Blues Discussion Thread 2018-2019 - Part II

[Majorityof1]

Do I recall the Blues saving money against the cap last year by carrying less than the roster limit for a few games? If so, I'd rather go that route than place Thorburn in the press box now that no one in the NHL wants him ... again.
Nice guy, I'm sure. Just not an NHLer any longer ... nor was he when the Blues signed him to a 2 year contract. That signing was kind of strange ... an emotional over-reaction to not having Reaves after trading him at the draft IMO.

Thorburn is already waived and won't sit in the press box. He will report to San Antonio (or retire). We are carrying too many injured defenseman to keep any forward but Fabbri in the press box.

Line 1: Maroon - RoR - Tarasenko
Line 2: Schwartz - Schenn - Perron
Line 3: Steen - Bozak - Kyrou
Line 4: Blias Thomas Barbashev
Press box: Fabbri
IR/LTIR : Sunqvist, Foley, Soshnikov

Pair 1: Bouwmeester - Petro
Pair 2: Dunn Parayko
Pair 3: Jerabek Schmaltz
Suspended: Bortuzzo
IR/LTIR: Gunnarsson, Edumundson

Goal: Allen, Johnson

This is assuming Walman, Mikkola and Sanfiord all get sent down. They have not yet, but as they are not eligible for waivers, they don't need to be until 5pm. We don't have the cap for any of them unless somebody goes on LTIR.

Edit: Also, the lines listed are just generic to get everyone set on the active roster. I am not predicting that is the lines we will use. Just lumping them together to easily count. Cause you know someone would quibble about where I put Kyrou without this disclaimer

 

[medkit]

You're talking about Kyle Wellwood. Yes, and the rules were changed after this happened. It wasn't fair for a GM to do all the work of building a relationship, getting the contract, and then have the player have to go through waivers so that someone else could benefit from his work.

That was such bs. Wellwood was a good player.

Here's an even worse story. Blues also had that happen again in that same year with Marek Svatos, who was trying to come back to the NHL. Instead, Nashville claimed him and then just re-dumped him on waivers again 9 games later. Probably really sucked getting ****ed around like that when he probably thought the Blues had a spot for him.

Got a better chance with Ottawa, who plucked him off waivers, but then his head got turned into mush by goon Jay Rosehill and he missed the next season and a half. That was it for his competitive hockey career and he died at age 34 to a drug overdose in Colorado (as I'm sure a lot of you read). I wonder what would have happened if he just went to the Blues like he was supposed to, and had never been in Toronto that day.

 

[TheDizee]

I won’t miss him.

only the fanboys will. same reason they still cry about elliott.

he was a fringe nhler and highly inconsistent and those are a dime a dozen.

this provides cap space as well.

 

[Captain Creampuff]

What do we do about the forward version of Coliacovo???

 

[Ranksu]

only the fanboys will. same reason they still cry about elliott.

he was a fringe nhler and highly inconsistent and those are a dime a dozen.

this provides cap space as well.

Well, guess what is our biggest questionmark for success? Allen and you know who is going to push hard on that spot? Husso.

It might not take long Time when you Will Be crying for Allen when he's shipped out from St. Louis.

 

[Dbrownss]

only the fanboys will. same reason they still cry about elliott.

he was a fringe nhler and highly inconsistent and those are a dime a dozen.

this provides cap space as well.

If Kyrou sees his full potential, that will be a rediculous trade moving forward.

 

[BlueDuck]

So if a forward goes down to injury which D steps into a forward slot for a bit?

I seem to remember Bortuzzo skating as a forward either last year or year before.

 

[Shwabeal]

So if a forward goes down to injury which D steps into a forward slot for a bit?

I seem to remember Bortuzzo skating as a forward either last year or year before.

If it happens mid-game, they would just roll with 11 forwards for the remainder. After that, Bortuzzo would be coming off suspension for the second game anyway so one of Butler/Mikkola goes down and then the other would likely go down as well to call someone like Sanford, Thorburn (most likely) or Nolan up.

 

[TruBlu]

I seem to remember a long stretch of games before Hitch was shipped out where Tank was doing double shifting duty.

 

[thelos]

What's the status of Steen's injury?

 

[tfriede2]

What's the status of Steen's injury?

What injury?

 

[Stealth JD]

Presumably Army and Yeo are happy with the team they have. If the team continues to struggle in the same ways (power-play, goaltending, offense) it will be interesting to see the response from management. Hopefully they’re in the race for the Presidents Trophy all year, but I’m morbidly curious to see what they’d do if the Blues are out of the playoff picture (aside from due to devastating injuries) again come February.

 

[The Note]

What's the status of Steen's injury?

I don’t believe he has an injury.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

Presumably Army and Yeo are happy with the team they have. If the team continues to struggle in the same ways (power-play, goaltending, offense) it will be interesting to see the response from management. Hopefully they’re in the race for the Presidents Trophy all year, but I’m morbidly curious to see what they’d do if the Blues are out of the playoff picture (aside from due to devastating injuries) again come February.

Look at Toronto’s division. They should be able to have a significant advantage for the Presidents trophy with so many rebuilding teams.

 

[Renard]

only the fanboys will. same reason they still cry about elliott.

he was a fringe nhler and highly inconsistent and those are a dime a dozen.

this provides cap space as well.

