training camp 2023

[Hrkac Circus]

I’m not ready to throw in the towel yet. If we’re 30 games in and going nowhere though….

 

[Hinterland]

André Heim schnuppert NHL-Luft: «Ich bin keiner, der rasch aufgibt»

Nach zwei erfolgreichen Jahren bei Ambri will André Heim den nächsten Schritt machen. Die St. Louis Blues geben ihm die Chance, in der NHL Fuss zu fassen.

www.watson.ch

Heim says the Blues offer took him by surprise as he didn't think about the NHL at all but unlike most of his countrymen he seems to be willing to stick around in the AHL at least for now should he not make the NHL team. He accepted the offer because "the Blues were honest" to him. Apparently they told him that they're rebuilding/retooling and therefore it might be possible for him to earn a spot as a bottom six Center. Says he probably wouldn't have accepted an offer from Colorado.

Personally I'm not sure what the Blues saw in him but it seems like they were looking for Center depth and Heim is definitely a late bloomer so you never know. Also seems like a hard working and likeable dude from what I can tell.

 

[EbonyRaptor]

I didn't see a GDT for the game against the Hawks 9/28. Assuming many Blues starters will not play since this is a road game for them. Does anyone know the lineup?

Conversely since it a home game and the first preseason game for them - it has many of the players who are most likely to be in the starting lineup.

Hall-Bedard-Donato
Kurashev-Reichel-Athanasiou
Foligno-Misiak-Perry
Lardis-Marcel-RJohnson

Kaiser-Jones
Korchinski-Murphy
Vlasic-Allan

 

[kimzey59]

Yes. We have our 1st, two 2nds (Toronto), and two 3rd rounders (Rangers)…plus our 4th, 5th, and 7th rounders.

I am very rarely in favor of trying to trade up for an extra 1st round pick(it typically costs too much to really be worth it); but this is one year I would very strongly consider it. Especially if we aren't looking like a PO team.

If we could somehow snag 2 D men in next years 1st round(hypothetically say Dickinson and Lavoie), to go along with the forward depth we're starting to accumulate, we could really abbreviate this rebuild.

 

[Ranksu]

Any gdt's for preseason games?

 

[jura]

use this topik

September 27, 2023

ST. LOUIS – St. Louis Blues President of Hockey Operations and General Manager Doug Armstrong announced today the team has assigned defensemen Michael Buchinger (Guelph), Quinton Burns (Kingston) and Matt Mayich (Ottawa) to their junior teams.
The training camp roster is now at 57 players.

 

[Bye Bye Blueston]

use this topik

September 27, 2023

ST. LOUIS – St. Louis Blues President of Hockey Operations and General Manager Doug Armstrong announced today the team has assigned defensemen Michael Buchinger (Guelph), Quinton Burns (Kingston) and Matt Mayich (Ottawa) to their junior teams.
The training camp roster is now at 57 players.

I believe that they were only junior guys in camp.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

Most years, there is some drama about who earns the last couple roster spots, and watching cuts in camp is interesting. This year I have no special interest. Am I missing a developing situation that bears watching?

 

[Thallis]

Most years, there is some drama about who earns the last couple roster spots, and watching cuts in camp is interesting. This year I have no special interest. Am I missing a developing situation that bears watching?

I haven't really heard anything about camp this year but I was trying to pay attention to Bolduc to see/hear how he looks and I've gotten radio silence on that front.

 

[kimzey59]

Could be a rough night.

 

[tfriede2]

Most years, there is some drama about who earns the last couple roster spots, and watching cuts in camp is interesting. This year I have no special interest. Am I missing a developing situation that bears watching?

Ritchie vs Ratcliffe. However, the Blues are at 48/50 for contracts - will they attempt to sign both to league minimum 1 year deals?

 

[kimzey59]

Most years, there is some drama about who earns the last couple roster spots, and watching cuts in camp is interesting. This year I have no special interest. Am I missing a developing situation that bears watching?

Biggest thing is Ritchie pushing for a spot.
He's substantially outplayed the rest of the field for one of our final roster spots.
Puts Neighbours, Alexandrov and anyone else on the bubble on notice.

 

[Brian39]

Most years, there is some drama about who earns the last couple roster spots, and watching cuts in camp is interesting. This year I have no special interest. Am I missing a developing situation that bears watching?

I think the most interesting question is centered around the composition of the D group. The top of our LHD depth chart is poor, but I can't recall the last time we had so many LHD legitimately fighting for an NHL roster spot. We have 6 LHD who can all make an argument for some NHL minutes. Tucker and Rosen both require waivers. Perunovich is waivers-exempt, but also has an argument for deserving an NHL look.

There is no way we are going to carry 9 D men, so there is going to be an odd man out. And if we carry 8 D to ensure it is only 1 odd man out from the D group, that means another bottom-of-the-lineup forward has to get sent down.

At the end of the day, I will be surprised if Krug and Scandella are both on the roster for the last game of the regular season. We obviously already tried to move Krug and Scandella obviously isn't in the long-term plans (he turns 34 this year and is a pending UFA). I think the bottom of the D group is an interesting watch right now. We have multiple guys fighting for a small amount of NHL ice time in the short term. And it is very obvious that the winner of that battle will be the frontrunner to earn an increase in ice time in the future.

There is a 1st round LHD in the prospect pool behind these guys and the organization tipped their hand that they are interested in bringing in a veteran LHD to upgrade the position. These guys have a limited window to show that they deserve full-time NHL jobs and the weird log-jam in front of them means that the loser(s) from camp might have to wait months before getting another look.

