Join Blues beat writer Jim Thomas for his live chat at 1 p.m. Wednesday
Get your questions ready and join in at 1 p.m. Wednesday for our weekly Blues chat.
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Thanks for doing these chats, JT! always appreciated!
Do you think the Blues, since they are seeing success without O'Reilly and Tarasenko, are more likely to move on from them at the trade deadline?
Is there anyway to trade Tarasenko or O'Reilly with a bad contract like Torey Krug or Marco Scandello in exchange for taking less back? (for example, if ROR would fetch a 1st round and a prospect, ROR and MS get exchanged for a 3rd rounder?) Thoughts? Would Buffalo, New Jersey, or Seattle make sense? (Lots of cap room next year) -
Very small sample size so far on life without O'Reilly and Tarasenko, so I don't know if it's enough to influence Armstrong's thinking one way or another. If they keep playing this way through February, sure But yeah, there might be a team willing to take on a "bad contract" in order to reach the cap floor. I think Arizona comes to mind. That might be a little harder to do with Krug, since he has multiple years left on his contract. Scandella, on the other hand, has just one year left on his deal after this season.
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I've seen a few references in the chats about the Blues' prospects not being well-rated and somethin go the effect that the Blues have the 2nd worst collection of minor leaguers of all the NHL teams. Yet, I look at the current AHL standings and the Springfield Thunderbirds are pretty much middle of the pack, maybe a bit below average. But not sucking wind at the bottom of the pile. Do you agree with the long term outlook for the upcoming Blues players?
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I think the rankings you're referring to are penalizing the Blues, so to speak, because they don't have the high volume of draft picks that other teams have. I think the Blues' high-end prospects are all pretty good talent. - players such as Neighbours, Bolduc, Snuggerud, and I'll throw Leo Loof in there as well. They're all players, I think that a lot of teams would like. The Blues just don't have as many players like that in their pipeline as most other teams. And that's why the Blues overall are being rated so low.As for Springfield,, which played for the AHL's version of the Stanley Cup just last season, I think it's partly a testament to the work of Drew Bannister and his staff. I think they're very good at player development.
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Happy Wednesday Jim! As always thank you for doing the chat today.
We are witnessing the “change of the guard” of leadership to Kyrou and Thomas. Its time to trade Vladi and O’Reilly once they return and get what we can before they both sign this summer and the Blues get nothing for them. What say you? -
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I am in Western Canada on business at times and have sporadic access to Blues games on TV so go to the radio broadcast on ESPN101. But sometimes even that does not work with Blues radio preempted by NFL, college football, MLB in season, Toronto blackouts, etc. So where can I listen to Kerbs and Joey? Hoping JT, other chatters, or Dan Caesar can advise.
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There is fan voting for the all-star game, but I don't think it's of the last-man up variety. But yes, Buchnevich is deserving even those he's missed like 9 games this year. Nothing against Tarasenko, who I respect as a player and a person, but I thought it would be either Kyrou or Buchnevich as the league-selected all-star last week.
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Hi Jimmy how are you? Good health I hope! Walking your dog daily? Alexandrov has 2 goals on only 15 minutes of play in the last 2 games. Yet Berube put Accari in for him in the 3rd period last night? Not sure why he's sheltering him? Neighbors has played nearly 10 more minutes in the same 2 games. They're both doing well but not sure Neighbours has earned the extra playing time. I guess every coach plays favorites. What's your take?
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It's sure looking like a great trade for the Blues. The Blues sent Sammy Blais and a 2022 second-round pick to the Rangers for Buchnevich. Blais missed most of last year with a knee injury. And is getting 4th-line minutes this season. In 49 games with the Rangers - this year and last - Blais has yet to score a goal. As for the second-round pick the Rangers used it to pick up Andrew Copp as a rental last season. He subsequently signed with Detroit as a free agent during the offseason.So yeah, it's worked well. On the Rangers end, they felt they couldn't afford to re-sign Buchnevich to an extension - that they had other priorities.
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The Schenn deal definitely has been a big win for the Blues as well, but at least the Flyers have gotten some production from the two first-rounders they also got in the trade, particularly Joel Farabee - who's had 20- and 17-goal seasons with Philly. Morgan Frost, the other first-rounder, not as much. Although he's been more productive this year with eight goals.
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While I agree the sample size without Tank and ROR is very small and we are seeing exceptional play from the young guys (this will most likely fall off as the season goes), I would rather get something in return for Tank / ROR and roll the dice on the season. If we make the playoffs great, if not, use this season to get these young kids experience and ready for full time next year. Worse case we get a high draft pick.
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Agreed. Calgary is a different-looking team this year. There were times last season when they would take your breath away with their skill and speed and offensive prowess. To me, they're much more of a heavy, almost plodding team this year. Kadri is a skilled player, for sure. And I'm sure if he were playing for the Blues, most fans would have little to no problems with his extracurriculars.
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I do like to travel, but it's a whole different deal when you're traveling on your own terms and own timetable than traveling for work. The one place I'd like to go is to the country of Albania, which is where my late mother is from.A couple of road stops where I'd like to spend more time in a vacation-time setting would be Montreal and Vancouver.
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I agree Armstrong does not share my opinion and if I were in his shoes, I would be doing everything I can to win now. But you cannot continually trade away high draft picks for rental players for aging players. Eventually, you need to see what you have in your current prospect pipeline. Only real way of knowing is to allow for them to play at the NHL level.
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I'd be interested in your comments on Mikola's game. He has some strengths, but I would not count among them his decision making when he has the puck. He often seems to hurry passes, which get picked off, when he seems to have more time to make a better play.
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I get a kick out of reading comments on Blue articles. After the ROR trade and the subsequent Stanley cup and other accolades he won that year everyone said we stole the trade; now people are saying we should have never traded Thompson. Thompson might have never become the player he is today with the Blues. He was getting a lot of time to develop in the NHL on a terrible team.
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It's good to see the rest of the team pick things up after O'Reilly, Tarasenko and Krug went down. It's too bad they couldn't have played better earlier. Before we turn the page on 90 and 91, do you think they'll get enough games in before the trade deadline to help with a playoff run?
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