2022-2023 Blues Multi-Purpose Thread

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Sadly I see the opposite. There’s too many unknowns for me to think the stars align.

I think the Blues are sellers at the deadline and that wouldn’t necessarily be the worst thing for the franchise.

Interesting, what unknowns are you concerned with?

I would understand concerns about the goaltending but literally everything else looks promising to me outside of wanting an upgrade on our 3rd defense pair.
 
That would be fun to see. I’d love to see the confusion from the predictors who are forecasting the Blues; demise.

But I think these statements are really guesses about how injuries play out. I don’t bother trying to predict that. Losing Binnington for an extended time would orobably be disastrous, for example. I’m very curious how the defense will perform if healthy.

The part about this season I'm most excited about is that we now have two pairings that can reliably execute zone exits. Adding Leddy was HUGE, that will help both offensively and defensively while having a net positive effect for our goalies as well imo.
 
Tyler Pitlick we hardly knew ye. I guess Leivo stole his spot on the team, and Kostin has shown them enough to deserve a roster spot to start the year. Not a huge surprise I guess, but seems like a lot of people here expected him to make the team.

 
Tyler Pitlick we hardly knew ye. I guess Leivo stole his spot on the team, and Kostin has shown them enough to deserve a roster spot to start the year. Not a huge surprise I guess, but seems like a lot of people here expected him to make the team.


Well he would have made it if he didn't get injured. Staying healthy is an important trait.
 
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I'd assume Alexandrov has a real shot at making the team. Still some tight battles for the final spots. Could see it going in a few different directions.

 
I'd assume Alexandrov has a real shot at making the team. Still some tight battles for the final spots. Could see it going in a few different directions.


In my unprofessional opinion Alexandrov wasn't impressive at all. Just looks like a random guy out there.

But I don't think he will actually be on the team. Toropchenko and Brown just aren't fully healthy, so Alexandrov is the placeholder while we wait for the other guys to clear waivers.
 
In my unprofessional opinion Alexandrov wasn't impressive at all. Just looks like a random guy out there.

But I don't think he will actually be on the team. Toropchenko and Brown just aren't fully healthy, so Alexandrov is the placeholder while we wait for the other guys to clear waivers.
I suppose if all the extras and not skating guys aren't healthy enough, then that explanation makes sense and Alexandrov is the closest of the guys in the minors to make it.
 
I suppose if all the extras and not skating guys aren't healthy enough, then that explanation makes sense and Alexandrov is the closest of the guys in the minors to make it.
Well maybe I am wrong. Maybe I need to pay more attention to him but idk, in the preseason games I watched I really didn't notice him:



I'd still expect our healthy lineup to look like this though:

Saad-ROR-Kyrou
Buch-Thomas-Tarasenko
Barbashev-Schenn-Neighbours
Walker-Acciari-Toro
Brown/Leivo
 
Alexandrov is our in-house replacement for Barbashev when Barby walks next year. However, he'd be replacing 30-point Barby, not 60-point Barby.
 
Alexandrov is our in-house replacement for Barbashev when Barby walks next year. However, he'd be replacing 30-point Barby, not 60-point Barby.
he's got six years ramp up to that, barby only did 60 once and missed the 30 pt mark the other 5 years
 
I wouldn't be surprised if Alexandrov makes the opening night roster, but I'll be surprised if he holds that spot for very long. He's waivers exempt and just turned 22. If/when the team gets healthy, it would be very hard to justify keeping him as a 13th or 14th forward when that means putting another guy on waivers (every player he is competing with for ice time would require waivers).

Injuries have created an opportunity. If those injuries are serious enough that they stretch into the regular season, then it will be easy to reward his great camp with a spot on the roster. Get the kid an NHL paycheck or two, maybe let him make his NHL debut, and then get him back to the AHL to play a larger role when the cheap vets are ready. Let him know that he made a great impression and that he needs to be ready to come up and play his role when injuries strike again.
 
