grow from this season and you can only hope for improvements moving forward, and there are a number of areas that will need to improve for this player to be a factor for the franchise. My grade – C Oskar Sundqvist – What I will start out saying about Sundqvist is he’s a tried and true Blue, loyal to the franchise from the moment he arrived in St. Louis in 2017. A warrior, a top-trusted player no matter who’s been the coach here, but we’re judging the 32-year-old’s season this year, and he played in just 52 games with 17 points (five goals, 12 assists) and was a minus-18. From an effort standpoint, much like Neighbours, that has never been in question with the 32-year-old Sundqvist, and I understand that fourth-line players are no the make-or-break guys if you’re looking to be difference makers from an offensive standpoint, but his offense has waned in each of his past three seasons since returning to the Blues as a free agent. The Blues just got little to no offense from their energy guys this season, and we’ll get into that with the others later. Sundqvist has never been fleet of foot when it comes to speed as a skater, but I think his healthy scratches in the second half of the season came as a result of when he was in the lineup, he would take the ill-timed minor penalty/penalties, and quite frankly, the Blues were looking at younger players that compensated for his ice time, which dipped to 12:58 per game, down from 13:12 a year ago. Sundqvist will be a UFA this summer, and the only way I see the Blues and his former teammate/GM-in-waiting Alex Steen offering a contract is one-year deals at the league minimum to be a depth forward with experience. I don’t know if Sundqvist at this point in his career would be willing to move somewhere else, with his wife being from St. Louis and a newborn daughter, but I just think his peak production when he was here as a Stanley Cup champion to be specific is beyond him, and it showed this season. If indeed this is it for him in St. Louis, Sundqvist will always go down in Blues lore for being a key cog on that fourth line as part of a championship team and will never be forgotten for it. My grade – D+ Jonatan Berggren – I have to admit, I didn’t know much about the player other than he played for the Detroit Red Wings [http://thn.com/detroit] when the Blues picked up the 25-year-old off waivers on Dec. 16. I quickly came to realize that when the puck is on his stick, there is a gift to Berggren’s game; he finished with 22 points (eight goals, 14 assists) in 51 games overall, including 16 points (six goals, 10 assists) in 36 games with St. Louis and a career-high 14:35 average time on ice, but those numbers could have been better had some of the precision plays he was able to make were put into the back of the net by various Blues teammates he was on a line with. He was an obvious project the Blues felt was worth looking at, and I think the Blues realize the player Berggren is and things he can improve upon moving forward. One of them is his play away from the puck, something I’ve spoken to him about when talking about his game. I think he’s someone that can be in the 15-20 goal range at his best, and I’d like to see his finishing be more on par the more he plays. I was one of the ones always curious when Berggren was healthy-scratched but understood that if he’s going to play for this coaching staff, he has to be more adept to the defensive side of things and be more hard-nosed on the puck. Offensively, I liked a lot of the things I saw and the potential that comes with it. I would have liked to see him more as a shooter, but that will come with more time and reps. And if he can get that 200-foot game down pat, I think he can be more of a regular in this lineup. Berggren is a RFA this summer. It’ll be interesting to see how the Blues handle his contract situation. Perhaps this is your prototypical bridge type of contract to prove himself if he can be here long-term or a flash in the pan. My grade – B- Alexey Toropchenko – Effort, speed, forechecking, physical. All traits you check the boxes for when you’re talking about Toropchenko, and the effort was always there, the speed rarely lacked, but I just felt the forechecking and physicality at times – not often – seemed off. And if you’re not creating momentum from the fourth line with that intensity and forechecking style, you better be providing it more on the scoresheet, and like Sundqvist, I needed more from guys like the 26-year-old who had just four goals and seven assists in 65 games this season, who also missed some time to injury. I remember when Toropchenko, whose ice time fell to 11:59 per game from 12:30 last season, scored 14 goals two years ago, and you’re thinking OK, this can be good to get near the mid-teens from a fourth-line winger, but in his last 145 regular season games: eight goals. There just has got to be more of it there, and he had good looks to