Revisiting Blues 1St Round Picks (2005-2019)

[TaffyPool]

Just thinking back on the Blues’ past 15 years and how we got to where we are, with a Championship banner in the rafters and a team primed and ready to defend their title.

I’ve never been much of a draft guy, but looking back at their last 15 years (post lock-out) what impresses me most is that in this span the Blues org. hasn’t ever really actively tanked or “rebuilt” like you see other clubs do.

Of the 15 years (2005-2019), the Blues have finished below 15th only five times — with 2006’s dead-last finish and the resultant Erik Johnson #1 selection being the outlier — and have averaged 13th place in the League across that period.

In four of their draft years, the Blues did not have a 1st Round pick (but make up for it, plus 1 addtl, with two 1st Rounders in 2006/2010/2017 and three in 2007). Of their 16 1st Round picks, it averages out to a 19th overall across the time span. Of those 1st Rounders, only five — Perron (26th overall), Pietrangelo (4th), Schwartz (14th), Tarasenko (16th), and Thomas (20th) — are on the current roster.

This is just simple fun with numbers, but it does make me appreciate even more the planning, scouting and trading the organization does, even if we don’t always agree with their selections. The Blues have steadily and solidly built up their team without having the benefit of slam-dunk early-1sts for most of the past 15 years. They seem to have a well balanced approach that shrewdly identifies when its time for (or the deal is right for) moving on from past 1sts, in order to cycle in groupings of late-1st and mid-2nd picks every three-ish years.

In summary, I love this team — and while they’re definitely the most fun to watch now — I appreciate that, for the most part, we’ve never had to (for the last 15 years, at least) accept prolonged awful/mediocre play and organizational management as the norm. Go Blues!!!

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[Stupendous Yappi]

Having 5 firsts in 2 years (2006-2007) was pretty exciting during a time when the team was struggling. And all 5 panned out as solid players (EJ, Berglund, Cole, Eller, Perron). I think that was a bit of a rebuild. It was capped off with getting Pietro the following year.

But the team has never lost on purpose. And the leadership has shown that you can build a team with good scouting, smart trades and the right culture. Winning culture is a lot more valuable than some fans think. Teams like Buffalo, Edmonton, etc, struggle to break out of it even when they have the pieces they need otherwise.

I think no draft history review is complete without acknowledging how gutsy it was to trade Stastny when the team was in the playoff race. You could look at it as throwing in the towel. But it also sent a strong message that this team wasn’t interested in just making the playoffs. They were competing for a championship. Armstrong judged that they weren’t a contender that year and pulled the trigger. The Shattenkirk trade could be viewed similarly to a lesser degree.

 

[Bobby Orrtuzzo]

Looking at non 1st rounders from 05-15 (think it’s too soon for any drafter after 15, Kyrou being the exception), the players that have/had gone on to decent careers are:

Bishop
Reaves
Allen
Lehtera
Edmundson
Jaskin
Binnington
Parayko
MacEachern*
Carrier
Barbashev
Blais
Dunn
Kyrou

*small sample size but has potential to be a regular bottom six guy.

Plus guys on the cusp in:
Mikkola
Walman
Husso

It’s pretty nice knowing that not only can we hit on most 1st rounders, but we’ve been able to dig up some some later round gems too.

 

[Stephen]

Weren't the St. Louis Blues the first major salary cap era victim along with Philadelphia that required a few tank years between 2006 and 2008? Seems like they spent the first few years looking for the next Chris Pronger in Johnson and Pietrangelo, right after shipping Prongs to Edmonton to start the new era.

 

[542365]

Looking at non 1st rounders from 05-15 (think it’s too soon for any drafter after 15, Kyrou being the exception), the players that have/had gone on to decent careers are:

Bishop
Reaves
Allen
Lehtera
Edmundson
Parayko
MacEachern*
Carrier
Barbashev
Blais
Dunn
Kyrou

*small sample size but has potential to be a regular bottom six guy.

Plus guys on the cusp in:
Mikkola
Walman
Husso

It’s pretty nice knowing that not only can we hit on most 1st rounders, but we’ve been able to dig up some some later round gems too.

That Binnington guy looks pretty solid as well

I would also add Jaskin to your list. He's already played over 300 NHL games and is tearing up the KHL so he'll likely play his way back into the NHL.

 

[Bobby Orrtuzzo]

That Binnington guy looks pretty solid as well

I would also add Jaskin to your list. He's already played over 300 NHL games and is tearing up the KHL so he'll likely play his way back into the NHL.

Wow...don’t know how I forgot him lmao. And yeah I was on the fence about adding Jaskin.

