As this season is winding down the Blues have accumulated 48 points in 61 games. That is not good. A team that looked to be building on defense and goaltending has no defenseman seeing regular minutes that is better than a -12 on the season, and no goalie has a save percentage in the 900’s. That simply isn’t good enough. The question becomes, where do they go from here? Is the young core still what you want to build a team around? Are they good enough to build a team around? If the answer is yes, what is needed this offseason to improve this team?
The team invested heavily in Alex Nedeljkovic this past offseason, and I expect that to continue. The season started poorly for him, but he has been much better as of late. I expect another heavy dose of development camps this offseason.
I would anticipate the same with the defensive core, with the most of them turning 20 or 21 this offseason it is too early to give up on them. I expect them to spend a lot of time developing in the offseason. Can GM Semyck add enough scoring punch to this team to spend more time in the offensive zone, and taking some of the pressure off the back end of this team? There likely needs to be some additions to the forward units to help the defense out. The challenge is going to be, can they find the right offensive additions without sacrificing some of the young talent they have one the back end.
8/23/2021 - 263 words