either score or set up someone for a big fourth-line goal that just didn’t materialize. He’s a strong penalty killer, and three shorthanded points is good, but that means you only had three goals and five assists at even strength or 4-on-4 in 62 games. Toropchenko is a solid fourth-line winger; he isn’t going anywhere after signing a new two-year, $5 million extension last season. More money will mean more expectations. My grade – C- Nathan Walker – Same goes for the 32-year-old Walker as his fellow fourth liners: works hard, forechecks, but he hits everything in sight. He was seventh in the league in hits last season (3.8 per game) but played in 73 games. This season, Walker played in just 46 games; he was a healthy scratch often, and for me, this is a player that brings momentum, and like many of his fourth-line mates, it just didn’t feel like it was there often enough. Walker’s bite from a physicality standpoint was still there (3.89 hits per game) so he was still willing to throw the body around, but when your forecheck just doesn’t seem to be as effective as it has in the past, you have to find other ways to create momentum from that group, and with Walker having four goals and seven assists, you could have used some more tidy offense to create momentum. I think he’s a nice role player who can slot in when necessary, but I just didn’t think Walker – when in the lineup – had that bite like he had last year affecting hockey games, and when he affects hockey games, good things usually happen. He’s another player that signed a new two-year extension at $8.875 million AAV prior to the season so he’s not going anywhere. It’s kind of hard to explain in too much detail here, but bottom line is I just needed to see more from another fourth-liner here and didn’t feel it was there like it has been in the past. My grade – D+ Otto Stenberg – Super impressed. I really didn’t know what to expect from the first-round pick (No. 25) in the 2023 NHL Draft on his first call-up, but with the Blues floundering at the time when Stenberg made his debut Dec. 17 against the Jets, he made an immediate impact with his game smarts. It’s not often you can watch a kid play immediately and see how fundamentally sound he is, but Stenberg was not overwhelmed by the situation. He finished with 10 points (three goals, seven assists) in 32 games this season and left the Blues with a lasting impression. Jim Montgomery didn’t waste any time trusting Stenberg’s abilities as a penalty killer. Rarely did you see the 20-year-old out of position or lacking in using his stick to break up plays and or be in passing lanes. Offensively, was always in on the forecheck winning pucks back and getting to the net to try and score greasy goals. Understandably so, I think more of a scoring touch was there, but the first-year player deferred, which is also the norm, it seems, but if there was any deficiency, pull the trigger on that shot. The Blues already trust the player, and that bodes well for his NHL future. The benchmark was established early, and to Stenberg’s credit, instead of being overwhelmed, he was impressive in his first go-round. Look for him to be a mainstay with the Blues for a long time. My grade – A- Jack Finley – Another one of those that I didn’t necessarily see coming when the Blues claimed the son of former Blues defenseman Jeff Finley off waivers from the Tampa Bay Lightning [http://thn.com/tampabay] on Feb. 7. He instantly jumped in with the group on the fourth line to provide help at center and did an adequate job. He played an average of 11:00 per game and played in 22 games down the stretch, finishing the season between the Blues and Lightning with two goals, three assists in in 44 games, including two assists in St. Louis. He was a trusted and solid guy on the dot, winning 52.7 percent of his draws here after just 48.7 percent with the Lightning, and there were some games here that Finley was just exceptional there, and he was part of a solid, reliable group of penalty killers that were third in the league at 84.8 percent after the Olympic break. But this is sounding like a common there: no options at any kind of offense, which if you’re looking for balance, like the Blues were all season, they needed just something from these guys at the bottom. A big, strong player at 23 (6-foot-6, 227 pounds), like Toropchenko, should find himself around the net for a tip-in, deflection or something but in a sense, a new team and trying to find his way as well. But from that end of it, you just didn’t get any of it. So his season, albeit a short sample size here, balanced out. Finley will be under contract for the league minimum ($775,000) for the next two years, the Blues will keep working with him in the hopes that he can become the next version of Stanley Cup Sundqvist with more bite to his game. My grade – C+ Brayden Schenn – A good captain in his three seasons with the ‘C’ who always took