Six games in, the St. Louis Blues look exactly like what the numbers say they are: a near-average team, and not much more.
They’re 3-2-1, have collected seven of a possible 12 points, and sit at a .583 points percentage, barely above the league average of .551. The scoring line is tidy enough - 21 goals for, 18 against - and the shot totals are almost perfectly matched, with 156 taken and 149 allowed.
Even the PDO sits at 100. Nothing about the early profile screams fluke.
The surprises have come from the specific places inside that plain-Jane start.
The biggest offensive jolt has come from a line that’s been driving the Blues’ best moments. Mason McTavish, acquired from the Anaheim Ducks, has been the team’s most productive forward so far with four goals, seven points, and a plus-4 rating.
Two of those goals have stood up as game-winners, and he’s done it on 23 shots with a 17.4 shooting percentage. Connor McMichael, who arrived in the Jordan Kyrou deal, has kept pace with two goals and four assists, while Jonatan Berggren has added a goal and two assists.
Between them, they’ve been responsible for every Blues game-winner to this point.
The special teams picture is split right down the middle. The penalty kill has been sharp, getting through 17 of 19 chances against for an 89.5 percent success rate, and it has also produced short-handed goals from Pius Suter and Dillon Dube.
The strange wrinkle: the Blues have scored as many short-handed goals as power-play goals. Their man advantage has only converted two of 14 tries, a 14.3 percent clip that is lagging badly behind the kill.
Discipline is part of the issue, too, because St. Louis has been shorthanded 19 times while only drawing 14 power plays.
Brandon Carlo’s 19 penalty minutes lead the club by a wide margin.
Robert Thomas’ stat line doesn’t look impressive at first glance, but the Blues captain has still been doing a lot of the heavy lifting. Through six games he has two assists, no goals, and a minus-2 rating, yet he’s averaging 19:28 a night, the highest workload among the forwards.
He owns a 58 Corsi percent, sits 7.5 points better in that category than the team does when he’s off the ice, has won 51.2 percent of his faceoffs, and has started only 41.7 percent of his shifts in the offensive zone. He’s also taking on some of the toughest minutes on the roster.
The issue is that the production hasn’t followed. Thomas has six shots and no goals, and the Blues’ goaltenders have stopped just 78.4 percent of shots with him on the ice so far.
Injuries have already forced the Blues to shuffle the deck, especially on defense. Logan Mailloux looked strong in the preseason and seemed set to build on his 2025-26 season, while Tyler Tucker, who was battling for a roster spot, is out after a knee procedure and has not played in a regular-season game. Up front, Dillon Dube will be re-evaluated after eight weeks because of a neck injury, which pushes his return into early December, and Alexey Toropchenko managed only five minutes before landing on IR with an upper-body injury.
The fill-ins have mostly kept the ship steady. Justin Barron, claimed on waivers from Nashville on Sept. 27, has been one of the early surprises with a plus-3 rating in three games, a 53.1 percent shot share with him on the ice, and six blocked shots.
Theo Lindstein has added an assist and four takeaways while rotating into the defense. Up front, Zach Dean has had a rougher run with a minus-3 rating in two games, while Dylan Peterson made his NHL debut on Monday against Ottawa and played just under nine minutes, looking sharp, comfortable, and like a spark plug in a fourth-line role.
In net, Joel Hofer has been the stabilizer. He has started four of the six games, gone 2-1-1, and posted a .920 save percentage with a 1.76 goals-against average and a shutout.
With league average save percentage still hovering around .885, that’s a strong early mark. Jordan Binnington, meanwhile, has had the opposite start over two games, with a .847 save percentage, a 4.50 GAA, and a minus-2.7 goals saved above average.
Binnington has faced about 29.5 shots per game compared with Hofer’s 22, and two games is a small sample, but Hofer is the reason the team’s .880 save percentage is only a hair below the league average.
The other eye-opener has been how quickly the kids have been pulled into real minutes. Four Blues players aged 22 or younger are already contributing in meaningful roles.
Jimmy Snuggerud has three goals and an assist, and his 34 shot attempts trail only McTavish’s 36. Dalibor Dvorsky has two goals on 10 shots.
Adam Jiricek has one goal, is averaging 16:37 per game, and leads the Blues defensemen with 12 shots on goal. Lindstein has played three games, picked up an assist, and is averaging 14:49 a night.
Together, that group has scored six of St. Louis’ 21 goals.
In Other News...
Mason McTavish Is Already Changing How Blues Fans View This Deal
Mason McTavish has wasted little time making the Blues' summer gamble look a lot more interesting. In just six games this season, the young center has emerged as one of St. Louis' most productive forwards, leading the club in both goals and points while giving the lineup a needed boost beyond its top scorers.
The early returns are especially notable because McTavish has been effective at even strength and has helped steady the team's secondary scoring, the sort of contribution that can change how a draft-day trade is judged over time. For a Blues team that paid a steep price to bring him in from Anaheim, the bigger question now is not whether he fits, but how far his immediate impact can carry this deal. [Read more 🡒]
Dylan Peterson Just Gave The Blues A Tough Roster Decision
Dylan Petersons first night in the NHL gave the Blues something useful to think about beyond the score line. Forced into action by injuries, Peterson brought the kind of energy and physical edge that can settle into a lineup quickly, and he did it in a 7-2 road win that left St. Louis with a good problem instead of a crisis.
Petersons size and intensity fit the profile of what the Blues want from their fourth line, especially alongside Ross Johnston and Pius Suter. The issue now is less about whether he belongs and more about how long there will be room for him once Alexey Toropchenko and Dillon Dube are ready to return, which makes the next roster call a little trickier than it looked before his debut. [Read more 🡒]
Mason McTavish Is Giving Blues Fans More To Believe In
The early weeks of the 2026-27 season have given St. Louis another young name worth tracking, and Mason McTavish is right in the middle of that conversation. Across the league, a few emerging players are starting to show the kind of growth teams hope to see in their early 20s, and McTavish has fit that pattern with a stronger offensive presence and a larger role than he had in previous seasons.
For Blues fans, the appeal is obvious: McTavish did not come in as a depth piece, and his play is already hinting at a bigger place in the lineup. The start has been encouraging enough to raise real expectations, even if the bigger question is how long this level of production can hold and just how far his role can expand as the season settles in. [Read more 🡒]