Trending Up? Trending Down?

[Ranksu]

Heavy step back. Key player for powerplay is out, we set franchise best powerplay last season. Husso out, he carried us some games at regular season. Coach staff out it will has affect on us.

We could see downfall next season. Zero trust on we go deep run for coming season.

Playoff team yes, but pass second round isnt realistic.

 

[Ranksu]

 

[BlueMed]

Not gonna take a guy seriously when he places Edmonton and Toronto in the contender category and St. Louis in the playoff category. He seriously doesn't know what he is talking about.

 

[ChicagoBlues]

Not gonna take a guy seriously when he places Edmonton and Toronto in the contender category and St. Louis in the playoff category. He seriously doesn't know what he is talking about.

He’s just a YouTuber making money with a hobby. Good for him, but I ain’t clickin’ on it.

 

[Stealth JD]

Net neutral.

I think we can replace Perron's production by elevating the youth...but the 9th forward needs to be able to do what Saad did last year, and that's a YUGE ask of Neighbors/Kostin/whoever. I'd rather put Walker in the top-9 than on the 4th line; and our fourth line could use a guy like Steen, Sunny or Bozak. Toropchenko is fun to watch skate and hit...but he's an offensive black-hole, and I don't see Acciari scoring more than 8-10 goals if he's consistently flanked with non-skilled players. If Brown could mold his game after Toropchenko's, he'd be a beast on the 4th - actually capable of producing points.

The defense should be better (for the whole year), and goaltending i'd expect to be consistent/stable. I don't think we're any worse outside of maybe the power-play. Perron was a weapon for sure...but we should have plenty of talented options to keep the PP top-5 league-wide.

 

[CaliforniaBlues310]

I think people are overreacting, and not thinking about the fact that everyone else in the Central outside of Nashville got worse. Even with McDonagh, and the losses we had, they still haven’t pushed past us talent wise. We likely finish second behind Colorado.

 

[Ranksu]

 

[BlueDream]

I like THG. Seems like he may have forgotten we brought Leddy back, but mistakes happen when you cover all 32 teams. He overall is pretty informed of things.

 

[shpongle falls]

Ya I love me some Hockey Guy and watch his channel a lot. He’s apparently a Canucks fan so I’d love to see them go on a deep playoff run someday just to see his reaction lol.

 

[CaliforniaBlues310]

Ya I love me some Hockey Guy and watch his channel a lot. He’s apparently a Canucks fan so I’d love to see them go on a deep playoff run someday just to see his reaction lol.

Same. I’ve followed his channel for several years now. He seems like a really good dude, and he’s very knowledgeable about all 32 teams, which is pretty damn difficult to do.

 

[Xerloris]

Ya I love me some Hockey Guy and watch his channel a lot. He’s apparently a Canucks fan so I’d love to see them go on a deep playoff run someday just to see his reaction lol.

He's an even bigger Boston fan.

 

[BlueOil]

Ya I love me some Hockey Guy and watch his channel a lot. He’s apparently a Canucks fan so I’d love to see them go on a deep playoff run someday just to see his reaction lol.

he's a canucks / bruins / stars fan according to his videos. 2019 was tough for him when the blues won by beating both of his teams. good fan and summary channel, not much insight and a general team bias for his favorites

 

[Brockon]

Back after a year long hiatus...

I think we're poised for some minor regression in points this season, but still in good shape for 2/3 in division, finishing no lower than 5th in the west. Thus, needle is stuck is my answer.

I see the top 5 in the west shaking out as follows in order:
COL
EDM
CGY
STL
MIN/NSH

Our goaltending got worse. Binnington is coming back from injury and we've got a 1B coming into a new system after losing a guy who was gunning hard for the 1A role for a pick.

Defensewise, I like retaining Leddy to shore up the LD until we can find a better solution or someone seizes more ice time. I'm not enamoured with the left side, but it will get us into the dance come spring.

