St. Louis Blues - Preview

There have been a lot of strong teams in the Western Conference since the dawn of the salary-cap era, but no team in the West has won more regular season games over the past three seasons than St Louis. Only Boston and Pittsburgh have won more in the NHL. Last season the Blues were named favorites to land their first ever Stanley Cup with a month of the regular season remaining, and having been strong all season, the Blues decided to make themselves stronger by trading big for Buffalo goalie Ryan Miller. Then the playoffs started and for the second successive year they were eliminated by the reigning champions after taking a 2-0 series lead. Strangely, on both occasions the team that eliminated the Blues, would go on to lose to the eventual Stanley Cup champions at the Western Conference Final stage. During the post-season of those three years the Blues have been eliminated by the Kings twice and the Hawks once.

GM Doug Armstrong was busy trying to re-group his roster this summer, in the hope of closing the gap to the Hawks and Kings. Paul Stastny was the top center on the UFA market and Armstrong landed him to give an upgrade down the middle. Stastny arrives on a four year $28 million contract with the task of being the number one playmaking center. The chance to return to the place where he grew up was another factor to join a team that is a major cup contender.

Jori Lehtera who was actually drafted by the Blues back in 2008 has finally signed with the team giving them three quality players down the middle. Joakim Lindstrom and Peter Mueller also arrived to compliment the likes of David Backes, Patrik Berglund, Steve Ott and Maxim Lapierre. Sadly Vladimir Sobotka wont be a part of the team this year as he departed for the KHL, however the Blues have retained his NHL rights so hopefully in the not too distant future he could return. Jaden Schwartz and Vladimir Tarasenko could be rwuired for bigger roles this season. Both arrived during the first-round of the 2010 draft, and made their presence felt throughout last season, posting impressive points returns in their sophomore years. Schwartz hit 25 goals and 56 points in 81 games while Tarasenko scored 21 goals and 43 points in just 64 games.

The original plan was to play Stastny and Lehtera at center on the top two lines with Sobotka anchoring the third line, pushing the top twoc centers from last season (David Backes and Patrik Berglund) to the wing. Steve Ott was re-signed as soon as it was clear Sobotka wouldnt be returning, and so now the line-up has been altered. Schwartz and Tarasenko flanked Berglund successfully last season, but with Backes likely to go to the wing, one of Schwartz, Tarasenko, T.J. Oshie or Alexander Steen would end up on the third-line. While that is all possible, the most likely out-come is to keep the top four wings in place, with Backes staying down the middle. This would work well as he is strong on faceoffs, and having two younger players either side of him, will help cover for the lack of typical, No. 1 center-type playmaking in his game. There are a lot of options on the bottom six as well. Mueller and Lindstrom return to North America after playing in Europe, while top prospects Dmitrij Jaskin and Ty Rattie will be hoping to get a chance too.

The biggest trade involving St Louis was on the blue-line and saw physical defenseman Roman Polak head to Toronto for a more puck-moving player in Carl Gunnarsson. This move will also open up more ice-time for Ian Cole but the major reason was to move away from a physical back-line with a more conventional puck-moving style and in-turn be better transitionally. Chris Butler and Nate Prosser also arrived to add depth to a group that contains Alex Pietrangelo, Jay Boumeester and Kevin Shattenkirk. Throw in the more rugged Barret Jackman and Jordan Leopold and the Blues have a strong-mix of talent. Pietrangelo has been voted in the top-five for the Norris Trophy in each of the last two seasons, while Shattenkirk was regularly deployed in an offensive role, which lead to him leading the team in scoring during the playoffs. Along with Bouwmeester, the Blues have a top-three equally as good as Chicago and Los Angeles.

With most teams in the West loading up on talent, coach Ken Hitchcock feels the changes made were just in keeping pace with the other teams, who have more depth. 'Chicago got better, L.A.'s gotten better because they got those young guys that are going to get full-time service. Anaheim's better, Dallas is better, Nashville's better, Colorado's a top team. This is to keep pace.'

Assistant coaches Gary Agnew and Corey Hirsch have been replaced by former Carolina coach Kirk Muller and former Buffalo goalie coach Jim Corsi, who has 16 seasons worth of experience to call upon. But its in goal where most questions remain. The Blues allwoed Miller to leave as an UFA but kept Brian Elliott, who signed a new three-year, $7.5 million contract. Elliott has been great over the last three seasons posting a 55-24-7 record with a 1.86 GAA and .932 save percentage. Jake Allen spent last season with the Blues AHL-affiliate team the Chicago Wolves, but does have some experience of NHL action from the 2012-13 season, going 9-4-0 with a 2.46 GAA and .905 save percentage.

Steen – Stastny – Oshie

Schwartz – Backes – Tarasenko

Paajarvi – Lehtera – Berglund

Mueller – Ott – Lapierre

Lindstrom – Reaves

Pietrangelo – Bouwmeester

Jackman – Shattenkirk

Cole – Gunnarsson

Leopold