Jordan Binnington is about to walk into a season unlike any other he has lived through in St. Louis.
The Blues veteran is in the final year of the six-year extension he signed in March 2021, carrying a $6-million annual average value and the kind of legacy that comes with helping deliver a Stanley Cup. At 33, he remains one of the team’s established pillars, but the role waiting for him in 2026-27 looks very different from the one he has owned for most of his NHL career.
Binnington’s rise is still the defining chapter of his Blues story. When St.
Louis was sitting near the bottom of the standings in 2018-19, he was summoned from the minors and immediately changed the mood around the team. On January 7, he shut out the Philadelphia Flyers, then caught fire in a way that still feels unreal.
From that point on, he went 23-5-1 with a .927 save percentage, pushing the Blues into the playoffs and all the way to a Stanley Cup Championship.
At 25, he looked like the long-term answer in goal.
What followed for the organization was messier. After the championship, then-GM Doug Armstrong let Alex Pietrangelo leave, then used that money on several other defensemen to long-term, high-value contracts that didn’t match Pietrangelo’s impact.
St. Louis had stretches where it made the playoffs and stretches where it missed altogether.
Through most of that run, Binnington did his part. From 2020 to 2025, he posted a .905 save percentage and a 2.87 goals-against average, and he had just one season - 2022-23 - below .900. Those weren’t Vezina numbers, but they were good enough to keep the goaltending from becoming the problem.
Last season changed the picture.
Binnington may have been solid in Milan for Team Canada at the 2026 Winter Olympics, but his work in St. Louis cratered. He finished with an .873 save percentage and a 3.33 goals-against average, both the worst marks of his career.
That downturn opened the door for Joel Hofer, and Hofer looks ready to take it. He started 43 games in 2025-26 and finished with a .909 save percentage and a 2.61 goals-against average, putting himself in position to become the Blues’ goalie of the future.
That’s where the strange part starts for Binnington. He has never really been a backup in the NHL.
You can make the case that he filled that spot briefly in December 2018, but it didn’t last long. Weeks later, he had the job and never gave it back.
Now, with the Blues continuing to retool, his contract protection is down to a 10-team no-trade list, and GM Alex Steen could move him for future assets if that path makes sense. A trade by the deadline isn’t out of the question.
For the moment, though, Binnington is set to work behind Hofer. How he handles that change will be one of the more intriguing stories in St.
Louis this season. He’s still a fierce competitor, and he still rises when the games matter most.
But after what happened in the regular season last year, the Blues can’t lean on him the same way they once did. The transition from unquestioned starter to part of a tandem is going to be new territory.
In Other News...
Blues Could Be Headed For A Brutal Goalie Decision
A hypothetical 2027 expansion draft would force the Blues to start thinking well ahead about how they would handle their goaltending, and the conversation gets complicated fast under a 7-3-1 protection setup. St. Louis would already be juggling difficult decisions at several spots on the roster, but the net is where the tension really sharpens because both Joel Hofer and Jordan Binnington would be part of the calculation.
Jordan Binningtons age and contract timeline make this more than a simple depth-chart debate, and the Blues could find themselves facing a choice between protecting short-term stability and preserving long-term value. If an expansion draft ever does land on that schedule, the front office may have to decide whether to move on from Binnington earlier rather than risk a scenario where he is left exposed and the Blues get nothing back. [Read more 🡒]
Blues May Have A Center Debate That Changes Their Future
The Blues have spent the offseason reshaping their forward group, and the additions of Mason McTavish and Connor McMichael give them a different kind of center depth than they had before. With Robert Thomas already anchoring the middle, the possibility of keeping Dalibor Dvorsky at center instead of sliding him to the wing suddenly looks less like a developmental footnote and more like a roster decision with real long-term value.
St. Louis wants a lineup that can flex through the middle with Thomas, McTavish and Dvorsky, rather than forcing one of its young pieces out of position just to make the puzzle fit. That approach would also let the Blues keep prospect Tynan Lawrence on a slower developmental track, while the bigger question remains whether Dvorsky is best served by staying where he is or taking on a new role for the sake of balance elsewhere on the roster. [Read more 🡒]
Blues Entering A New Era With One Huge Leadership Decision Ahead
The Blues are heading into a rare stretch of uncertainty at the top of the organizational ladder, and it is one of the bigger signs that a new era is taking shape. For the first time since 1996-97, St. Louis will begin a season without a captain, forcing the club to decide how it wants to define its next leadership core as the roster continues to evolve.
Several names are in the mix, including Robert Thomas, Jake Neighbours, Philip Broberg, Jimmy Snuggerud and Colton Parayko, with a few others still lingering as long shots. The bigger question now is not just who gets the job, but when the Blues decide to make it official, since there is a growing sense around the team that a pre-season announcement would make sense if the choice is clear enough. [Read more 🡒]