Heading into the 2023-24 season, it would’ve been a bold statement to say Robert Thomas would score 19 more points than second place on the St. Louis Blues at the end of the season.
However, that’s exactly what happened. The Blues number-one center had his best season to date and hopefully will get more support from the rest of the forwards in the upcoming season.
The Blues march into the season with an identical roster, but the core needs to step their game up if they want to get back into the dance. Below we make a few bold predictions that may come to fruition this season for St. Louis.
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In 2023-24, Jordan Binnington slightly improved his play in the crease for his team, and the hope is that the 2019 Stanley Cup Champion is starting to return to form.
Yet, a young 24-year-old netminder is tickling Binnington’s heels, and is coming off of a solid rookie season as the team’s backup.
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When Binnington had some inconsistency and poor play, Joel Hofer took over the net and received consecutive starts last season. The 6-foot-5 netminder performed and handled the workload like a professional and firmly established himself as an everyday NHL-caliber goaltender.
Hofer achieved a save percentage of .900 or higher in 20 out of 30 games played, making him one of the most consistent backup goalies in the 2023-24 season, alongside tendies like Semyon Varlamov, Anthony Stolarz, and Jonathan Quick.
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Our prediction isn’t that Hofer will steal the starting role from Binnington this season. Not yet at least. Instead, we’re predicting that the former 2018 fourth-rounder will steal more games from Binnington and create a tandem situation in St. Louis where the two have a 40/40 split.
From a technical standpoint, Hofer is better than Binnington. Jordan at times can lose control of his edges and positioning when the play in front of him starts moving side-to-side rapidly. Hofer showcases a calmer demeanor and more poise. Joel has the makings of becoming a future starter in the NHL someday.
St. Louis Powerplay Finishes Top 10
The Blues’ powerplay to start last season was abysmal. Before current Head Coach Drew Bannister took over for Craig Berube behind the bench on Dec. 12, 2023, the team’s powerplay ranked 31st at a lowly 8.8%. They had scored only seven goals on 80 powerplay opportunities.
Bannister and with the help of former NHL all-star Brad Richards — who was hired as a special teams consultant shortly after Bannister took over — turned St. Louis’ powerplay from a disaster into a threat.
In the 55 games under Bannister, the Blues had the 13th-best powerplay (from Dec. 12 to Apr. 18) with a 22.4 percentage. One change they made which clearly aided them was moving Jake Neighbours to the top unit.
Under Berube last season, Neighbours was averaging 1:09 PP TOI/GP. Under Bannister, those numbers jumped to 2:47 PP TOI/GP, along with seven powerplay tallies. Neighbours is terrific at redirecting pucks at the top of the crease and placing himself in spots to bang home rebounds on the man advantage.
Related: Former Blues First-Rounder Poised For A Breakout Season in a Contract Year
St. Louis suffered a blow to their top unit with the news of Torey Krug‘s injury. Either Justin Faulk or Scott Perunovich should slide into that spot, but the powerplay runs through Robert Thomas anyway.
They have an elite playmaker (Robert Thomas) and goal scorers like Jordan Kyrou, Jake Neighbours, and Pavel Buchnevich to operate as a top-10 powerplay unit in the upcoming season and build off of what their powerplay was like at the end of last season.
This prediction is quite bold considering Philip Broberg has yet to establish himself as an everyday NHL player. But hear me out, the Oilers completely mismanaged and underutilized their former top 10 pick, and the smooth-skating Swede is just itching to break out of his shell.
Related: Philip Broberg looking forward to new challenge with St. Louis Blues
It won’t happen immediately, but we’re saying that by the end of the season, the Blues’ top defense pair will be Philip Broberg and Colton Parayko.
Parayko specializes on the defensive side of the puck. He’s astute at using his extended reach and size to nullify rush chances and put an end to cycles. But he could use a young defenseman with the skating and puck-moving skills to kickstart the transition.
At 6-foot-3, Broberg is very athletic and a graceful skater who uses his feet to make impactful plays on both sides of the puck. He possesses good puck skills for a defender and produced 38 points in 49 AHL games last season.
A good NHL comparable for Broberg is Dallas Stars defenseman Thomas Harley. Both defensemen were first-rounders because of their size, athleticism, and exceptional skating abilities. These kinds of defensemen have become extremely valuable in today’s NHL because of how fast the game has become and how beneficial it is to have a defender with the reach and mobility to neutralize gaps at a quick pace.
Harley emerged as a top-four defender in Dallas when he was given the opportunity, the same could happen in St. Louis with Philip Broberg.
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