2023-2024 Blues Multi-Purpose Thread

[Celtic Note]

There's can only be one Minnesota, let's hope that we don't become the epidemy of mediocrity for the next decade+

I mean Nashville has sort of been there for a while too.

 

[Brockon]

I mean Nashville has sort of been there for a while too.

Nashville for all of the banner jokes at least had a SCF appearance in the last decade.

They've been pretty mediocre, but they got close to the promised land and they're not up to their neck in dead cap space, so they've got room to try and make changes.

 

[wiscrev]

How about, "pass to Kyrou, Oh, he can't keep it on his stick."
Or, "Kyrou in the slot! Oh, he threw a pass over to Ledy that was intercepted."
He might be out best scorer but he has no heart and hustle. He takes too many shifts off! I'll take Blue Collar work over that.

 

[Linkens Mastery]

How about, "pass to Kyrou, Oh, he can't keep it on his stick."
Or, "Kyrou in the slot! Oh, he threw a pass over to Ledy that was intercepted."
He might be out best scorer but he has no heart and hustle. He takes too many shifts off! I'll take Blue Collar work over that.

And last year we were mad because he was a puck hog.

 

[joe galiba]

Just good enough to not be bad. I hope that’s not going to be our motto for the next decade.

this has always been the Blues modus operandi, a couple of good seasons a decade and average for the rest of the time

 

[Thallis]

Just good enough to not be bad. I hope that’s not going to be our motto for the next decade.

It seems to be the path we're on and has been for the past 3 years already.

 

[Reality Czech]

I realize that here we encourage tanking to improve picks, etc. But I would think that the org would be pressing the goal of making the playoffs when only 4pts out of a playoff spot. Bannister has not had the team prepared to play these last few games. Replace "...to easy to play against" with "... not hungry to compete enough to make the playoffs."

I said at the beginning of the year, this team's success depends on how well Thomas and Kyrou transition from supporting players to team leaders. Your best players have to lead the way. Thomas, Parayko and Binner are probably the only veterans that I'd say have done their jobs consistently all season long. That's not enough.

However, despite all the pessimism we're not really that bad of a team. We're 6 points behind Vegas and 5 behind Tampa, two teams that obviously have much more talent than we do. There are about 6 elite teams, 6 horrible teams and everyone else is in the mushy middle. If we had like 6-8 more points is that the difference between fans being satisfied and being totally disappointed?

This team is performing right around where most realistic people predicted so not sure why people are acting like they expected any different. I'd just like to see the team show more heart and act like they care a bit more often.

 

[LGB]

However, despite all the pessimism we're not really that bad of a team. We're 6 points behind Vegas and 5 behind Tampa, two teams that obviously have much more talent than we do. There are about 6 elite teams, 6 horrible teams and everyone else is in the mushy middle. If we had like 6-8 more points is that the difference between fans being satisfied and being totally disappointed?

I think we are that bad. According to MoneyPuck our even strength xG% is right there with the Blackhawks and Sharks at the bottom of the league.

 

[bleedblue1223]

I think we are that bad. According to MoneyPuck our even strength xG% is right there with the Blackhawks and Sharks at the bottom of the league.

The bulk of the team is that bad, but guys like Thomas, Buchnevich, Kyrou, Parayko, Binnington, and Hofer are able to elevate us. Since we have players like that, we are much closer since we just need a better supporting cast. Easier to build a supporting cast than find the important pieces. The issue is that once Parayko goes down, we lose our defensive pillar.

 

[PocketNines]

Now that we are past the deadline, it is time for Doug Armstrong to be fired. Not because of a reaction to yesterday at all. I have been critical all along. But not calling for his firing.

Well now there isn't really GMing to do with this team. There's now nobody valuable to sell that takes special insight. It's better for the Blues to bring in a new GM, because then that person can sweep away some of the horrendous contracts Doug has handed out more easily than Doug himself, who still believes in the competitiveness of the player or whatever.

I'm saying the Blues are in a paint by numbers situation now. There's not much savvy to negotiate. "We gotta have Armstrong so he can handle so and so's contract?" Friend, you don't want this guy doubling down. There isn't anyone important like that about to need a major contract. We know what we have to draft. Defensive talent. Real talent. There's nothing special about this guy and he has no vision at all. Yesterday's press conference was excruciating. His vision was that because they beat Buffalo and Montreal after the break they were good, but then they started playing playoff teams and went 4-7-1 and his reaction? "Gee I was a little caught off guard that the bottom fell out."

This is a man who doesn't know what his team is, and doesn't have a vision. He is scrambling, he is desperate. His interests as of now over the next bit of time have more self preservation needs in them than the Blues team's rebuilding need. With that plus you need someone to come in and sweep out the trash which he can't do, as of Friday March 8, 2024 I think it is the correct time to fire this guy so the team can get going with the rebuild. It's a rebuild, and he doesn't even know it.