I had high hopes for Jaskin, just as I did for Magnus Paajarvi. But the organization gave both plenty of time to make the grade, and neither one did.

Jaskin wasn't useless, but he was beaten out by the competition and lost his job.

 

[The Note]

The definitive ranking of the NHL’s top 20 centres over three seasons - Sportsnet.ca

Figured I’d put this here since the thread on the main boards is -shockingly- a total dumpster fire. Article by Sportsnet listing their top 20 centers. It’s based on various factors and analyses, and they have ROR at 13. It’s by no means perfect (Seguin isn’t on this list at all) and I was surprised to see him that high even when factoring in his 2-way contributions.

 

[PiggySmalls]

Per Yeo on the NHL radio:

Kyrou going to be the line with Schwartz & Schenn today at practice. I think that line is going to rock.

Also on Fabbri, knee is solid. Muscle development in his legs is behind and led to over compensating and his groin injury. He is working on building that strength back and easing into it. But I’m just happy to see his knee is good to go.

 

[wannabebluesplayer]

I had high hopes for Jaskin, just as I did for Magnus Paajarvi. But the organization gave both plenty of time to make the grade, and neither one did.

Jaskin wasn't useless, but he was beaten out by the competition and lost his job.

Jaskin was borderline useless. He couldn't play on the PK or PP really. He couldn't shoot all that well. His passing is below average. He has good metrics due to being able to protect the puck on a cycle, but that's about it. He had decent skating ability so he was a fringe player. The players that beat him out are heads and tails better in multiple areas. Thomas and Kryou alone will be an improvement, a major improvement over Sundqvist and Jaskin in this lineup.

 

[PiggySmalls]

The definitive ranking of the NHL’s top 20 centres over three seasons - Sportsnet.ca

Figured I’d put this here since the thread on the main boards is -shockingly- a total dumpster fire. Article by Sportsnet listing their top 20 centers. It’s based on various factors and analyses, and they have ROR at 13. It’s by no means perfect (Seguin isn’t on this list at all) and I was surprised to see him that high even when factoring in his 2-way contributions.

13. Ryan O’Reilly
Difficulty adjustment: +7.62%
Offence: 25.02/50 | Transition: 16.74/25 | Defence: 18.33/25
Total: 60.09/100

Last season no centre in the NHL played tougher minutes than O’Reilly, who had a combination of brutal quality of teammates, tough deployment in terms of competition and zone starts, and some bad on-ice percentages mixed in. Despite all that, and apparently losing his love of the game, he managed a 61-point season and was a defensive force on a team that didn’t defend very well. Perhaps most impressive is how few penalties O’Reilly takes when defending, since the relative weakness of his team the past three years forced him to play without the puck a ton.
O’Reilly is a perfect example of a player who does everything you could possibly want outside the offensive zone. And despite not being the most dynamic offensive player, the less flashy work he puts in results in first line level offence anyway. If last year was a down year for O’Reilly, St. Louis got a gem of a player.

 

[Oberyn]

Feels weird to see a Blues player on a top centers list.

 

[bleedblue1223]

Per Yeo on the NHL radio:

Kyrou going to be the line with Schwartz & Schenn today at practice. I think that line is going to rock.

Also on Fabbri, knee is solid. Muscle development in his legs is behind and led to over compensating and his groin injury. He is working on building that strength back and easing into it. But I’m just happy to see his knee is good to go.

Makes sense. This is typically an issue when you return from such an absence after multiple surgeries.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

Per Yeo on the NHL radio:

Kyrou going to be the line with Schwartz & Schenn today at practice. I think that line is going to rock.

Also on Fabbri, knee is solid. Muscle development in his legs is behind and led to over compensating and his groin injury. He is working on building that strength back and easing into it. But I’m just happy to see his knee is good to go.

If we get a high functioning Fabbri by the end of the season, that's all that matters. If he can contribute in the post-season, he can otherwise take as long as necessary to work back into playing condition.

 

[PiggySmalls]

Feels weird to see a Blues player on a top centers list.

Absolutely. 2nd in defensive ranking only behind Bergeron. 8th in Transition ranking and 17th in offense. If he sticks with Tarasenko all season that offense will rating can really climb. He is going to be getting A LOT more balanced starts now. Even if his offense ranking climbs, he could realistically still drop in ranking due to a lower adjustment for degree of difficulty as him linemates will be of higher quality.

I just really hope that after 8-10 games and IF Maroon is not cutting it, Yeo is not too timid to put Blais up there if Fabbri isn’t ready to try it for a game or 2.

 

[bleedblue1223]

For the top line, I'd be more curious if Yeo is with Army when he mentioned that he could see Thomas on the top line at some point. If Thomas has a rookie season on the 4th like Schwartz had, it really wouldn't surprise me to see him up there by mid-season.

 

[PiggySmalls]

For the top line, I'd be more curious if Yeo is with Army when he mentioned that he could see Thomas on the top line at some point. If Thomas has a rookie season on the 4th like Schwartz had, it really wouldn't surprise me to see him up there by mid-season.

I completely agree, though if ROR and Vladi has chemistry and ROR continues his dominance in the faceoffs and D play. I’d be more hesitant, but it could become a similar situation to how McDavid and Draisaitl split faceoffs.