Projecting the St. Louis Blues' Opening Night Roster

We're now less than two weeks from the start of the NHL season. Teams are finalizing their rosters and signing their RFAs, and players are beginning their training camps and gearing up for pre-season action. The Blues seem to be in limbo since their Cup win two seasons ago. They're able to consistently make the playoffs, but don't appear to have quite enough to carry them back to the Finals. It's a head-scratcher since the Blues have depth at all positions, but to be safe they went out and added more this summer, and despite losing Jaden Schwartz to free agency still look to have a solid group heading into the regular season. Whether or not that group can win another Cup is still in question, but fans can safely expect to see the Blues back in the post-season next Spring. With that said, let's look at the team's expected roster as it stands right now, starting at forward:

David Perron - Ryan O'Reilly - Jordan Kyrou

Brandon Saad - Robert Thomas - Vladimir Tarasenko

Brayden Schenn - Tyler Bozak - Pavel Buchnevich

Kyle Clifford - Logan Brown - Ivan Barabshev

Klim Kostin

James Neal

Jake Neighbours

The fact that Oskar Sundqvist is beginning the season on LTIR makes the Blues' depth down the middle a bit weaker. Thankfully, Robert Thomas has shown he can handle top 6 NHL minutes, allowing Brayden Schenn to drop to the third line. Schenn could play wing or centre, but the more centre-specialized Bozak should take precendence there. Meanwhile, Tarasenko remains on the Blues despite his request for a trade. His injuries of late make it difficult to gauge where his game is at, so he should get a spot in the top 6 to start the year. If he can hang, he may even bump Kyrou down to the second line. If he can't, newcomer Pavel Buchnevich looked ready for top 6 minutes with the Rangers, and there's no reason to think that will change in St. Louis. Meanwhile, both Klim Kostin and James Neal should make strong cases for themselves to be included in this roster. Neal scored a hat trick in the Blues' first preseason game, a good start for him although he remains on a PTO at the time of this writing. As for Kostin, the Blues are high on this young prospect, and he will get to make his case the moment someone misses a game due to injury if he doesn't quite make the jump out of camp. Also worthy of note is Jake Neighbours, who may not crack the roster this year but will be given every opportunity at training camp to prove himself.

On defence, things remain relatively the same as last season, although some young prospects are one step closer to breaking in to the league:

Torey Krug - Justin Faulk

Marco Scandella - Colton Parayko

Niko Mikkola - Robert Bertuzzo

Scott Perunovich

Steven Santini

Jake Walman

Last season, Perunovich rode the Blues taxi squad for around a month before shoulder surgery ended his season before he could play with the big club or for their AHL affiliate. The Hobey Baker Award winner from two years ago, Perunovich has been improving year after year, and he won't be kept out of the NHL for much longer. The Blues are very high on this player's potential, the only thing holding him back are the players ahead of him. Otherwise, there isn't much to criticise here. This is more or less the same Blues defence that got them to the playoffs last season. There's no reason to think they can't do it again.

In net, more familiarity in regards to the starting tandem, with a new face filling in as the third string:

Jordan Binnington

Ville Husso

Charlie Lindgren

The go-to starter in St. Louis will be Binnington for the forseeable future. He earned that with his play that lead to the Blues' Cup win two years ago, and has continued to be a solid starter for the team in the years that followed. As of yet, Ville Husso has yet to become a threat to that structure, showing himself to be a serviceable backup but not yet solid enough to own the crease full-time. Behind Husso, Charlie Lindgren is still trying to find his consistency at the NHL level. He showed occasionaly flashes of brilliance during his time in Montreal, but more often what he showed was merely average. Given the chance, he may prove ready for more frequent NHL duties, but for now he'll spend his time in the AHL waiting for a call-up.

What do you think of this lineup for the Blues, and what would you change?

Photo credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports