The St. Louis Blues landed four prospects in Scott Wheeler’s Top 100 at The Athletic, with two more - Otto Stenberg and Theo Lindstein - earning honorable mentions.
That’s a solid haul for a club that didn’t go full teardown. The Chicago Blackhawks, who are still deep in their rebuild, checked in with eight names on the list, but the Blues can still feel good about having four prospects recognized in a ranking that only covers skaters. Wheeler is expected to release a separate list for goalies.
The highest-ranked Blue is also the newest face in the organization: center Tynan Lawrence, the No. 11 pick in the 2026 draft. Scouts still aren’t fully sold that Lawrence will grow into a true No. 1 center, but even the more conservative read on him points to a future as a dependable second-line pivot, which is no small thing.
Dalibor Dvorsky and Justin Carbonneau came next, sitting 37th and 39th, respectively. Dvorsky’s spot on a prospect list is a little unusual after he already played 71 NHL games last season, but Wheeler still projects him as a second-line or middle-six playmaker with power-play value three years after he was drafted. Carbonneau’s appeal is more straightforward: if his pace and habits sharpen up, he looks like a potential top-six winger.
Adam Jiricek rounded out the Blues’ group at No. 82.
The path for him is fairly clear, with a chance to settle in as a steady second-pair defenseman if things keep trending the right way. He’ll also get a real opportunity to make his case in camp, since he’s turning pro this season.
For all the names on the board, the Blues still don’t have that obvious high-end, franchise-altering piece in the pipeline. But they do have a system that looks reasonably stocked in several spots.
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Snuggerud already showed he can finish at the NHL level with a strong rookie season, while Holloway is stepping into a new opportunity and McTavish is still sorting out where he fits best in the lineup. The upside is obvious, but the real question for St. Louis is whether those projections turn into a balanced top six that can finally give the club the kind of elite scoring it has been chasing. [Read more 🡒]
That Jets Collapse May Have Changed Everything For The Blues
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A deeper run would have changed the conversation around the 2025-26 offseason, where the Blues still had to navigate a roster in transition and decide how aggressively to push their next move. Even now, the club is moving toward a younger core, but the what-if around Winnipeg lingers because one playoff series can shape how long a team believes its window stays open and how bold it is willing to be when the summer arrives. [Read more 🡒]