Why is everybody having Thomas as 4C? That would destroy his development completely.

Yeah Bozak should play 4 C.

If it were me I would put him as 3rd C and temporarily move him to wing if he can’t handle it.








The blues suck btw.

Thomas should be RW in first season. Kyrou likely starts in AHL. I would say that this is what lines might look like:

Fabbri-ROR-Tarasenko
Schwartz-Schenn-Thomas
Steen-Bozak-Perron
Maroon-Barbashev-Jaskin

If the Blues are looking to continue the traditional "grinder/bruiser" 4th then yes it would limit his time and his development. However, there are quite a few teams moving in the direction of using 4 skill lines (i.e. see Vegas). The possibility of creating a skill 4th line and placing him there to develop as a C instead of a W has been batted around by many including the coach in interviews.

Again as mentioned in the title....possible opening night lineup....by no means do I see this as the lines we will see by midseason.

Bozak is very unlikely to be playing 4c this season. He will be 3c...likely all season unless injured...and will play with Steen + someone else (probably Perron).

SammyT_51....I see your lines as what will likely shake out about 15 games into the season....with Thomas taking the majority of the faceoff's on the Schenn/Schwartz line and then moving to the wing with Schenn taking the center position.

I hate the idea of putting a natural center at wing to start their career unless they are going to play wing permanently (see Fabbri). The best way to get a young center acclimated to NHL is to have him play center if he is NHL ready. I know he's not Connor McDavid or Crosby, but they started at center at have flourished. Let him play center.

Thomas on 2nd line as RW would take faceoffs, Likely Schenn left side, Thomas right side.. thats what I see happening. Many players who now play centermen developed from starting at wing, like Larkin.. the idea of this is to put the pressure on player who is used to that and slowly put that pressure on rookie throughout season or two.. thats the most efficient way to play centermen who are not really Matthews, McDavid, Crosby levels.. But if Thomas plays C then Bozak plays 4C, Thomas is not going to play 4C ever.. thats just the recipe for development disaster.

When Schwartz broke in with the Blues he was relegated to 4th line minutes. I'm fairly certain it didn't stunt his career path.

The 4th line in the traditional sense is being phased out of the game. Thorburn should be waived in part because of this but also the Blues have plenty of young depth players that are as good or better.

Of course. But with that much offensive talent there would be little ice time possible on 4th line..

Also, Fabbri will not be on the 4th line.

Im not saying have Thomas play 4c, but he shouldn't be playing wing. And Larkin hasnt played the defensive side of things very well. He's still adjusting to that. He's also not very good at faceoffs. If he started learning as a rookie how to face off against those guys and the play the position to it's fullest, he'd be more than just an offensive guy. I'd much rather have him play number 3 center with Fabbri on the left and either Perron or Steen on the right