 

[Linkens Mastery]

Could be a rough night.

Woo, Kyrou is benched!

 

[Brian39]

Could be a rough night.

I expect to lose to a Hawks team that will likely be dressing a near-NHL lineup around Bedard for the home crowd.

However, I'm looking forward to watching some trial-by-fire.

I'm ready to watch how Hofer looks facing a ton of rubber.

I assume that we'll be matching that Buch-Thomas-Neighbours line against Bedard as much as possible and I'm curious to see how Neighbours looks in that role. I don't expect that trip to get tons of time together this season, but I could see this being our top line down the road. And frankly, this line strikes me as Berube looking to give a big boy welcome to the NHL for Bedard.

I like seeing all 3 of the LHD fighting for the very limited NHL minutes in the lineup at the same time.

I like seeing Alexandrov between a couple guys who are clearly jockeying for 4th line minutes. They will get more minutes than a 4th line gets in the regular season, but I assume the expectation is for them to play a 4th line style tonight.

I like seeing a 2nd line composed entirely of guys with a very small chance of being in the opening night lineup.

I don't expect much of this stuff to be effective in winning tonight's game, but the Blues are clearly using tonight as an opportunity for about a half dozen fringe guys to make a statement. This lineup screams that the coaching staff is begging a couple of these guys to show that they belong in the NHL. That gets me way more excited for a preseason game than watching the vets shake the rust off.

 

[kimzey59]

I expect to lose to a Hawks team that will likely be dressing a near-NHL lineup around Bedard for the home crowd.

However, I'm looking forward to watching some trial-by-fire.

I'm ready to watch how Hofer looks facing a ton of rubber.

I assume that we'll be matching that Buch-Thomas-Neighbours line against Bedard as much as possible and I'm curious to see how Neighbours looks in that role. I don't expect that trip to get tons of time together this season, but I could see this being our top line down the road. And frankly, this line strikes me as Berube looking to give a big boy welcome to the NHL for Bedard.

I like seeing all 3 of the LHD fighting for the very limited NHL minutes in the lineup at the same time.

I like seeing Alexandrov between a couple guys who are clearly jockeying for 4th line minutes. They will get more minutes than a 4th line gets in the regular season, but I assume the expectation is for them to play a 4th line style tonight.

I like seeing a 2nd line composed entirely of guys with a very small chance of being in the opening night lineup.

I don't expect much of this stuff to be effective in winning tonight's game, but the Blues are clearly using tonight as an opportunity for about a half dozen fringe guys to make a statement. This lineup screams that the coaching staff is begging a couple of these guys to show that they belong in the NHL. That gets me way more excited for a preseason game than watching the vets shake the rust off.

I agree that watching the prospects is generally the more interesting part of preseason.
Conversely, I strongly dislike watching prospects get man-handled by the likes of Foligno and Perry. I know we have Ritchie and MacMac in the lineup; but that isn't going to stop those two from running a few guys. It's what they do. I'm not saying they're dirty, but they've stayed in the League this long because they play a rough game; the kids may not be ready for that.

I really don't care if we win the game tonight; I just want us to come out of it with no injuries.

 

[Majorityof1]

I expect to lose to a Hawks team that will likely be dressing a near-NHL lineup around Bedard for the home crowd.

It's even more telling how much they want to stack Bedards first game since there opening night roster for the regular season will barely be near-NHL ready.

In all seriousness, I'm looking forward to watching the 2nd line, Akexandrov and Hofer. Outside thise kids, he top line and Parayko, nobody else we are dressing will impact this team much long term.

 

[Evgeny Oliker]

How is Toropchenko looking? What’s his upside? Ok 3rd liner?

 

[542365]

How is Toropchenko looking? What’s his upside? Ok 3rd liner?

He’s pretty much just a depth/4th line/PKer. He’s never really been much of a productive offensive player at any point in his career so I don’t expect that to happen now. Fine 4th liner though. Big body who can move pretty well.

 

[Mike Liut]

How is Toropchenko looking? What’s his upside? Ok 3rd liner?

4th line wrecking ball. Berube’s favorite player.

 

[finnishflash13]

4th line wrecking ball. Berube’s favorite player.

he also has shown the ability to call other players out for their lack of effort.
he's a fine depth/4th liner who is accountable and can also surprise with a few goals.

 

[Majorityof1]

he also has shown the ability to call other players out for their lack of effort.

That is not a good thing. He definitely got a talking to about that. Scrub 4th liners with crap numbers shouldn't be calling the team out to the media. Army and Berube made excuses for him after, but I didn't get the impression they were happy with it

 

[BlueDream]

Any gdt's for preseason games?

We’re just using this thread for all of them.

Ritchie vs Ratcliffe. However, the Blues are at 48/50 for contracts - will they attempt to sign both to league minimum 1 year deals?

Per Korac on Twitter, Ratcliffe sustained an upper body injury in the previous game and will “miss some time.” So that may spell the end of his chances.

 

[Xerloris]

That is not a good thing. He definitely got a talking to about that. Scrub 4th liners with crap numbers shouldn't be calling the team out to the media. Army and Berube made excuses for him after, but I didn't get the impression they were happy with it

I dunno man, he was working harder than most players last year and that gives him the right to call out others for lack of effort.

 

[Majorityof1]

Panger's back. Espn+ stream has the blackhawks broadcast,s so I got Panger again.