A few weeks removed from the chaos of the NHL Draft and free agency, the St. Louis Blues have mostly finished shaping their 2026-27 roster. At this point, only a few final adjustments are left, and those figures to come out of a heated training camp.
The move that kicked off the offseason was the Jordan Kyrou trade to Washington, and it changed the look of the roster in a hurry. That deal helped push the Blues toward a stronger center group, gave them a solid top-four defensive unit, and made the team look more competitive for next season.
Even with the dust settled, the Kyrou decision still stands out as the kind of move St. Louis needed to make. The Blues are set to benefit from it, and the reasons are pretty clear.
Kyrou’s value was never really the issue. He was a scorer, and a good one, but the production had its limits. The ceiling had been reached, and while the results were positive overall, they also came with too much inconsistency.
That matters in a league where goals are at a premium. The NHL continues to lean heavily toward offense, and the number of players cracking 40 goals keeps climbing. In 2025-26, 15 skaters cleared that mark, almost twice as many as the eight who did it the season before.
Kyrou still hasn’t hit 40 goals in a season, even though he had been the Blues’ best and most reliable scorer for years. At some point, both sides needed a reset, and the return from Washington gives St. Louis a chance to move into its next phase.
It’s still early to stamp the trade as a definitive win, but on paper it works for both teams. The Blues may have the edge, though, because the pick they received was used to land Mason McTavish as well.
In that sense, the trade has already started to pay off. St. Louis got an everyday NHL player who fits the age of the new core, and the Blues are already better for having moved on from No. 25, even before the next game is played.
In Other News...
Beloved Rangers Figure John Davidson Lands Front Office Role With Sabres
The Sabres added another familiar name to their front office mix this week, hiring John Davidson as a senior advisor and bringing in one of the NHLs most experienced executives. Davidsons rsum stretches across several major jobs, including stops as president of hockey operations with the Blues, Blue Jackets and Rangers, and Buffalo is clearly leaning on that background as it continues to shape its leadership group.
For St. Louis fans, Davidsons name still carries some weight from his earlier run in the organization, when he helped guide the hockey operations side before moving on to other high-profile posts. His arrival in Buffalo also reconnects him with general manager Jarmo Kekalainen, a relationship that has long been part of Davidsons front-office story and now gives the Sabres another seasoned voice in the room. [Read more 🡒]