Get your questions ready and join in at聽9:30 a.m.聽Wednesday for our weekly Blues chat.
Matthew DeFranks: Good morning and welcome to an adjusted chat time. Doug Armstrong is scheduled to speak to reporters at 1 p.m. Training camp starts tomorrow. The first preseason game is in three (!) days. Let's get to it.
Barry-Blues Fan in Orlando: Good morning Matt, thanks for the chat this morning. Zachary 鈥淭he Duke鈥 Bolduc was really flying in the game Sunday, I can see him scoring 20 goals this year. Given management made him team captain I believe they see it too. What say you?
Matthew DeFranks: Nikita Alexandrov was the captain of the prospects last year. So I'm not tying the prospect captaincy to regular-season goal-scoring production. Of the prospects, Bolduc has the best chance at making the roster, but it's still not a sure thing. I still think 20 goals would be a high bar to set. Bolduc is technically still a rookie (hasn't played more than 25 NHL games in a season), and the Blues haven't had a rookie score 20 goals since 2008-09, and that was Patrik Berglund.
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I agree with you that he was flying out there, but that performance doesn't land him a job in the NHL. It just sets him up in a better position entering training camp. It's up to him to continue his play.
Barry-Blues Fan in Orlando: Matt, there was an article Saturday in the PD about how good Dean's performance was in the first game of the prospect's tournament. It was made a big deal Dean hit several posts (but did have assists leading to goals by others). To me hitting the post/crossbar is the same as shooting wide. I am not impressed by Dean, he can't score, maybe he's slotted in as a fourth liner and not expected to score but to dig pucks out to the scorers. My attention in those games was on "The Duke" and Dalibor Dvorsky.
Matthew DeFranks: I guess you and the NHL view posts similarly since the league counts posts as missed shots. But it's still a marker of how many chances are generated. Dean's projection hasn't been a top-six player, and he did things well enough on Friday that would be similar to what he's asked in the bottom-six.
Bolduc was good, you're right. Dvorsky, I thought, was better Sunday than he was on Friday. More impactful setting up teammates vs. shooting from everywhere like he was on Friday. I guess I can't blame him from shooting all the time when he has that good of a release.
Barry-Blues Fan in Orlando: If the goaltending is as good this season as last, what do you see as the odds Binner is traded? To the Leafs? It would be awesome if Binnington could get the Leafs close to winning the cup. Who knows....win the thing?
Matthew DeFranks: This is the first season of Binnington's current contract that he doesn't have a NTC. Instead, he has an 18-team no-trade clause this season, which drops to 14 next year and 10 the year after that. So for the first time in a while, the Binnington trade questions are actually not just a simple response of: "He has a no-trade clause."
I guess you wonder how Hofer progresses, and then what the Blues would be able to get back from the Maple Leafs or another team. They seem to be past the talent accumulation phase of the retool and now it's on to development, so many their targets change from what the ask would have been a year or two ago.
Jack: Maybe I missed it, but did Alexandrov finally sign a deal? He's still listed as an RFA on the contract tracker. Given all the competition on the roster, he would seem to be a good candidate to head back and take his chances in DEL or other Euro league.
And watching the Prospect Showcase last week, the Bolduc/Dean combo really stood out, but the player that surprised me the most was Simon Robertsson. That kid's a player. He'll end up in Springfield, but hoping he continues to play well and that we see him in Blues jersey by end of year. But out of the Bolduc/Dean combo, which one do you think has the best chance of making the Blues out of camp? Boduc has the high-end skills and Dean looks like a really physical forward (and Dvorsky doesn't look quite ready IMHO)?
Matthew DeFranks: The Alexandrov situation is odd to me. I've seen unsigned RFAs listed on training camp rosters before. It was that way in Dallas with Jason Robertson (and even Julius Honka!). But when I was at the rink in the last week, I saw Alexandrov at the facility. So I wonder if Alexandrov and the Blues have an agreement in place and are just waiting for something CBA-related in order to register it with the league? I don't know, just spitballing.
We should hopefully find out more when we speak with Armstrong this afternoon.
As for Robertsson, I thought he was the most consistently impactful Blues player over the weekend. Bolduc, Dean, Dvorsky, Buchinger, Kaskimaki, Peterson all had their moments, but Robertsson looked like he had some professional polish to his game.
The Blues liked the way he played a bottom-six role in the SHL, and he'll probably play a similar speed and forechecking plus penalty killing role in Springfield this season. I watched a bit of Robertsson in the playoffs last season (when he was teammates with Theo Lindstein), but seeing him live gave me more of an appreciation of his game.
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