I should add I don't believe it will happen yet. But that is because the owner and fans trail reality a bit.

 

[Reality Czech]

I think we are that bad. According to MoneyPuck our even strength xG% is right there with the Blackhawks and Sharks at the bottom of the league.

Fair enough. I'm not one to be swayed that much by advanced stats, but my only point is that the difference between good and bad is smaller than many people make it seem. It is a shame that we wasted a hell of a season by our two goalies, though.

 

[stl76]

Everyone, from players to coaches, to GM, has an expiration date. Personally, I’m glad we have another couple years of Armstrong as GM. Even more glad that we seem to have intelligent/competent ownership. Looking at teams like Calgary or Vancouver, I am thankful that our owners seem smart enough to hire capable people and then not interfere.

Still too early to really speculate, but I do wonder if Steen would be interested/have enough time to be ready for such a role when Army hangs ‘em up.

 

[Majorityof1]

The bulk of the team is that bad, but guys like Thomas, Buchnevich, Kyrou, Parayko, Binnington, and Hofer are able to elevate us. Since we have players like that, we are much closer since we just need a better supporting cast. Easier to build a supporting cast than find the important pieces. The issue is that once Parayko goes down, we lose our defensive pillar.

I agree in part with this sentiment, but those players aren't ELITE. They are great players, maybe even lowercase elite with Thomas and Buch. But we aren't building around MacKinnon and Makar, or McDavid and Drai, etc. Even the Wild who we joke as perennial middling team have Kaprisov, Erickson Ek, Faber and Brodin. We either need ELITE talent or we need a lot of depth. We won in 2019 with the latter despite having ROR, Tarasenko, Pietrangelo, Parayko and Binnington.

 

[Spektre]

I’ve seen people here buy into the notion this is a retool on the fly vs a rebuild.



I fail to see with how the roster is constructed they can achieve any success in the next 2-3 years. I view the team overall in a similar position as the Pens. The biggest difference is the Blues have a better prospect pool.



The Blues have aging players with boat anchor contracts. Army can’t fire them all. The Blues prospects are good, but even their best prospects are most likely years away from truly impacting the team.



Binnington is easily the MVP of the Blues. If I’m hired tomorrow as the GM, I would try to trade both he and Buch in the offseason. I just don’t see a clear path forward without embracing the fact the Blues are many years from really being a good team.

 

[Mike Liut]

I’ve seen people here buy into the notion this is a retool on the fly vs a rebuild.



I fail to see with how the roster is constructed they can achieve any success in the next 2-3 years. I view the team overall in a similar position as the Pens. The biggest difference is the Blues have a better prospect pool.



The Blues have aging players with boat anchor contracts. Army can’t fire them all. The Blues prospects are good, but even their best prospects are most likely years away from truly impacting the team.



Binnington is easily the MVP of the Blues. If I’m hired tomorrow as the GM, I would try to trade both he and Buch in the offseason. I just don’t see a clear path forward without embracing the fact the Blues are many years from really being a good team.

I’m afraid Binny and Parayko will be past their primes when this team is ready to compete, and there’s no way in hell I’m extending Buch. We need those assets to keep building.

 

[Spektre]

Schenn has had streaks of games with 0 points:

3 games = 2 times
4 games = 2 times
12 games = 1 time
Current streak 8 games

64 total games, 42 games with 0 points.

He’s not a top 6 player.

 

[MissouriMook]

I’ve seen people here buy into the notion this is a retool on the fly vs a rebuild.



I fail to see with how the roster is constructed they can achieve any success in the next 2-3 years. I view the team overall in a similar position as the Pens. The biggest difference is the Blues have a better prospect pool.



The Blues have aging players with boat anchor contracts. Army can’t fire them all. The Blues prospects are good, but even their best prospects are most likely years away from truly impacting the team.



Binnington is easily the MVP of the Blues. If I’m hired tomorrow as the GM, I would try to trade both he and Buch in the offseason. I just don’t see a clear path forward without embracing the fact the Blues are many years from really being a good team.

If you want to see how this can be done, you don’t have to go back any further than June-July 2018. I’m not saying the next couple of years will be as successful in remaking the roster, but a couple of creative deals frees up a lot of cap space, and the cap is expected to go up $8-$9 million in the next two years. You can make an awful lot of changes with some cap space and getting one of our top 3 forward prospects to take the “Thomas path” to being a legitimate Top 6 forward.

 

[Ted Hoffman]

If you want to see how this can be done, you don’t have to go back any further than June-July 2018. I’m not saying the next couple of years will be as successful in remaking the roster, but a couple of creative deals frees up a lot of cap space, and the cap is expected to go up $8-$9 million in the next two years. You can make an awful lot of changes with some cap space and getting one of our top 3 forward prospects to take the “Thomas path” to being a legitimate Top 6 forward.

