
C Paul Stastny, LW Alexander Steen and Vladimir Tarasenko lead a very solid offense that can score. When your defensive core has Alex Pietrangelo, Kevin Shattenkirk, Jay Bouwmeester and Colton Parayko then you know it's amazing. The Blues' defense can shut down any team's offense whether it's Ovechkin's Capitals or Kane's Hawks, this defense is elite. In net is Jake Allen and Carter Hutton. Allen has shown to be a good goalie in the past and time will tell if he can be an actual starter.
In the first round of the 2016 NHL draft, the Blues selected C Tage Thompson with the 26th overall pick. The Blues had a bad feeling that they were going to lose Backes so they drafted another center. Thompson can turn out to be a solid player for the Blues in the future.
The Blues' projected lines look like this:
Alex Steen- Paul Stastny- Robby Fabbri
Vladimir Tarasenko- Jori Lehtera- David Perron
Dmitrij Jaskin- Patrik Berglund- Nail Yakupov
Scottie Upshall- Kyle Brodziak- Ryan Reaves
On defense is:
Jay Bouwmeester- Alex Pietrangelo
Carl Gunnnarson- Kevin Shattenkirk
Joel Edmundson- Colton Parayko
In net is Jake Allen and Carter Hutton.
LW Magnus Paajarvi, RW Ty Rattie and D Robert Bortuzzo are scratched and Jaden Schwartz is injured.
Finally, for my prediction, the St. Louis Blues, a good team on the rise, will make the playoffs in 2016-17.
Great take, Carter! I'm a life long Blues fan in St. Louis and I'm also an Isles fan. Enjoy the season and keep up the writing!
ReplyDeletethanks. Isles and Blues should both make playoffs
DeleteMan, those forward lines are stacked even with Schwartz out of the lineup.
ReplyDeleteI wonder where Yak fits in once Schwartz is back? Do they make Jaskin the odd man out?