accountability, whether it was from a team perspective or critiquing his own play. A stand-up person who rarely minced words. He was well-respected in the locker room by his peers, which is what you want, and someone the coaches trusted in that regard. That was never in doubt. But at 34, the production took a downward dip, and to an extent, that was expected, finishing with 28 points (12 goals, 16 assists) and a minus-23 in 61 games in his ninth season with the Blues, averaging 16:41 (down from 17:34 the previous season) with a career-high 54.2 percent efficiency in the face-off circle before being dealt at the trade deadline to the New York Islanders [http://thn.com/islanders]. But being real here, despite the longevity in his career, Schenn was still given a role in the top six this season and a power-play guy, and the numbers just didn’t back up the roles as well. But nevertheless, this was a guy that gave his heart and soul from the moment he arrived in 2017 and goes down as a fan favorite for being an important cog as a Stanley Cup winner. Effort and determination was never an issue; production was unfortunately. My grade – C Mathieu Joseph – Someone that always had a high motor on the ice that was relentless in his skating but it just never translated to offense. The 29-year-old played in 39 games for the Blues, his second season here, this year and had just two goals and nine assists while averaging 12:41 of ice time. Joseph was in and out of the lineup but could never stick on a consistent basis and considering he was making $3.3 million in actual salary ($2.95 million AAV), he had just six goals and 19 assists in 99 regular-season games with the Blues before they placed him on waivers, ultimately the two sides terminating his contract before signing with the Los Angeles Kings [http://thn.com/la]. If the Blues could have gotten anything close to the 11 goals, 24 assists Joseph put up in his final season with the Ottawa Senators in 2023-24, they would probably have been OK with that production, but it just never came anywhere close to it. Again, the motor was there, the effort was there, the execution wasn’t. My grade – D Nick Bjugstad – I’ll get this out of the way first: one of the nicest humans to deal with in a locker room. Always a smile, never a negative person. First time dealing with him on a regular basis and it was always pleasant. But when the Blues signed the 33-year-old veteran to a two-year, $3.5 million ($1.75 million AAV) contract prior to the season, it was with the hope to add depth to the bottom six. But Bjugstad played in just 35 games with the Blues before being traded to the New Jersey Devils [http://thn.com/newjersey] on Feb. 4 for a conditional fourth-round pick this year and forward Thomas Bordeleau. Bjugstad did provide depth down the middle but had just six goals and one assist and a minus-7, adding to the notion that the fourth line, which is where he played the majority of the time, didn’t add much offense to the balance of the lineup, and when the Blues were floundering in the standings, the 6-6, 210-pound forward was jettisoned off to help New Jersey in its playoff push. He averaged 11:38 of ice time and won 51.1 percent of his draws, which is not too shabby. But this is a guy that’s had some decent seasons of offensive production (22 goals and 45 points just two seasons ago in Arizona) and I think the Blues were hoping for a bit more out of it. If the team was more competitive, I don’t think he gets dealt when he did, but it was the chance to start looking at younger players for a team that – at the time – was going nowhere. My grade – D+ * Robby Fabbri, Jonathan Drouin, Hugh McGing, Matt Luff, Alexandre Texier and Aleksanteri Kaskimaki each gets an incomplete. DEFENSE Philip Broberg – If you thought the first season in St. Louis was good, it only got better this season, at least from a defensive perspective. The 24-year-old, who signed a six-year, $48 million extension ($8 million AAV) on Jan. 10, solidified himself as a top-pairing D-man this season by seeing his minutes increase from 20:30 per game last year to 23:21 this season; he started off playing alongside Colton Parayko and for all intents and purposes, helped nurture the play of rookie Logan Mailloux as his partner for a good part of the season. Broberg did finish with 34 points (six goals, 28 assists) in 81 games this season, a slight jump from the 29 points (21 assists) he had a season ago in 68 games, and for a player that likes to jump into the attack on the offensive side and was inserted in as a power-play quarterback in the latter portion of the season. Broberg was a plus-14 this season to go with his plus-21 last season, so at 5-on-5, when he was on the ice, there was little to no negative nights. His speed helped close down plays and ended rush attacks, his stick was exceptional and his recovery was really good on most nights. I thought there was more