Forwards... Losing Perron hurts, because seeing a fan favorite go always sucks. Our scoring depth takes a hit, because we no longer have a top 6 calibre winger on our 3rd line - we have some quality bottom 6 players coming in to replace those leaving - our offense takes a step back.

As many have said before me, the top of the conference as a whole has taken hits due to cap crunches - with perhaps the exception of CGY. I really like what Treliving did after what should have been an utter disaster of a summer with his 2 top producing forwards leaving/demanding out.

I expect we'll be finishing in the 100-105 pt range and the points we lose will go to narrow the gap between the basement in the Pacific and the playoff line.

 

[Brockon]

Not gonna take a guy seriously when he places Edmonton and Toronto in the contender category and St. Louis in the playoff category. He seriously doesn't know what he is talking about.

I think there's some optimism for Canadian teams in his content for sure.

You clearly didn't read the title, let alone watch the video intro - this clip you're referring to is about the expectations of the public regarding teams and what their seasons should look like, it's not a ranking based on his opinions.

I trust someone who watches a large portion of the televised games, and makes his livelihood off following hockey related news to characterize teams better than a staunch one team fan.

TOR pushed Tampa to a game 7 OT - Toronto got worse in net, but much like Colorado has explosive forwards and a great transition game. They're going to finish with 110+ pts this season, are poised to be media darlings - how else do you characterize that team? Truth be told, they're the pre-2018 Capitals, all the talent with no success where it matters. I don't see Murray as an upgrade on Campbell in net and believe WSH jettisoned Samsonov for a reason - TOR is going to take a step back this year, solely based on the goaltending.

EDM dazzles with the face of the league and a flashy offence. With reliable goaltending, they're going to finish with 105+ pts this season, a pair of 110+ pt forwards and a top 10 GF ranking with innumerable highlight reel plays. Again, the public perception is they'll outscore their flaws in the playoffs - they're capable of challenging anyone etc etc...

Of course, I hate hearing all about it on Canadian sports coverage - but it's exactly the opinion of the general public, especially north of the 49th parallel. The Leafs COULD go on a run. The Oilers WILL go on a run.

This ignores that champions shut down the opposition in the playoffs, they don't outscore them playing run and gun to hoist the cup. I don't expect to see Edmonton or Toronto make a trip to the finals anytime soon, but I do think that we'll see one or both of them in the 2nd round come spring. Depending on the matchup, I can see Edmonton making another conference final - because that Pacific bracket is soft in comparison to the Central and Metro ones.

 

[STL fan in MN]

I went with “needle is stuck” but I could see it going either way.

To me, it depends upon perspective. Are we comparing the current team to the one that finished the playoffs a few months ago or the one that started last season? Because I’d say the Blues took a step back compared to the playoff team but they’re slightly better than the team that entered training camp a year ago.

The difference, like most teams, are the trade deadline additions. Teams bank cap space to effectively allow themselves to have a roster post-trade deadline that would be over the salary cap if that same roster was constructed in October. So then teams oftentimes have to downgrade a bit over the summer to get back under the Cap.

Compared to the playoff team, it’s a clear downgrade on paper. But compared to a year ago, the reason why I think it’s better is because it was blatantly obvious that the Blues D was quite bad last season. Leddy helped with that post-deadline and into the playoffs so him being in the top-4 instead of one of Scandella/Mikkola/Perunovich likely helps the team more than the loss of Perron hurts it.

If Perron was traded straight up for Leddy, I think most would say the team acquiring Perron won the trade but from a need standpoint, it makes a lot of sense why Army prioritized the D over offense.

The main question for me is Binnington. The Husso safety net is gone. Then again, we had no reason to believe Husso would be great a year ago as to that point, he’d only played 17 NHL games with a poor .893 SV%. You don’t really know how things will turn out. But I think it’s safe to say that Binny will be relied upon more this season and they can’t really afford for him to have a few months where he’s hot garbage. We don’t necessarily need playoff beast-mode Binny every night but just need him to be solid, consistent and dependable.

