Line Combos: This years PowerPlay

[Bye Bye Blueston]

May be true in general, but Suter will need nights off to get the best out of him. I also would be surprised if they carry 8 after the season gets rolling and someone gets injured.

The 7th d can replace suter in those nights. And if someone is hurt can call up someone. It’s not like owe have 8 stud d. The bottom few guys aren’t all that, so if POJ can’t beat out the carcass of suter or the brittle midget, losing him on waivers isn’t much of a loss.

 

[DatDude44]

Opening night PP1: 1-3-1
Neighbours
Kyrou. Buchnevich. Thomas

Peru/Faulk

Would really like to see them emphasize more of a simplistic decision making process this year versus always looking for the perfect play. Foundationally Faulk and Kyrou being shooters especially 1-T threats whenever the puck is in Thomas’s hands. Buch work downhill for shot pass tips and Jakey simply getting the eyes…..then on rebounds/puck recoveries, look for the seams get them running around and rotating etc… but the foundation needs to be simpler than these past two years have been.


PP1 in April: know will NEVER happen….but just for s**TS and giggles:


Neighbours
Snuggerud. Buchnevich. Dvorsky


Thomas

Elite manipulative distributor at the top, two elite 1-T threats in both flanks, smart skilled bumper in Buch and gritty net front skill in neighbours.

Would love to test a unit like that in the future lol I feel like Thomas is smart enough to cover defensively on breakdowns etc…

 

[Reality Czech]

I would bet on this as well. Here's how I see it unfolding:

Offensive locks (11): Buchnevich, Faksa, Holloway, Joseph, Kyrou, Neighbours, Saad, Schenn, Texier, Thomas, Toropchenko.

Defensive locks (4): Broberg, Faulk, Leddy, Parayko

Goaltenders (2): Binnington, Hofer

That leaves six spots up for grabs to start the season. Barring something unforeseen, these will be the players that are realistically in competition for them.

Offense: Bolduc, Kapanen, Sundqvist, Walker

Defense: Joseph, Kessel, Perunovich, Suter, Tucker

I think it's likely to be Bolduc, Kapanen, Joseph, Kessel, Perunovich, and Suter to fill those 6 spots to start the season. This would leave us with 8 defensemen. We should be able to pass Walker through waivers. Tucker could pass through waivers but I wouldn't be surprised to see him claimed by a bottom feeder. Either way I don't see much of a future for him here. I may have missed an update but I don't believe Sunny is likely to be ready to go to start the season. If Sunny is ready to go, it complicates the decision a little bit. Obviously if there are any injuries it makes these decisions even easier.

I thought I read somewhere recently that Sunny is hoping to be ready by training camp and I see Korac wrote he has resumed skating.

I think Bolduc will need to play so well in camp that they have to keep him on the team, and I can surely see that happening. If he does, then maybe they move Suter for future considerations to a team that has an injury on their blueline in camp. I also don't know much about PO Joseph and how likely he would pass through waivers. The safest solution is to start Bolduc in Springfield until our first injury hits but guess we'll see what happens in camp first.

 

[Snubbed4Vezina]

I thought I read somewhere recently that Sunny is hoping to be ready by training camp and I see Korac wrote he has resumed skating.

I think Bolduc will need to play so well in camp that they have to keep him on the team, and I can surely see that happening. If he does, then maybe they move Suter for future considerations to a team that has an injury on their blueline in camp. I also don't know much about PO Joseph and how likely he would pass through waivers. The safest solution is to start Bolduc in Springfield until our first injury hits but guess we'll see what happens in camp first.

I'll believe it when I see it re: Sunny. The recovery from a torn ACL is 6-9 months with the earliest point of that timeline being October. Given that Sunny already wasn't fleet of foot and he missed significant time in an offseason training program, he's got a lot to prove before he's ready to return to the lineup.

This is purely a gut feeling but I think Bolduc performs at a level to make it impossible to send him down to Springfield.

 

[Eldon Reid]

I'll believe it when I see it re: Sunny. The recovery from a torn ACL is 6-9 months with the earliest point of that timeline being October. Given that Sunny already wasn't fleet of foot and he missed significant time in an offseason training program, he's got a lot to prove before he's ready to return to the lineup.

This is purely a gut feeling but I think Bolduc performs at a level to make it impossible to send him down to Springfield.

Yeah 6-9 months is about normal for ACL.

Personally the Blues have so much depth on the team at forward, I would 100% be in favor of getting Sunny few extra weeks to make sure it is ready. He should be ready to start, but ready to play vs ready to play in a game setting are 2 totally different things.

 

[BlueDream]

Yeah 6-9 months is about normal for ACL.

Personally the Blues have so much depth on the team at forward, I would 100% be in favor of getting Sunny few extra weeks to make sure it is ready. He should be ready to start, but ready to play vs ready to play in a game setting are 2 totally different things.

Plus it’s not like after those 6+ months he is back to being completely normal. His knee is going to be sore after games after an injury like that and he’s going to be nursing it throughout the season. Like yeah he can play, but there is literally zero point in having him suit up for 80 games.

If I’m the Blues I’m straight up telling him he’s taking the first month off while we get a look at some other guys. It’s for his own good.

 

[Reality Czech]

Plus it’s not like after those 6+ months he is back to being completely normal. His knee is going to be sore after games after an injury like that and he’s going to be nursing it throughout the season. Like yeah he can play, but there is literally zero point in having him suit up for 80 games.

If I’m the Blues I’m straight up telling him he’s taking the first month off while we get a look at some other guys. It’s for his own good.

You think this guy is gonna take no for an answer?