offense to his game, which would be my only negative – if you want to call it that – side to this season, but as he continues to mature and grow and get more responsibilities, those numbers should grow. I thought it was an excellent season that was justified by the addition to the Swedish Olympic team, which is no small feat to make that roster. My grade – A Cam Fowler – It was easy for Blues fans to be excited about Fowler after the way he burst onto the scene last year after his acquisition from the Anaheim Ducks [http://thn.com/anaheim] on Dec. 14, 2024. And getting a three-year, $18.3 million extension in the off-season was what the Blues were hoping for moving forward too. But the 34-year-old was what many of the Blues were early on, not good enough. He and Parayko just didn’t have that magic that they had last season to start, were separated and Fowler was playing with Mailloux for stretches on the third pairing and that didn’t see to work out well either, and his offense (four goals, 26 assists) in 82 games didn’t really start to pick up until the latter half of the season. His defensive play, like the team’s, also picked up in the latter stages of the season. He was a minus-11 on the season after being a plus-19 in 51 games with the Blues last season but that number would have been much worse this season had Fowler not finished a plus-12 from the Olympic break on and 12 of his 30 points (three goals, nine assists) also came in the final 25 games of the season. Fowler did show durability as the only player to play in all 82 games, the third time he’s done that in his career (2022-23 and 2011-12). But with three years kicking in on his contract next season, you just have to hope as a Blues fan that the first 57 games this past season isn’t the norm moving forward because we’ve all seen some of Fowler’s best here. But he is 34 and has played 1,124 games and it’s understandable to wonder if the downward turn has started. Defensemen can age well, and Fowler did show his durability this season. They’re going to need him after investing in him for another three years. But for this season, he rescued himself with a good finishing stretch. You just have to hope it continues. My grade – C Colton Parayko – It may have been one of the more challenging seasons for the career Blue who started in 2015-15 here. It started off, as mentioned above, with a tough start with he and Fowler, who ended last season as the top defensive pair on the team to an up-and-down defensive season to an ever-growing lack of offense, which may have been the biggest surprise after having a career-high 16 goals and 36 points in 64 games last season. Then came the rumored trade at the deadline to the Buffalo Sabres [http://thn.com/buffalo] when GM Doug Armstrong was purging veterans after the poor pre-Olympic results, only for Parayko – to his own right to do so – nix any potential deal because of his full no-trade clause. In 77 games this season, which included 22:12 average ice time, his goals fell to four and points were sliced in half to 18. But he also shined in the final 25 games after the Olympics, and he deserves a lot of credit for formulating a solid pair when the Blues brought Theo Lindstein (2023, first round, No. 29 overall) up from Springfield. Parayko didn’t put pucks on net nearly as often as last season (125 last season to 105 this season playing in 13 more games) and his shooting percentage showed it as well (3.8 percent) and his minus-6 season plus-minus was alleviated by a plus-9 finish post-Olympics and it was reflective how well he and Lindstein were as a pair. Parayko, 32, still has four years remaining on his contract, including the next two seasons with a full NTC. It’s obvious of his love for St. Louis and how much he wants to be here, and I’m not certain if the Blues would ask him to move again, but if he is still here, I believe there is still lots of good hockey left in him. It just can’t be what it was pre-Olympics. My grade – C Tyler Tucker – I sat back plenty after last season and wondered what were the reasons things went as well as they did for Tucker. And I really came to one conclusion: Ryan Suter. The veteran was a perfect partner for Tucker, and the two seemed to go hand-in-hand. Tucker had an OK start to the season, including a goal and three assists in the first nine games, but like many of them, his play fell off and took time to recover. The 26-year-old is a big kid at 6-1, 204, but I just didn’t think he used his physicality as often as he could this season. He got beat at the net front in 1-on-1 physical battles that resulted in goals and skaters took advantage of beating him around the edges getting to the net. He, too, was a product of finding the right fit in a partner, and he and Mailloux weren’t trusted too often after a tough start, but things got noticeably better when he was playing his off side with Fowler on the third pair. Tucker would