 

[Alklha]

Weren't the St. Louis Blues the first major salary cap era victim along with Philadelphia that required a few tank years between 2006 and 2008? Seems like they spent the first few years looking for the next Chris Pronger in Johnson and Pietrangelo, right after shipping Prongs to Edmonton to start the new era.

The Blues issues were more about ownership trying to slash costs to sell the franchise rather than the start of the cap era. Then the new owner came in and he was only here to make a quick buck, making deals that have financially hurt the franchise in the long term. But he was long gone for that.

 

[DannyDarko]

Not that the Blues are snakebitten anymore but I used to curse our luck with having our #1 pick be Erik Johnson and the 2 years prior and after our 1st overall were:

Ovechkin
Crosby

Kane
Stamkos

 

[Brian39]

I think one fact worth noting is that when the team moves 1st rounders (picks or players recently drafted in the 1st), it is generally to acquire players with term or to acquire guys and quickly extend them. We generally avoid spending 1sts unless the player we get is here for the long term.

Jay-Bo was a deadline acquisition, but had another year remaining rather than being a pending UFA. He was given a 5 year extension a few months after we traded a 1st to acquire him.

Schenn had 3 years left on his deal when we used two 1sts to acquire him. He was given an 8 year extension earlier this year.

ROR had 4 more years under contract when we moved a 1st and a recent 1st round pick to acquire him.

Faulk was acquired using a recent 1st round pick. It's not clear whether the extension was required for him to waive his NTC, but the Blues obviously had the extension in mind when making the trade.

Ryan Miller is the only real exception to this trend and I fully believe that the Blues planned to extend him if he fit into our system. He bombed here, so not extending him was an easy choice.

 

[Novacain]

The real funny thing about the EJ pick is he was still, by a wide wide margin, the best defensemen taken in that draft. Holy Shit the D-Men in the draft were bad.

In a “perfect world” in hindsight we just identify Johnson only looks great because there were no other good defenders in the draft, and take one of the Toews/Stall/Kessel/Backstrom group that followed. But, we got a cup this way, so I can’t complain much. Because maybe in that world were we take one of those guys, in 2008 when we have the 4th pick Atlanta takes Pietrangelo instead of Bogosian, leaving us to decide between Bogo and Luke Schenn, with maybe us feeling saucy and getting Nikita Filatov instead.

 

[Blueston]

The real funny thing about the EJ pick is he was still, by a wide wide margin, the best defensemen taken in that draft. Holy Shit the D-Men in the draft were bad.

In a “perfect world” in hindsight we just identify Johnson only looks great because there were no other good defenders in the draft, and take one of the Toews/Stall/Kessel/Backstrom group that followed. But, we got a cup this way, so I can’t complain much. Because maybe in that world were we take one of those guys, in 2008 when we have the 4th pick Atlanta takes Pietrangelo instead of Bogosian, leaving us to decide between Bogo and Luke Schenn, with maybe us feeling saucy and getting Nikita Filatov instead.

I thought you were going to say that if we hadn't taken EJ we couldn't have dealt him for Shatty and then couldn't have dealt Shatty for Sanford who scored big goal!

Shatty also yielded one of the 1sts we sent to Philly for Schenn. So yeah, Toews or Backstrom would in hindsight have been better picks, selecting EJ did yield some key contributions to our Cup. So I think we can officially close book on complaining about EJ pick.

 

[JoshFromMO]

I still miss Oshie, another great first rounder from...2005? I don't remember the year but he's still a great player

 

[Ted Hoffman]

I still miss Oshie, another great first rounder from...2005? I don't remember the year but he's still a great player

I remember numerous posts from his UND days where some people swore to God Oshie was going to be a bust and complained that we didn't take Cogliano instead. And then his first year he only had 39 points while Cogliano had 48 in his first season (the season prior) and some people swore to God that he'd never top what Cogliano did and he was a bust. (Ignore the entire part that Oshie did his 39 points in 57 games, while Cogliano did his 48 in 82 and had fallen off to 38 points in Oshie's rookie season.)

Oshie is 5th in points in that draft class, 6th in goals, 4th in points-per-game average. The only skaters you could solidly say were better are Crosby, Kopitar and Stastny; he'd probably be a coin-toss with Letang.

 

[Ted Hoffman]

So I think we can officially close book on complaining about EJ pick.

Don't worry, someone will want to open it up yet again at some point down the road.

That '06 draft, ... damn, it was weak. Yeah, down through about 12 it wasn't bad (Mueller at 8 was a good pick; concussions did him in) but from 15-33, you had just 6 guys even make it to 100 games played. Once you get past Mason at 69, Marchand at 71 and Clutterbuck at 72, there's exactly 10 guys who got to 200 games played and of those, the most notable are James Reimer, Leo Komarov, Andrew McDonald, Mathieu Perreault and Matt Beleskey.