GDT: St. Louis Blues 2022 Draft Thread

[Beauterham]

...aaand that was it for this year.

I'm quite happy with the Blues picks. Looking forward to prospect camp and hoping everyone can attend.

 

[Blueston]

I know he plays for London and I literally know nothing about him, but that stat line is a little underwhelming.

London always leans heavily on top line and doesn't tend to play younger guys as much. Let's see how he develops.

 

[ChicagoBlues]

He shoots birds with a slingshot.

Does he use marbles?

 

[Linkens Mastery]

Does he use marbles?

Nope, bundles of Pop-Its

 

[TK 421]

Me after watching 19th - 24th play out.

 

[Oberyn]

Jon Sim is listed as a part-time amateur scout on the Blues website so I'm guessing that played a factor in drafting his kid. Not a huge fan considering his unimpressive stat line but I'm mostly satisfied with all the earlier picks.

 

[ChicagoBlues]

Nope, bundles of Pop-Its

Oh! Well, in that case, he’s fine by me.

 

[Frenzy31]

Jon Sim is listed as a part-time amateur scout on the Blues website so I'm guessing that played a factor in drafting his kid. Not a huge fan considering his unimpressive stat line but I'm mostly satisfied with all the earlier picks.

I don’t like the nepotism.

 

[Robb_K]

I'm happy with The Blues' draft choices. Now we look forward to trades and Free agent signings.

 

[ChicagoBlues]

I don’t like the nepotism.

Bah humbug!

The kid was sumpn like a 12th rounder, so who cares.

 

[Bluesguru]

Looks like the Blues last pick was Simulated.

 

[execwrite1]

Rather remarkable draft haul - Hockey News rankings - one first round and two second round picks

#17 - Snuggerud
#55 - Kaskimaki
#64 - Buchinger

 

[STL fan in MN]

I don’t like the nepotism.

Maybe Sim was actually the BPA on their board but it seems unlikely.

They did the same thing back in 2008 - drafted Phil McRae while his dad Basil was a scout. But that was 33rd overall! They took Jake the Snake 1 pick later.

Just cringed a little when I saw who went 38th that year…

 

[MortiestOfMortys]

Re: Buchinger, via Brock Otten:

20. Michael Buchinger - Defense - Guelph Storm
I know he has his fans in the NHL scouting community. With good reason too. Buchinger is a good skater and there is a real effectiveness in his simplicity. He starts the breakout really well, even in the face of pressure. His instincts with the puck are sound and he always seems to have his head up; the scanning habits are also top notch. For that reason, he can be tough to truly pin down in the defensive end. Defensively, he also competes along the wall and near the crease. He doesn't win every battle because he definitely needs to get a little stronger, but the effort is there. A high IQ, but mobile defender, it is easy to see Buchinger developing into a long time #4-5 defender. However, my concern is that he's good at a lot of things, but elite at none of them. What is the path for him to the NHL? We've seen many similar kind of jack of all trades type of defenders from the CHL falter (Stuart Percy, Matt Finn, Noah Juulsen, Roland McKeown, etc). McKeown is a terrific comparison in fact, as we used a lot of the same sort of descriptors with him. Can Buchinger turn himself into an elite player at either end? Offensively, I found that as he pushed deeper outside of the defensive zone with the puck, he ran into trouble and it showed some limitations to his puck moving ability. Defensively, he doesn't have the kind of size, reach, and physical tenacity that you typically see from a standout stay at home type. I really like Buchinger in that 75-120 range because I do feel there is value in selecting high IQ defenders two-way defenders in hopes that a few of the tools really improve. But earlier than that? I'm not sure.

 

[MortiestOfMortys]

Kaskimaki is the first Finnish forward we’ve taken in the draft since Jori Lehtera in 2008. First Finn at any position since Mikkola in 2015. Huge tendency breaker. Maybe Feltrin is putting more stock in Euro scouting than Barmstrong did, maybe we just really liked him at the U18s (which would be a very Jarmo thing to do). Notable either way

 

[Blueston]

Re: Buchinger, via Brock Otten:

Sounds a bit like Calle Rosen.

 

[mk80]

My thought on Sim is that while it may be a pick just because his dad is a scout for us in some capacity, they said that as a young player he didn't get a lot of the minutes on a team like London which produces a ton of talent every year and is one of the perennial top teams in the OHL, so he might grow and develop there more over the years with more playing time.

The last drafted player we took who had a direct connection to us was Tage Thompson who's father used to coach Peoria, and while it didn't happen with us he's turned into a good player for Buffalo, and he led to ROR coming here. So Sim could either take that trajectory with us or another NHL team, or he could be a Phil Mcrae. Like any draft pick, it's all unknown how they pan out at this point.

 

[Blueston]

My thought on Sim is that while it may be a pick just because his dad is a scout for us in some capacity, they said that as a young player he didn't get a lot of the minutes on a team like London which produces a ton of talent every year and is one of the perennial top teams in the OHL, so he might grow and develop there more over the years with more playing time.

The last drafted player we took who had a direct connection to us was Tage Thompson who's father used to coach Peoria, and while it didn't happen with us he's turned into a good player for Buffalo, and he led to ROR coming here. So Sim could either take that trajectory with us or another NHL team, or he could be a Phil Mcrae. Like any draft pick, it's all unknown how they pan out at this point.

i didn't like taking mcrae's kid so high, but you wanna take scout's kid in round 7 so be it. would be more upset if we purposely didn't take him bc he was scout's kid and he becomes top player.

 

[PocketNines]

Maybe Sim was actually the BPA on their board but it seems unlikely.

They did the same thing back in 2008 - drafted Phil McRae while his dad Basil was a scout. But that was 33rd overall! They took Jake the Snake 1 pick later.

Just cringed a little when I saw who went 38th that year…

Yeah but we made up for that whiff by trading for the guy at 55