We had the ability to make those moves because DA was willing to deal out top picks and top prospects and didn't have his hands tied by players with NTCs. [Aided by the fact that Berglund's agent dragged his feet submitting the teams for Berglund's NTC.]

There's no evidence he's willing to touch high picks or high prospects and he's by and large tied up by NTCs or guys he's not trading because they're part of the future, outside of Buchnevich's 12-team (8-team next season) NTC or Binnington's 18-team NTC that starts July 1. What's left after that is moving Kyrou [who's paying him $10.9M next season, $10.5M the season after and taking $8.125M on the cap for reasonably above average offense, at best less than mediocre defense?] and that's a roster-shaking move that better result in a better roster quickly that shows up in the standings.

 

[Linkens Mastery]

Blues recall Kessel from Springfield | St. Louis Blues

St. Louis Blues President of Hockey Operations and General Manager Doug Armstrong announced today the team has recalled defenseman Matthew Kessel from its AHL affiliate, the Springfield Thunderbirds. Kessel, 23, has dressed in 34 games for the Thunderbirds this season, posting seven points (two...

www.nhl.com

 

[Xerloris]

We had the ability to make those moves because DA was willing to deal out top picks and top prospects and didn't have his hands tied by players with NTCs. [Aided by the fact that Berglund's agent dragged his feet submitting the teams for Berglund's NTC.]

There's no evidence he's willing to touch high picks or high prospects and he's by and large tied up by NTCs or guys he's not trading because they're part of the future, outside of Buchnevich's 12-team (8-team next season) NTC or Binnington's 18-team NTC that starts July 1. What's left after that is moving Kyrou [who's paying him $10.9M next season, $10.5M the season after and taking $8.125M on the cap for reasonably above average offense, at best less than mediocre defense?] and that's a roster-shaking move that better result in a better roster quickly that shows up in the standings.

The proof is that he's done it before many times. What are you even talking about there's no proof?

 

[scoob4093]

Blues recall Kessel from Springfield | St. Louis Blues

St. Louis Blues President of Hockey Operations and General Manager Doug Armstrong announced today the team has recalled defenseman Matthew Kessel from its AHL affiliate, the Springfield Thunderbirds. Kessel, 23, has dressed in 34 games for the Thunderbirds this season, posting seven points (two...

www.nhl.com

Anybody get hurt or is it just to add to the already overstuffed Enterprise Center PB ?

 

[Xerloris]

Anybody get hurt or is it just to add to the already overstuffed Enterprise Center PB ?

Hopefully it's to sit Faulk.

 

[bleedblue1223]

Anybody get hurt or is it just to add to the already overstuffed Enterprise Center PB ?

Was an inevitable move after the deadline. I imagine Scandella's time is done, but we'll see.

 

[ezcreepin]

It's gotta be one of Scandella or Faulk. Scandella because he isn't playing premium ice time and Faulk because with the way he's been playing, they might just sit him the rest of the year claiming an injury. I'm perfectly fine with it since Kessel seemed to stabilize the 2nd pair a bit more.

 

[oPlaiD]

I’ve seen people here buy into the notion this is a retool on the fly vs a rebuild.



I fail to see with how the roster is constructed they can achieve any success in the next 2-3 years. I view the team overall in a similar position as the Pens. The biggest difference is the Blues have a better prospect pool.



The Blues have aging players with boat anchor contracts. Army can’t fire them all. The Blues prospects are good, but even their best prospects are most likely years away from truly impacting the team.



Binnington is easily the MVP of the Blues. If I’m hired tomorrow as the GM, I would try to trade both he and Buch in the offseason. I just don’t see a clear path forward without embracing the fact the Blues are many years from really being a good team.

In a lot of ways I think we're not in that terrible of a position... if you work from the assumption that we're targeting 3 years from now as our competitive window. Most of our poor contracts fall off by that point and some of our current prospects will be providing cost-controlled production. Sure, we have to turn over the entire defense outside of Parayko, who at that time will probably be better suited in a Bouwmeester role over one of our top 2 defensemen, but it's doable.

I know people want players even better than Thomas and Kyrou, but I think this season they've shown they can make us a contender as our 1st line players. Sure they aren't as good as McDavid or MacKinnon but their cap hits aren't as high and will be locked in during their prime for multiple years when we in theory should have a chance to do something.

But yeah. There are a lot of indications Armstrong doesn't see things that way and doesn't want to plan with that window in mind, and that's how you end up with more veteran contracts clogging up the roster and taking up our cap space when the window might finally be opening.

I'm not sure I'd read as much into Armstrong's post-deadline comments as some of you are, but they definitely aren't making me more comfortable about our situation.