Offseason Predictions:

Welcome your new coach, Joel Quenneville. I’ve been around too long, the little PR process in place right now seems obvious to me. Guy who has no job gets in local podcast to talk about wanting a job. They’re seeing how you all feel about it. I personally do not believe the average hockey fans cares about the past, oblivious to them, none of the details matter at all they do not care or know or care to know. Heck, I bet if you ask most casual blues fans, they’d be all for a guy who let some Blackhawk get diddled. Blues internet people have an oft repeated phrase for about 15 years running: F the hawks. Well - Q was all for that. My opinion is he has been sentenced for a crime, if that sentence ends it ends. I’m not going to waste my time stressing over it and I’m not going to stop liking my team. There’s far worse injustice in the world on a daily basis than if the league decides a 3-year ban was appropriate. Stl has previously hired individuals needing a 2nd chance. I hope Bannister stays, either at the nhl level on Qs team or AHL as HC with more power. He’s somebody I want on my team. But will see: I bet if you gave me a taste of the NHL while I was in the AHL I’d have a hard time heading back.

One or more of Binnington, Krug, or Parayko will be traded for various reasons. Binnington: cause his window is closing and he wants to win. Krug buyout possibly. Parayko because he’s the only one with value that you can move without jacking up your future because you get something good in return.

Parayko could be a great asset for Utah. Utah has so many futures. I think stl and Utah make excellent trade partners. I hope Doug Armstrong hits that jackpot, cause that franchise has an absolute massive amount of assets to trade, and apart from a few guys, stl has quality guys to offer in exchange. I think there’s some real win win trades.

Binner has trade value, could be a great target for Jersey, has a similar attitude as Jack, has a similar playstyle to Jake Allen who is having some success there, but unfortunately is old. Jersey would likely send a goaltender back among other things, and our depth chart would be young, but up to 3 deep with Zherenko. It would also be fun if he were a Flyer considering their Hextall days, but they just got that absolute unit of a goalie from Russia.

I feel bad for Krug, but this is the most competitive league in the world and it says sorry not sorry. If you want a spot you have to do better even when the situation is less than ideal. It sucks. The system does not have mercy. If you’re going to be capsized defensively that can be fine, but you gotta create offense, and that didn’t happen this year. Perhaps some other defensive change happens that allows stl to avoid buyout. Krug is not “the problem”, the mix, depth chart, and the series of injuries are. Something has to give.

I don’t think Kapanen returns. I think the DUI a week before a “prove it” season did it for me, not specifically because of the dui, but because he was busy filling his body with alcohol instead of post workout. At a certain level of fitness, drinking becomes repulsive. Your body is a temple and when you take care of it to the extreme, harming it is sacrilege. I’m not paying a person 3 mil a year to figure it out if he isn’t at that level. I don’t think athletes must abstain, but the week before the season you’re proving it is the time to be at your peak. I would have tried to release him then. I absolutely would not offer him a contract this summer. Not even for league minimum. It’s not personal, I simply value icetime - and I can find somebody to fill his minutes who is taking this as serious as they need to be, probably for a lot less money.

Otherwise, barring wild mega trade, I think the forwards look about the same. There should be one addition (two depending on sundqvist recovery timeframe), but it wouldn’t have to be a premium player. It’s hard to predict some acquisition as it really depends on the observations of all these young guys in the line up. Perhaps there’s an obvious hole to them that will be filled.

Post Mortem:

My expectations were that the blues were a bubble team and I got exactly what I expected.

I think Schenn got thrown under the bus a bit and whether that belief is correct or not, I like how his season went, how the team played all things considered. Buchnevich really played hard for the team as well, got rewarded with way too much icetime, but that’s an indicator of a depth problem. I would resign Buchnevich, he’s shown a level of compete, intelligence, and versatility that is hard to find. The contract might get iffy at the end but that’s okay.

Robert Thomas is elite. Imma start banging the selke drum next season. I think that award has his name on it within 5 years.

It will be beneficial to have given Dean, Alexandrov, Bolduc, Toropchenko, and Perunovich real ice time the past bit. No clue where they all end up, but I like that Krug was scratched (until Faulk injured), Hayes scratched so this icetime could be given. Now all those guys have concrete examples of things they need to work on as they develop.

I dislike the blues 5v5 scoring, is absolute dumpster, worse than Chicago. This is the gms failure, not the coach or the players - a depth team cannot compete without depth, and (among other things) a replacement for vrana should have been acquired the second month of the season.

Buchnevich would have way more energy per shift if he were skating 16-18 min versus 21-24 min a game. He should be skating 16-18. Dominant teams without unique players (mcDavidless stars, bruins) keep their minutes flat so every time a skater hits the ice they’re pulling from a larger energy pool. The only guys on those teams who go above 18 are guys who do both pp and pk, and thru the season they mix that up so the end result is quite dispersed. Go check out their teams icetime distribution compared to ours. I made trade proposals here for Josh Anderson, Tarasenko, Patrick laine (not knowing), and a few others at that time - if it’s obvious to me as an outsider…and you can’t convince me there wasn’t a reasonable deal to be found - you didn’t need to target a top liner or otherwise premium asset, didn’t have to be young, didn’t have to have term. But whatever.

The team had an outstanding record against good teams - just too many depth chart holes to do that reliably.

I think my standout moment was Kyrou getting booed after chiefs termination, which is a good indicator the season wasn’t spectacular. I have -NEVER- seen that reaction in stl. I think his future here is fine, and that the lowpoint is in the rearview, but if he were traded I wouldn’t be surprised. Another option for Utah. I like him, I think he’s a very cool unique element. I think the team is very dangerous if he’s on it and the rest of the forwards are properly placed on the depth chart, and he's used as a unique weapon, not in all conditions. If he’s taking a share of premium opportunities, but a peer with a different skill set is taking some too, both will be more effective. Kyrou is closer to Mitch marner than he is far, and moving on from him is silly. But if he goes I think that’s fine too. Whatever. I wish the local reporter who always has an opinion on Kyrou would stop being so …

I don’t understand how that guy gets money for doing what he does. It’s very immature for somebody who is so experienced … I could accidentally do a better job with no experience.

Lastly, I like Snuggerud staying in the NCAA. We have enough to develop. Stl will be in a better position to help him succeed a year from now. Historically, stl has given into every demand for collegiate prospects. Stl will again pay the fair price to get him when the time comes, and our lack of enough scoring depth gives him a future that could project high up on our depth chart. What more could he get elsewhere. Same with Perunovich - his future is in question - who else is going to bend their defense around him like stl has. Stl has the benefit of being able to offer opportunity,

It’ll be better sooner than later and interesting in between. This offseason has the chance to be one of the more dynamic of the teams history.

If I'm being honest, you start with coach Q and it just makes me not want to read the rest.

NO. End of story.

I think if enough fans voice their opinion about a Q hire then I think it could not happen. I’m guessing feeling the situation out is a part of what is happening right now. But I think most people simply do not care. It’s not that their moral compass is broken, it’s that they just kinda follow hockey, aren’t involved in the details, do not care about them - there’s always some awful story, but they fill their time with other things and just want to watch hockey on Tuesday at 7pm after work.