 

[TurgPavs]

May be true in general, but Suter will need nights off to get the best out of him. I also would be surprised if they carry 8 after the season gets rolling and someone gets injured.

Leddy, CP, and Suter are the only current Blues defensemen who played in all 82 regular season games last year. The next closest is Faulk who played in 60

 

[TurgPavs]

You may be right, but I don’t like the 8d idea. Having 2 d sitting nightly is suboptimal. Guys like sunny and walker are energy guys, so when they are in they bring something specific. I don’t see that advantage from extra extra d. If someone claims peru or POJ, so be it.

I agree with this statement.
Kessel essentially flew right by Peru on the Depth Chart last season, and IMO its just unreasonable to expect a 26 year old defensemen to develop into a top 6 defensemen.
Its crazy to think we are holding out hope that he shows something more then he has. Dude was originally in the 2016 Draft Class. 70+ defensemen have been drafted and played more games in the NHL since Peru was first draft eligible.....

I hope I am wrong and all of a sudden it clicks, I just cant see the guy ever being healthy enough or talented enough to pay 82 games.
His 2016 Draft profile says it all "Tiny" "project" etc. The 2018 Draft preview from TSN had Peru as a 3rd or 4th round pick. You know who was ranked higher nearly everywhere you looked.....Durzi, Bahl, Fehervary....all went after Perunovich and playing full time roles with their Teams now.

He reminds be of the Blues chasing the Red Wings and trying to find the next Nick Lidstrom so they went out and draft Backman.
It was pretty clear they thought Perunovich was going to be a smaller version of Cale Makar.
IMO it was a wasted 2nd round pick.


IMO the top 6 is going to be (RHD) CP, Faulk, Kessel, (LHD) Leddy, Broberg, Suter

7th defensemen is going to be one of POJ, Tucker, or Perunovich.
No issue with waiving the other 2.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

Leddy, CP, and Suter are the only current Blues defensemen who played in all 82 regular season games last year. The next closest is Faulk who played in 60

I think that's a pretty good contributor to why Suter wasn't effective in the post-season. We'll see his usage here, but I'll be surprised if it looks like that.

 

[TurgPavs]

I think that's a pretty good contributor to why Suter wasn't effective in the post-season. We'll see his usage here, but I'll be surprised if it looks like that.

Thats a valid point.
IMO Suter and Kessel are going to be a very good 3rd pairing.

Broberg/CP
Leddy/Faulk
Suter/Kessel

I think that is a pretty solid upgrade over last season.

 

[Reality Czech]

Thats a valid point.
IMO Suter and Kessel are going to be a very good 3rd pairing.

Broberg/CP
Leddy/Faulk
Suter/Kessel

I think that is a pretty solid upgrade over last season.

I think it will be Broberg Faulk to start but otherwise yeah.

Re: Perunovich, I doubt they expected him to be anything close to Makar but I don't blame them for taking a shot at a Hobey winner who showed a lot of offensive potential. If he wasn't so fragile he might well be a solid, albeit flawed full time NHLer, but teams can really only afford one undersized offense first guy on their roster. Personally I would have traded him a few years ago once we had Krug on the team.

 

[Brian39]

His 2016 Draft profile says it all "Tiny" "project" etc. The 2018 Draft preview from TSN had Peru as a 3rd or 4th round pick. You know who was ranked higher nearly everywhere you looked.....Durzi, Bahl, Fehervary....all went after Perunovich and playing full time roles with their Teams now.

He reminds be of the Blues chasing the Red Wings and trying to find the next Nick Lidstrom so they went out and draft Backman.
It was pretty clear they thought Perunovich was going to be a smaller version of Cale Makar.
IMO it was a wasted 2nd round pick.

Makar hadn't played an NHL game yet when we drafted Perunovich and Makar went back to the NCAA the season after we drafted Perunovich (Makar's D+2 season). He was a high level prospect, but I think it is pretty far from clear that we used a mid-2nd on a guy because we thought he'd be a smaller version of a guy who hadn't broken into the league yet.

Hindsight shows that there were better D available that we could/should have drafted, but the fact that we picked an offensively gifted small LHD over a similar RHD (Durzi/Addison) or shut down LHD (Bahl/Fehervary) doesn't tell me that it was because the organization was trying to project him as a new version of a non-actualized prospect or was copying other teams. I think it was a perfectly defensible boom/bust pick at the time and it turned out that Perunovich never developed the ability to protect himself and as a result lost any semblance of an NHL-caliber shot.

I do think it is worth noting that Durzi is on his 3rd NHL organization and that the Kings were so concerned about his defensive ability that they traded him for a 2nd round pick in 2023 after he had a 38 point season for them in the NHL. Bahl and Fehervary have carved out nice roles on their teams, but I'm not sure that either would have changed our organizational outcomes in the last few years nor would they move the needle much for our long term plans if we had drafted one of them instead of Perunovich.

I'm completely fine with Perunovich not making the starting 6 and I think he is a very big long shot to turn himself into a difference maker in this league. But I think it was a perfectly reasonable pick in the middle of the 2nd round. Tychonick was also ranked right around the guys you listed and he never made the NHL. Ginning was ranked ahead of those guys and has played 10 NHL games. All told, there are 9 guys drafted ahead of Perunovich who haven't played an NHL game yet. Perunovich was drafted 45th overall and currently sits at 44th in games played among his draft class. I think he would have been a waste as a 1st rounder and he certainly came with his fair share of risk. But I don't think that risk is unreasonable at pick #45. There is no such thing as a high degree of confidence with mid-2nd round picks and I firmly believe that he had the talent to justify his perceived upside.