play a career-high 69 games and had three goals and 14 assists and was a minus-4 in 14:22 average time on ice, which is right on par with his average of 14:09 for his young career. He had his moments of picking the right times to set the tone in games or get his team fired up with a fight or big hit. That really hasn’t been much of an issue, but the consistency of his game makes him a third-pairing D-man or seventh defenseman moving forward. He has a big clapper from the point, so there’s more scoring in his stick, and I thought there could be more goals from him this season; he matched last season’s output but needed 31 more games this season. Tucker took a number of ill-advised penalties this year, and with the PK playing as poorly as it did early in the season, it resulted in a number of opposing power-play markers. Tucker’s got one more year on his contract at $925,000 and still has plenty to prove for what could be a UFA summer in 2027. My grade – C- Logan Mailloux – If I’m wrong, point it out, but I can’t seem to recall a young defenseman since Chris Pronger’s arrival in the Brendan Shanahan trade that had such a microscope placed on him than this. When you get traded for the popular Zack Bolduc in a 1-for-1 trade with the Montreal Canadiens [http://thn.com/montreal] after Bolduc had 19 goals and 36 points in 72 games, his first full season in the NHL, your credentials better alleviate the loss. Well, it didn’t start that way, despite comparing apples to oranges, one being a forward and the other a defenseman. The 23-year-old Mailloux struggled mightily to begin the season, so much so that the Blues sent him to Springfield of the American Hockey League to help salvage a semblance of confidence. Jim Montgomery told us prior to the season Mailloux was ready. He was obviously not ready. Through the Olympic break, Mailloux played in 42 games and had a goal and two assists and was a minus-23. In 25 games after, things skyrocketed. Confidence, responsibilities, production. It all went hand in hand. The Blues put the righty-handed D-man with Broberg and had 10 points (four goals, six assists) averaging 21:34 ice time and was a plus-13, only behind Broberg’s plus-15 among D-men; he averaged just 14:30 prior to the break. The growth in one season was a big uptick, but there’s still plenty of learning curves and growing experiences with this player. It’s not going to happen with the snap of a finger, but this was a positive finish to what could have been a disastrous first season. I think the start and finish tilted the scale close enough to where it could be viewed as an average season. Close but not quite. My grade – C- Theo Lindstein – I loved the idea when the Blues brought him up. I thought it was a clever move and one of which what did the Blues have to lose at the time, recalling their first-round pick in 2023 (No. 29) on march 9 and throwing him right into the fire March 10. I honestly expected him to experience growing pains and an overwhelming environment because after all, it was the 21-year-old’s first dip into the NHL. I was super impressed. Not only did Lindstein blend right in, but Jim Montgomery threw him right into a top-four role with Parayko and he flourished. He looked calm, he was wasn’t overwhelmed at this level and adjusted well to the speed and size that he was facing. He took care of the puck well, played his position well and contributed in such positive ways. And Springfield coach Steve Ott, who said he could see Lindstein’s affect in the NHL “right away,” said that Lindstein has one thing a coach can’t teach. “His skating ability is superb. It’s high-end, it’s very elite. He adds that with great composure to his game.” Couldn’t have said it better because for the 17 games Lindstein played here and contributed two goals and two assists to go with a plus-6, the lefty displayed all those attributes. Yes, it’s a small sample size, but in no way shape or form did I see this kid come in here and play with the type of composure he displayed. As long as he remains guarded and grounded, I see a very bright NHL future. My grade – A+ Matthew Kessel – I really didn’t know what to make of Kessel this season. He played in just 29 games despite playing the entire season in the NHL. He played in 29 games last season, too. This season, he had two goals and an assist and was a plus-1 on the year. He seemed to make a decent pairing on the third D-pair with Tucker usually. There wasn’t anything really glaring when he did play. At times, his positioning could have used some work and he would get overaggressive on pinches leading to odd-man rushes, but for the most part, when Kessel played, the Blues won. They were 18-7-4 when he was in the lineup. Not bad. Could you use a little more scoring? Sure. Could they have used a little more physical play? Probably. But all in all, for averaging 12:32 a game on the third pairing, he didn’t hurt them. My grade – B