 

[Xerloris]

Back after a year long hiatus...

I think we're poised for some minor regression in points this season, but still in good shape for 2/3 in division, finishing no lower than 5th in the west. Thus, needle is stuck is my answer.

I see the top 5 in the west shaking out as follows in order:
COL
EDM
CGY
STL
MIN/NSH

Our goaltending got worse. Binnington is coming back from injury and we've got a 1B coming into a new system after losing a guy who was gunning hard for the 1A role for a pick.

Defensewise, I like retaining Leddy to shore up the LD until we can find a better solution or someone seizes more ice time. I'm not enamoured with the left side, but it will get us into the dance come spring.

Forwards... Losing Perron hurts, because seeing a fan favorite go always sucks. Our scoring depth takes a hit, because we no longer have a top 6 calibre winger on our 3rd line - we have some quality bottom 6 players coming in to replace those leaving - our offense takes a step back.

As many have said before me, the top of the conference as a whole has taken hits due to cap crunches - with perhaps the exception of CGY. I really like what Treliving did after what should have been an utter disaster of a summer with his 2 top producing forwards leaving/demanding out.

I expect we'll be finishing in the 100-105 pt range and the points we lose will go to narrow the gap between the basement in the Pacific and the playoff line.

Come on man be serious. We did not lose Husso for a pick. Husso was walking because he was going to make like 5m/yr and we couldn't afford it.

 

[Brian39]

Come on man be serious. We did not lose Husso for a pick. Husso was walking because he was going to make like 5m/yr and we couldn't afford it.

The point isn't about why Husso is gone. The point is that his departure makes the goaltending worse. Husso got 1 more start than Binner last season and drastically outperformed him in the regular season. The team was 25-7-6 with Husso in net and 18-14-4 with Binner in net. That's a big difference and the guy coming in to replace Husso is one of the oldest goalies in the league coming off a career-worst season. The goaltending downgraded.

 

[TK 421]

I went with “needle is stuck” but I could see it going either way.

To me, it depends upon perspective. Are we comparing the current team to the one that finished the playoffs a few months ago or the one that started last season? Because I’d say the Blues took a step back compared to the playoff team but they’re slightly better than the team that entered training camp a year ago.

The difference, like most teams, are the trade deadline additions. Teams bank cap space to effectively allow themselves to have a roster post-trade deadline that would be over the salary cap if that same roster was constructed in October. So then teams oftentimes have to downgrade a bit over the summer to get back under the Cap.

Compared to the playoff team, it’s a clear downgrade on paper. But compared to a year ago, the reason why I think it’s better is because it was blatantly obvious that the Blues D was quite bad last season. Leddy helped with that post-deadline and into the playoffs so him being in the top-4 instead of one of Scandella/Mikkola/Perunovich likely helps the team more than the loss of Perron hurts it.

If Perron was traded straight up for Leddy, I think most would say the team acquiring Perron won the trade but from a need standpoint, it makes a lot of sense why Army prioritized the D over offense.

The main question for me is Binnington. The Husso safety net is gone. Then again, we had no reason to believe Husso would be great a year ago as to that point, he’d only played 17 NHL games with a poor .893 SV%. You really know how things will turn out. But I think it’s safe to say that Binny will be relied upon more this season and they can’t really afford for him to have a few months where he’s hot garbage. We don’t necessarily need playoff beast-mode Binny every night but just need him to be solid, consistent and dependable.

I really think you nailed it here.

Binnington/Greiss is the biggest question mark. Greiss is 36 and probably not capable of being a 1B like Husso so if Binny struggles in the regular season again it could really hurt us in the standings.

I also think you've correctly focused on the biggest positive being we now have Nick Leddy to stabilize the top 4 defense. The D last year was structurally flawed and now it's better on our most crucial pairing because of this addition. In fact, I'm looking for much better 5v5 play as a result of this move which should also help our goalie tandem out.