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I wouldn't be surprised if Alexandrov makes the opening night roster, but I'll be surprised if he holds that spot for very long. He's waivers exempt and just turned 22. If/when the team gets healthy, it would be very hard to justify keeping him as a 13th or 14th forward when that means putting another guy on waivers (every player he is competing with for ice time would require waivers).

Injuries have created an opportunity. If those injuries are serious enough that they stretch into the regular season, then it will be easy to reward his great camp with a spot on the roster. Get the kid an NHL paycheck or two, maybe let him make his NHL debut, and then get him back to the AHL to play a larger role when the cheap vets are ready. Let him know that he made a great impression and that he needs to be ready to come up and play his role when injuries strike again.
I think one big thing for him is his versatility. He can play center and wing, he can PK, and he probably has some amount of skill to go along with it.
 
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The eight 20-goal scorers, Toropchenko (so close to ready), Brown, Acciari, Walker seem like 12 locks.

Leivo and Kostin are the other two I think will ultimately make it. But Kostin is on very thin ice. He has to stay consistent. It's just managing assets to keep him rather than risk him to waivers. (UPDATE: GREAT PREDICTION LOL)

For reasons already widely discussed, Neighbors in the AHL to start but probably gets 35+ games. First callup when one of the top 9 get hurt. Go get a lot of minutes for a few weeks and we'll probably see you soon.

Alexandrov is someone who'll get a call up and get a chance to do something with it a bit like Toropchenko last year, but I'll be surprised if he makes the opening night roster. Injuries are a part of life in the NHL and unless the Blues stay unusually healthy I'd expect Alexandrov to get a dozen games or maybe more this year. I've even lowkey thought of him as a potential part of a Chychrun deal because you have to believe Berube is excited about the attributes that got Bill Armstrong excited to draft him.
 
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Highmore and Frk were also put on waivers. Frk is one of those big time minor league scorers because of his shot, but doesn't have enough for the pros, similar to Pulkkinen. Highmore is probably some that could come up and play 4th line duty when injuries hit.
 
Brown is still banged up, so we don't know exactly where he'd slot with a healthy lineup, but I'm really liking this group. Brown is someone I was down on, but looks like he came to play, and hopefully it carries over to the regular season, I'll be cautiously optimistic on him. Alexandrov looks like the young player surprise, so even if he doesn't make the team or make it full-time, it's nice to know that he looks like safe bet to be a contributing 4th liner soon. Neighbours performing to the expectations he had is always good. And a vet like Leivo making a decision tough for Berube.
 
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Not surprising considering his game last night and how many others have passed him up

Was he particularly bad in the game last night? I only watched the last period and only halfheartedly given the score. He didn't stand out as being worse than anyone else. We were just outmatched with our extras vs their starters. Everyone was awful but his box score was better than most, leading the team with the least low +/-, leading in shots on goal, having a takeaway and a block.
 
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Brown is still banged up, so we don't know exactly where he'd slot with a healthy lineup, but I'm really liking this group. Brown is someone I was down on, but looks like he came to play, and hopefully it carries over to the regular season, I'll be cautiously optimistic on him. Alexandrov looks like the young player surprise, so even if he doesn't make the team or make it full-time, it's nice to know that he looks like safe bet to be a contributing 4th liner soon. Neighbours performing to the expectations he had is always good. And a vet like Leivo making a decision tough for Berube.
The offense is solid and I feel better about the 10-14 guys this year than last.

Team save percentage is a major KPI for how this team will fare.
 
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The offense is solid and I feel better about the 10-14 guys this year than last.

Team save percentage is a major KPI for how this team will fare.
Yeah, that's really what's going to drive our ability to outperform any critics. Skeptics likely aren't sold on Leddy and Binnington. How they perform will determine if we are up near Colorado in the division or just competing for a playoff spot.

I think it's much more likely that Leddy performs like he did down the stretch for us and is a big boost to Parayko, and then we'll see on Binnington. I expecting Binnington to be better than his poor stretches, and very curious if he's able to continue his play from the playoffs.
 
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