Prospect Info: St. Louis Blues Top-20 Prospects: #1

[Bluesnatic27]

Hello all,

I'd like to start the voting for the 2020 - 2021 St. Louis Blues Top-20 Prospects List! Usually this list would take place after the Blues Prospect Camp. But given how that most likely will not happen and it being August already, I think it would be good to start this list up. The Traverse City Tournament isn't too far away, but with free agency winding down, it's nice to have something to do for the next two months before hockey season is officially back on.

As always, everyone is eligible to participate. There is no restriction on what criteria anyone can use on how they rate a prospect (as long as the said prospect complies with the rules listed below). If people view readiness higher than top-end ability, or value defense more than offense, or whatever else, please vote using that criteria in mind. This is a view of how the Blues fans of HFBoards evaluates the prospects as a collective, so there really is no wrong way to view them.

Below are the rules for the voting as it stands now:

1. Any Blues prospect that has played less than 65 games will be considered a "prospect".
2. Any Blues prospect below the age of 25 will be eligible.
3. The prospect has to be Blues property at this current stage.
4. Voting will take 2 days for the first ~10 spots (+/- 2-3) and then switch to a longer timeline to allow more chances to vote.

As wells as the rules listed above, the actual poll will only allow for individuals to vote once, but that vote can be changed as long as the poll remains open.

If you believe any rule(s) should be changed, voice your opinion and we may discuss how to accommodate. It might be required given this is a top-20 list and the Blues only have 24 prospects that match the criteria listed out.

As a final note, I've imbedded the link to last year's poll for reference:
Prospect Info: - The St. Louis Blues Top-20 Prospect List

With that said, let the voting commence!

Click to read more...

 

[CaliforniaBlues310]

I voted Perunovich, but solely because he has a higher ceiling than Kostin imo.

 

[Majorityof1]

Sweet. It the annual "Majorityof1 votes for the same player over and over while everyone else sleeps on him" poll. I wonder who it will be this year. Past winners have included Binnington and Blais. Maybe people have an aversion to names that start with B. Coincidentally, I voted Bolduc. Let's see how long before you all decide to pick him. Looking like at least 2 rounds with K and P dominating early.

 

[kimzey59]

Kostin by a pretty wide margin.

 

[Memento]

Easily Kostin. I think his upside is slept on a lot. He can play both wings, has a physical power-forward game, is fast, and he's supremely talented.

It's not that Perunovich is worse, but I have him at #3 behind Kostin and Neighbours because of his shoulder injury and not playing last year. The injury limits him; I want to see him fully healthy before I put him above Kostin or Neighbours, both of whom looked seriously impressive in their season.

 

[simon IC]

Kostin hands down.

 

[ChicagoBlues]

Not a fan of Kostin. I'm a fan of the Blues.

My definition of #1 is whomever is closest to playing in the NHL. That would be Kostin.

 

[AjaxManifesto]

What happened to Toropchenko?

I remember years ago (pre Cup) he came into camp and I watched him do drills with Kostin. The Russian two-some.

 

[Mike Liut]

Kostin by a pretty wide margin.

Ditto

 

[DatDude44]

Went Kostin, contemplated Neighbours(he's really come along well and quickly) and perunovich (due to upside) and Bolduc(due to being good away from the puck and on the forecheck with a nice skillset and he played injured all year accoriding to Steve Kournianos)

Those are my top 4 and robertsson is at 5 and after that it's a large drop off imo....excluding goalies obviously

 

[Celtic Note]

Klim is going to have to show me he can play in NA before I get too high on him.

I do think Hartley was what the doctor ordered though.

 

[Majorityof1]

Its strange. Normally these polls have a heavy recency bias where recent picks do really well. But this year, it is definitely a heavy nearness bias. Perunovich and Kostin are definitely the guys closest to making an impact and they are dominating hugely. The leader Kostin is the more likely of the two to make an impact this year. It's very interesting. I wonder if its due to the state of the team where we have a closing cup window, the quality of the prospects, or the amount of hype that's been generated by SP and KK versus the recent draftees due to limited scouting.

 

[ChicagoBlues]

Its strange. Normally these polls have a heavy recency bias where recent picks do really well. But this year, it is definitely a heavy nearness bias. Perunovich and Kostin are definitely the guys closest to making an impact and they are dominating hugely. The leader Kostin is the more likely of the two to make an impact this year. It's very interesting. I wonder if its due to the state of the team where we have a closing cup window, the quality of the prospects, or the amount of hype that's been generated by SP and KK versus the recent draftees due to limited scouting.

I think maybe we, as a fan base, are developing our construct of what constitutes a #1 prospect.

We’re maturing.

 

[LGB]

The best NHL players generally go early in the draft. I’ll take the guy with the most draft capital behind him. Bolduc

 

[Ranksu]

Kostin. Ceiling top6 forward. I think he is now 3rd liner if he is getting chance to play up.

Perunovich had high ceiling. I'm not convinced his progress recent years.

