The St. Louis Blues’ prospect pipeline is suddenly looking a whole lot stronger.
After an offseason that featured four first-round picks and a risky trade for Mason McTavish, the Blues have landed in an impressive spot in Corey Pronman’s latest ranking of every NHL team’s under-23 player pools. Over at The Athletic, Pronman placed St. Louis seventh in the league, a notable jump from 16th a year ago.
The biggest takeaway is pretty simple: the Blues don’t have a true headliner prospect, but they do have real depth. That’s the kind of base that can keep a system humming, even if it still leaves the organization hunting for the kind of elite talent that changes everything.
At the top of the list are Jimmy Snuggerud and Adam Jiricek, who checked in first and second in Pronman’s rankings. Both carry the “bubble top and middle of the lineup” label, which typically points to a second-line forward or second-pair defenseman, with room to climb.
Snuggerud already gave a taste of what he can do, finishing his rookie season with 21 goals and 51 points in 70 games. Goal scoring travels, and Snuggerud looks built to keep doing it, especially as a power-play finisher.
Jiricek, meanwhile, is set to turn pro this season and appears to be a little farther from regular NHL minutes, but he profiles as a dependable, two-way defenseman who can eat minutes.
Where the Blues really separate themselves is in the middle tier. Pronman slotted five players as “middle of the lineup” prospects: Dalibor Dvorsky, Tynan Lawrence, Milton Gastrin, Maddox Dagenais, and Justin Carbonneau.
Three of those names arrived this summer, with two coming through the draft and one coming in the trade that sent Jordan Kyrou to the Washington Capitals. That influx helped push St.
Louis up the rankings, and Lawrence in particular is a player the group is high on.
Then comes the depth, and there’s a lot of it. Pronman listed 13 Blues as “NHL prospects,” a category that generally covers players with a path to bottom-six or third-pair NHL roles, even if some can rise with development.
Theo Lindstein, who ranks 12th, and Otto Stenberg, who ranks 16th, will be on this list for the last time because they’ll age out by next summer. Among the newer names, Lars Steiner at 18th, Landon Nycz at 15th and Colin Fitzgerald at 11th all stand out as players with the best chance to make a jump because of their age.
The Blues still need a star at the top of the roster if they want to avoid living in the playoff middle forever. But the foundation underneath is much healthier than it was a year ago, and GM Alex Steen now has a prospect pool with enough substance to matter. The next step is finding the elite NHLer, or the nearly ready one, who can make the whole thing click.
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Bolduc is still waiting on the next step, with his future tied to the Canadiens effort to bring him back before the season begins. He has made it clear he would like to stay in Montreal for the long haul, but for now the matter sits with his agent and team management, leaving one more contract question hanging over a club that could use another body up front. [Read more 🡒]
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A strong prospect pool is giving the Blues something every coach wants heading into camp: real competition for jobs. St. Louis has a cluster of young defensemen and forwards pushing for attention, with Adam Jiricek, Tyler Tucker and Theo Lindstein among the blue-liners trying to separate themselves, while Otto Stenberg, Justin Carbonneau and others will be trying to force their way into the mix up front.
The most intriguing battle may come down the middle, where the second-line center spot has turned into a crowded race. Dalibor Dvorsky, Mason McTavish, Connor McMichael and possibly Pius Suter give Jim Montgomery plenty of options, but also a difficult call as the Blues sort through who is ready to seize a bigger role and who will have to wait for another opening. [Read more 🡒]
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St. Louis is in a different kind of phase now, one that asks more from patience and development than from chasing a shortcut. Bringing in a high-profile scorer with recent performance concerns could complicate the path for the younger players the Blues are trying to grow into larger roles. If the organization wants to keep its young core moving forward, it has every reason to be careful about adding a veteran whose upside no longer outweighs the risk. [Read more 🡒]