With the preseason down to its final game, the St. Louis Blues are at the point Jim Montgomery said they’d reach: the lineup that takes the ice in that last exhibition is likely the one that opens the season.
That means Thursday night’s 1-0 win over the Chicago Blackhawks has pushed the Blues right to the edge of roster decisions, with the full group of expected NHL players having already gotten a look over the last week and a half. The team has managed only three goals in three games as a mixed-together group, but the expectation is that production should tick up once the games start counting.
The projected opening-night roster features Dylan Holloway, Robert Thomas, Jimmy Snuggerud, Pavel Buchnevich, Mason McTavish, Connor McMichael, Jake Neighbours, Dalibor Dvorsky, Jonatan Berggren, Alexey Toropchenko, Zach Dean, and Ross Johnston up front. On the blue line, the group would be Philip Broberg, Logan Mailloux, Theo Lindstein, Colton Parayko, Cam Fowler, Brandon Carlo, and Adam Jiricek, with Joel Hofer starting in goal and Jordan Binnington backing him up.
One obvious omission jumps off the page: Pius Suter, Nathan Walker, and Tyler Tucker are not in that setup. The biggest reason is the fourth line, which still does not appear settled.
Zach Dean has been excellent lately and looks like the favorite to begin the year in the lineup, and that pushes out both Walker and Suter for the moment. Ross Johnston also makes sense here because the Blues want some physical presence in that mix.
That doesn’t mean the picture is fixed. The expectation is that Suter, Walker, and Dean will all end up rotating through the fourth line, with Dylan Peterson also entering the conversation. Peterson has shown he can be a nuisance on the ice, and spending time sharpening his game as a forward in the AHL this season could help turn him into a regular NHL piece down the road.
There will be movement, too. This roster is going to be adjusted constantly, especially with so many prospects pushing for jobs. The bottom six in particular has room for change, and players such as Justin Carbonneau, Otto Stenberg, Dillon Dube, and Aleksanteri Kaskimäki could force the Blues to make decisions in Springfield.
That kind of weekly churn is part of the process. Different players will rise and fall depending on health and performance, and Montgomery will have reasons to shuffle things whenever injuries open doors or play slips below the standard.
For now, Dean appears to have the inside track, even if the leash is short. If he can hang onto the spot for the first week of the season, that alone would be a valuable step forward.
In Other News...
Why The Blues Suddenly Look Like A Real Playoff Threat
For a team that spent plenty of the summer outside the national playoff chatter, the Blues suddenly have a look that is hard to ignore. The young core keeps getting more interesting, with Dylan Holloway, Jimmy Snuggerud, Mason McTavish and Connor McMichael all still 25 or younger, and the hope is obvious: if even a few of those pieces take another step, St. Louis can start looking less like a fringe team and more like a group with real staying power.
Joel Hofers rise only adds to that feeling, giving the Blues a different kind of stability in goal while Jordan Binnington shifts into the backup role. Pair that with the recent strong play from some of the clubs younger skaters, and the roster begins to resemble one that can make noise over a full season rather than just hang around. The catch, of course, is whether all of that promise turns into the kind of consistent production that separates a promising team from an actual playoff threat. [Read more 🡒]