This is huge showdown where he is at. Skating what worries me. Dude is skilled, but how small he is and not so good skating gives me red flag.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

I thought I'd be one of the few people voting Perunovich. Surprised he has as much support.

 

[Mike Liut]

Kostin
Perunovich
Bolduc
Neighbors
Robertson
Alexandrov

those are my top 6. All 6 will be NHLers IMO.

 

[Beauterham]

I'm surprised Kostin is that far ahead of everyone else. Sure, he's the most NHL-ready player on the list, but does he really have the highest upside?

Went with Bolduc.

 

[Robb_K]

I'll go with Kostin, because his floor is the highest, by far. ALL the rest have bust potential, much more than his. And he is currently closest. All the rest have more potential flaws.I'm still questioning Perunovich's size, and his skating not being great enough to make up for that. His defence is still poor. Neighbours might be the next closest. At this point, it is very possible that The Blues will get NO NHL stars from this entire bunch. A LOT will have to go right in their development. Bolduc, Robertsson,
and Alexandrov could potentially eventually be top 6 forwards. But they could all bust, too. Perunovich is really an unknown at this point. Waskurak and Toropchenko might become bottom 6 NHL forwards, - or they might not make it at all. Hofer and Ellis have talent. But goalies that far away are too tough to call. Tucker might make it in The NHL IF he gan upgrade his skating substantially. But that's a big "if". I don't feel very good about this group of prospects, like we did when we had Tarasenko, Schwartz, and Allen as prospects. But, I feel a lot better about them than I did one day before the 2021 Junior/entry Draft.

 

[Blueston]

I went with Neighbours. Think he will be impact forward. Kostin and Perunovich are closer and wouldn’t have issue if either wins.

 

[Celtic Note]

I went with Neighbours. Think he will be impact forward. Kostin and Perunovich are closer and wouldn’t have issue if either wins.

I wouldn’t mind if any of them won, but I do think it speaks to the quality of our system. There isn’t a Kyrou or Thomas. Not a Fabbri (pre-injury). Not a Parayko. There might be a Dunn, but I was higher on Dunn then Perunovich. There isn’t even an Edmundson that I see. We do have some nice goalie prospects, but I am pretty sure we are not allowed to have any excitement toward them.

Needless to say, the system looks like a lot of bottom 9 forwards and 4-7 defensemen if they hit their ceilings. For a team with a lot of guys on the wrong side of 30 this year, that’s a bit too meh for my liking.

 

[Blueston]

I wouldn’t mind if any of them won, but I do think it speaks to the quality of our system. There isn’t a Kyrou or Thomas. Not a Fabbri (pre-injury). Not a Parayko. There might be a Dunn, but I was higher on Dunn then Perunovich. There isn’t even an Edmundson that I see. We do have some nice goalie prospects, but I am pretty sure we are not allowed to have any excitement toward them.

Needless to say, the system looks like a lot of bottom 9 forwards and 4-7 defensemen if they hit their ceilings. For a team with a lot of guys on the wrong side of 30 this year, that’s a bit too meh for my liking.

Disagree. Neighbours and Bolduc project as top 6 forwards. They are both as good of prospects as Fabbri or Kyrou at similar point, if not Thomas. Guys like Dickinson and Peterson and Robertson and Alexandrov and Kostin project as middle 6 guys. Perunovich as top 4 defenseman. Not saying each of these guys reach projections, but our farm system is fairly well stocked for where and how infrequently we have picked.

 

[kimzey59]

I'll go with Kostin, because his floor is the highest, by far. ALL the rest have bust potential, much more than his. And he is currently closest. All the rest have more potential flaws.I'm still questioning Perunovich's size, and his skating not being great enough to make up for that. His defence is still poor. Neighbours might be the next closest. At this point, it is very possible that The Blues will get NO NHL stars from this entire bunch. A LOT will have to go right in their development. Bolduc, Robertsson, Alexandrov and Loof could potentially eventually be top 6 forwards. But they could all bust, too. Perunovich is really an unknown at this point. Waskurak and Toropchenko might become bottom 6 NHL forwards, - or they might not make it at all. Hofer and Ellis have talent. But goalies that far away are too tough to call. Tucker might make it in The NHL IF he gan upgrade his skating substantially. But that's a big "if". I don't feel very good about this group of prospects, like we did when we had Tarasenko, Schwartz, and Allen as prospects. But, I feel a lot better about them than I did one day before the 2021 Junior/entry Draft.

Given that Loof is a defenseman, I will be absolutely stunned if he ends up a top 6 forward. That would put him in Dustin Byfuglien/Brent Burns territory and I definitely don't see that in him.

 

[ChicagoBlues]

nah. I will wait

 

[Robb_K]

Given that Loof is a defenseman, I will be absolutely stunned if he ends up a top 6 forward. That would put him in Dustin Byfuglien/Brent Burns territory and I definitely don't see that in him.

Sorry! I'd forgotten he was a defenceman. But, I somehow identified with him having good offensive instincts. Does he have pretty decent scoring totals for Sweden (remembering that they are stingy with secondary assists)?