Join Blues beat writer Tom Timmermann 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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Either Tarasenko has a good season and gets a good deal elsewhere or doesn't and looks for a better deal elsewhere. There is pretty much zero way for the Blues to keep O'Reilly and Tarasenko and I think they would go with O'Reilly if it was an either-or situation. And it may be a neither-neither situation where they can't keep either -
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Given the age of the team it seems like the Blues need some young unexpected player to step up into the top 9. Could Brown play 3C, Scheen is getting older and older players do better on the wing. Could Kostin be a legit 15 goal left wing in the top 9. Torp has never really scored in juniors or Springfield, at least not at a high prospect level, could he be one of those late blooming big men?
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There is a world where Brown is the 3C and Schenn is on the wing elsewhere. And the Blues would love to see Brown earn that spot, because he is very cost-efficient and would add another layer to the team. And he's got to show what he can do this season or his clock will run out. 15 goals for Kostin would exceed expectations, particularly since he's going to get a lot of fourth line minutes and no power play time and in his career has five goals in 46 NHL games. Berube has been more willing to play Toropchenko up in the lineup and when he's back, he will likely be taking Kostin's time unless the situation allows otherwise. Toropchenko playing a lot is the safest bet of that lot. Remains to be seen on how his scoring goes.
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Tom -
I've seen you mention a few times today that our cup window is still open, but that's gotta be as optomistic of a view of this team as possible right? I hate to be a downer, but I'm extremely concerned for the next 5 years for the Blues. Doug has pulled some rabbits out of his hat as GM of these Blues but making us Stanley Cup competitive this year or in the foreseeable future would be his greatest trick yet. -
It's all relative. I think the window is open more this year than it will be in three years, but the problem is, there is still a team called Colorado. After this season, with the possibility that O'Reilly and Tarasenko are both gone, it will be a very different window and an uncertain future.But if you were to rank the next five seasons by Cup potential, I think this one would rank highest. And it's not totally out of the question, if the team stays healthy and Binnington plays well.Interestingly, that's the first time Binnington has been mentioned in this chat.
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I think the smart move would be to have kept Perron, he's a money player, and then trade TArasenko... softer landing in terms of production this year... Perron had 27 goals... And, you add young assets to your farm system..And you gain about 3.0-3.5 million in cap space by trading Vlady and keeping DP... That's the move I would have made... Vlady also doesn't want to be here. DP bleeds blue...
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I'd have prioritized keeping Perron over Leddy because the Blues had more defensemen, though the Scandella injury slightly alters the quality of that take. Trading Tarasenko requires another team to want him and giving you fair value. Armstrong never found a deal that warranted trading a 30-goal scorer.
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Depth is pretty cool until you lose it, one twisted knee, a shot block related break and Rosen may be on the second pair. On the Podcast JT often mentions Krug regularly missing 20 games, Perunovich having health issues, maybe it doesn’t take much for fans to wish for a speedy return of Scandella. Has the announced Scandella’s injury been an issue over the last couple or years or completely new? Is the injury or fix similar to what limited Boewmeister for the first half of the 18/19 season?
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We don't know yet as to whether Scandella's injury is related to any of the ones that kept him out for parts of last season. There's a good chance it is, because once some part is injured, there's a good chance it gets hurt again. But we don't know that. The Blues defensemen do have a strong history of being hurt. JT kept saying during the summer that one of these guys was going to get hurt and he was right.
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Without a doubt the current Blues ownership is the best we have ever had since the very early days of the Salomon’s. Purina walked away for the Blues once R. Hal Dean retired and we all most went to Saskatoon. The Orenest family pinched nickels until the buffaloes roared. The Shanahan team was financially reckless and the Laurie’s were simply precursors to their relative Kroenke (who had nothing to do with the Blues. (Thank goodness.) The Checketts group cashed or sold everything they could for short term gains (concession rights, etc.) The reality is that the Stillman era has brought us consistently good to great teams, our first Stanley Cup and stability. Do I like ads on uniforms or helmets - no. But I also don’t like being hounded to place bets constantly even less. The NHL revenue stream is a lot less than the NFL, NBA or MLB. To enjoy our sport, we will have to learn to live with it. And, as Tom already mentioned, it’s a lot less advertising than the European leagues, NASCAR, etc.
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With your projection of Binner possibly playing 65 games. Griess playing the rest. Binner is 165 pounds he will never be able to play 60 games plus playoffs at a grade A level. Never going to happen. You over work him and he can't keep his confidence up. Do you think Hofer is at all ready? We fans don't really know how good or bad he is. If Chuckle sideburns beat him out for the playoffs what does that say? Why Army let Chuckle and Husso go Bogle's then mind!!
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I would think the Blues would be comfortable with Hofer in the second half of the season.The Blues may have been able to get a deal with Lindgren after his first game or two, but after he kind of exploded, his price went way up and there was no way they were going to give him a deal like he got from Washington. But at the same time, I don't think they wanted to block Hofer or Ellis
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Comping two tall, higher-draft, center iceman...in hopes of one breaking out like the other did last season...what's are their lines for: Age, Year Drafted, Draft Pick #, Height, Weight, Games Played, Avg Mins, and Goals/Assists/Points? Sorry to make you work. Thanks again! Oh...in case you haven't figured out who the comps are...it's L. Brown and T. Thompson.
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I'm running late, so I'll point you to hockey-reference.com for these numbers, but it will be tough for Brown to match Thompson's breakout season. The Sabres made Thompson a project and he got some quality ice time. It's very unlikely Brown gets the kind of ice time with the Blues that Thompson got. Buffalo could do it because they weren't going anywhere. But Thompson certainly proved that taller forwards sometimes take a bit more time.
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Hi Tom, enjoy your fine writing and hockey insights. Is Bolduc a LW? or a RW? I know they're going to give a lot of wingers a chance with O'R, but If he shows well, could he be used to replace Perron, another good shooter? Would they play Bolduc 3rd line, or would they rather give him more ice at lower levels? Also, that young d, Kessel, could he make the team? Thanks.
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I think the Blues would be willing to play Bolduc anywhere, though they would probably follow what they did with Thomas and not start him at center. He's a left shot, so right wing would be his more likely spot, though I don't know that they'd even be married to that. He could end up on the third line at the start just because of the way it shakes out with Thomas, O'Reilly, Saad, Buchnevich, Kyrou and Tarasenko on the top two lines.Kessel won't make the team out of camp. With Scandella out, he's probably 10th on the depth chart, after the NHL 7, Rosen and Santini. He's probably a season away from being in the mix. At this time last season, he was still in college.
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Tom - long time reader, first time with a question / comment. To everyone reading these chats, why in the world are you getting pissy with Tom and/or Jim? I appreciate reading the Blues PD beat writers thoughts and insights on our questions about our favorite hockey team. There are numerous social media platforms where you can be a keyboard warrior if you don’t get your question(s) answered immediately or are angry that DA didn’t resign Husso or whatever. As this is now a TLDR coo ent I will send my question in separately. Thank you Tom for your excellent work.
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And on that note, we'll close the chat. Thanks for taking part and next week, there will be even more to discuss. Schedules during training camp may vary with games and practice schedules, but someone will be here next Wednesday. Until then, enjoy, and maybe I'll see some of you at Centene on Thursday or Friday.