Summer Synopsis: St. Louis Blues

With training camps now less than a month away, the bulk of the heavy lifting has been done from a roster perspective.  Most unrestricted free agents have found new homes, the arbitration period has come and gone, and the trade market has cooled.  Accordingly, it’s a good time to take a look at what each team has accomplished this offseason.  Next up is a look at St. Louis.

Last summer, the Blues were relatively quiet early on before striking with a pair of successful offer sheets to bring in a couple of potential core players.  A second-half push helped propel them into the playoffs, and in his final summer at the helm as GM, Doug Armstrong largely elected to keep the status quo with only a few moves of consequence.

Draft

1-19 – F Justin Carbonneau, Blainville-Boisbriand (QMJHL)
5-147 – F Mikhail Fyodorov, Magnitogorsk (MHL)
6-179 – G Love Harenstam, Skelleftea (Sweden U20)

If this section feels a little light, there’s a good reason for that.  The silver lining for St. Louis is that most of the missing draft picks turned into established players.  The second rounder went in the offer sheet for Philip Broberg after being reacquired from Pittsburgh.  Broberg showed lots of promise in his first full NHL season.  The third rounder went in the offer sheet for Dylan Holloway.  He finished third on the team in scoring.  Even the fourth rounder yielded a roster regular as it went for Alexandre Texier.  His first year wasn’t great, but he still has one more year left on his contract to turn things around.  With the thought that a draft class should ideally yield two NHL players, they already got there before even drafting anyone.  Not too shabby.

Carbonneau was one of the better offensive wingers in this year’s class and isn’t just a one-trick pony as he’s a deft playmaker with an above-average shot.  There was some talk that he might make the jump to college hockey this season, but he decided to return to QMJHL Blainville-Boisbriand, although he notably hasn’t signed his entry-level deal yet, keeping his NCAA options on the table.  Carbonneau is a few years away from being NHL-ready, but he has legitimate top-six upside.  Fyodorov is a late-round project as he finds himself still in the Russian junior ranks, while Harenstam did okay in Sweden’s junior level last season and will now look to make the jump to the second-tier Allsvenskan.  Both players are longer-term development pieces.

Trade Acquisitions

D Logan Mailloux…