Justin Faulk – Faulk’s season prior to being dealt to the Red Wings on NHL Trade Deadline day, like Brayden Schenn, was one filled with plenty of responsibilities playing with Broberg, Fowler and Tucker. He took a lot of flack from fans for late-game defensive breakdowns when Blues coaches trusted having him on the ice to help protect leads. Some of it was warranted, some of it not. But when you dissect the Blues’ defensemen and their offense, nobody provided more than Faulk. He was on a good pace all season and had 32 points (11 goals, 21 assists) in 61 games and was a minus-3 on the season before being traded. It’s why his stock was up and the Blues were able to get a good haul for him, and not to his fault just like Schenn, but with the way the season was going, it was inevitable that Faulk was likely to be traded away. I didn’t mind his game this season. He played an average of 22:30 per game, and that’s nothing unusual for how much he played on both sides of the special teams. Eleven of his points, including nine assists came on the power play, so for a unit that wasn’t doing well, he was at least producing results there. Unfortunately the PK was not good, and that is a reflection on everyone, including Faulk. He served his time in St. Louis well, but for a guy that was to many viewed as the one expected to replace Alex Pietrangelo, there were high expectations from the fanbase and it’s tough to live up to a two-time Stanley Cup champion. My grade – B * Justin Holl and Hunter Skinner each gets an incomplete grade. GOALIES Jordan Binnington – Honestly, watching Binnington a lot this season, it was hard not to feel bad for him. I just didn’t understand how the Blues could play so poorly defensively in front of him. The open slot areas, the odd-man rushes, the backdoor tap-ins, poor PK play. All rolled into one. It all added up to a 13-20-7 record with a 3.33 goals-against average and .873 save percentage. The wins were the fewest in any of his eight seasons and the goals-against and save percentage were all career-worst numbers. He played well, though, for Team Canada, at the Winter Olympics, but that’s of no surprise when a team plays structurally well in front of Binnington defensively, he seems to rise to that level. I’m cutting him some slack on the grade is I watched the games he played and although he was giving up a number of high-percentage looks, one night while watching a TNT national broadcast game – don’t ask, because I can’t remember which one it was – Tuukka Rask was on the panel and he was asked about the goaltending numbers, and the one thing he said that has always stuck out in my mind is that he said he never paid too much attention to GAA and save percentage, but goals saved above expected told the story of a great goaltending season. And I thought about it, and felt he was absolutely right. All good/great goalies find a way to bail out teammates’ mistakes and is that last line of defense. I can’t ignore the fact Binnington was, among all goalies to play in 41 or more games – which is what he played in this season – dead last at GSAE at -22.4. Compare that to Logan Thompson (29.3), Jeremy Swayman (28.8), Ilya Sorokin (25.3), Andrei Vasilevskiy (24.7) and Scott Wedgewood (23.1) as the top five, three of them are up for the Vezina Trophy this season. In other words, Binnington was making saves he was expected to make – and he even let in goals that he should have had – but wasn’t necessarily making those ones he wasn’t expected to make. Now, he finished the season 5-3-1 with a 2.55 GAA and .907 save percentage, and the team’s record reflected that of how much better the goaltending was, I can overlook poor numbers if your GSAE is at least respectable, but when you’re dead last, I can’t do it. He still remains one of the best, if not the best, puck movers among goalies, so that trait remains at a high level. Binnington has one year left on his contract, and with the way Joel Hofer performed and has seemingly supplanted him as the No. 1 goalie, does he seek a move elsewhere to try and revive his career or stay on and keep a strong 1-2 punch going? That’s something the 32-year-old and Blues management will have to discuss. I don’t doubt he still has good game left in him. It showed down the stretch, but if he’s to parlay another contract out of the one he currently has, a season like this can’t be in the cards. My grade – D Joel Hofer – It’s too bad Hofer had the kind of poor start (1-2-0 in four games with a 5.73 GAA and .793 save percentage) the Blues had because throw these numbers out the window and we may be talking about someone that with a full season of numbers like he finished with, could be in the conversation of a Vezina Trophy. He finished the season 24-13-5 with a 2.61 GAA and .910 save percentage and tied for 10th in goals saved above expected at 11.7. But from Nov. 1 to the end of the season, Hofer was 23-11-5 with a 2.38 GAA and .918 save percentage, including 12-2-2 record, 2.04 GAA and .933 save percentage post-Olympics and got the majority of the starts. It was almost as if the changing of the guard was happening based on Hofer’s play. But when you watched this 25-year-old as the season progressed, his confidence grew with each start. The command he had of his crease, his puck-moving ability (also up there with Binnington), challenging shooters, swallowing up rebounds, fundamentally sound positionally was all on display. If we can eliminate October, this grade would be higher. My grade – A- COACH/GM Jim Montgomery – All Montgomery could talk about, well most of it, was the team’s inability to start strong this season and lack of playing at a consistent level. It was his first full training camp last September and while it’s up to the players to perform, the coach and his staff have a great responsibility in having his team prepared to start the season off well. It didn’t happen, and it really cost the Blues a return chance at getting back into the playoffs. Goaltending wasn’t good to start the season, the defensive game wasn’t good, and special teams finished 26th on the power play and 25th on the penalty kill. Montgomery was quick to switch up the lineup and move people around, which I can tell you drives players crazy, and it’s something all coaches do. None of them have a ton of patience when things aren’t going well, and it just took this group once again too long to put together any kind of a winning streak. They never won more than four games in a row and did that three times, late in the season when everything was practically academic, and although the Blues finished strong this season (17-5-3) and made a strong push for the second wild card, trying to overcome passive odds for a second straight season is not the way to live, and quite frankly, unsustainable. Montgomery will get the chance to help pick his own assistants moving forward and he seems determined to have this team ready from the outset with a shortened preseason and 84-game regular-season moving forward. And the coach admitted that he also has to accept change for things to be better, and despite finishing 37-33-12, things need to be better. And missing out on the playoffs by four points, it's hard to overlook all the end-of-game lost points, the inability to be better in overtime/shootouts (4-12) and worst of all, two games losing in regulation after leading by four goals. Ouch. My grade – C- Doug Armstrong – Armstrong had to have visions of good things in his final season as GM before handing the keys to the role off to Alexander Steen on July 1. But in doing so, he banked on a large portion of last season’s roster to run things back again. And it backfired. He believed in the group to come back hungry and determined not to let what happened in Game 7 of the first round again, and maybe to his own fault, bought into the finishing stretch which allowed the Blues to get in as the second wild card. But as Armstrong said, that group won games that mattered most. This year’s team didn’t. He only made a couple upgrades to the roster after losing Ryan Suter and Radek Faksa (Dallas Stars) and that was signing Pius Suter and Bjugstad to free agent contracts. One panned out nicely, one didn’t. Shedding Joseph and Texier from the roster were contracts that were not needed in the first place. I do like that Armstrong was able to fetch a couple nice hauls for Schenn and Faulk, including a pair of first-round picks, that should set the organization up with some nice options should they choose to trade those picks and move up in the draft or use them as part of a greater apples for apples type of impact trade this off-season, or get some nice future assets at whoever they draft. Signing Broberg was good business, because by the end of that contract, an $8 million AAV should look good and he secured a key piece through his 20s. Whether he has Steen do it or Armstrong does it himself should cement his final days as GM when it comes to signing Holloway and move into his sole role of president of hockey operations, but I’m not going to judge Armstrong for believing in the players to be able to run something back that looked so strong at the end of last season. He believed it and it burned him, but the bottom line is the team didn’t had what is considered a very bland year, and it reflects on the one running the roster. My grade: C- Image [https://deweb-519a7.b-cdn.net/post-images/2a877fdf-167a-4608-a77c-460cbd89ed3d.jpeg] For action-packed issues, access to the entire magazine archive and a free issue, subscribe to The Hockey News at THN.com/free [https://thehockeynews.store/products/print-subscription]. Get the latest news and trending stories by subscribing to our newsletter here [http://eepurl.com/i7OC4I]. And share your thoughts by commenting below the article on THN.com or creating your own post in our community forum.
