ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ

Editor’s note: This is the fourth of 10 installments analyzing questions facing the Blues entering the 2024-25 season.

7. Who is the odd man out on defense?

The bubble is always an uncomfortable spot to be in for hockey players, and the Blues will have a handful of defensemen squarely on it when training camp opens in about two weeks.

The Blues have nine healthy defensemen signed to one-way contracts entering camp, and all nine played at least a dozen games in the NHL last season.

On the one hand, there are the familiar veterans like Colton Parayko, Justin Faulk and Nick Leddy, who have been fixtures in St. Louis in recent seasons. No one is expecting their spots to disappear, even with a subpar showing during training camp.

There’s the acquisition of experienced Ryan Suter, who enters his 20th NHL season and will turn 40 years old in January. Currently, Suter is the oldest player in the league under contract, after he was behind Mark Giordano, Joe Pavelski, Zach Parise and Jeff Carter — all of whom are now out of the league — last year. Suter seems like a logical fit alongside Faulk, and his performance bonus structure ($2.225 million possible) suggests the Blues discussed a prominent role for Suter before signing him as a free agent.

Philip Broberg, 23, was the splashy signing by the Blues in August, prying him away from Edmonton via offer sheet and inking him to a two-year contract worth $4.58 million annually. When general manager Doug Armstrong discussed Broberg, he said the team viewed him as a top-four defenseman. Broberg, given his age and future within the organization, should be a priority for the Blues on defense.

There are three defensemen returning for St. Louis who rotated in and out of the lineup at various points of the 2023-24 season.

Matthew Kessel seems to have the inside track on a job this fall due to his ability to play on the right side and the reliable results he submitted across his 39 NHL games last season. Scott Perunovich will have a big opportunity in front of him to grab responsibility on the power play now that Torey Krug has been ruled out for the season due to ankle surgery. Tyler Tucker spent most of last season as a healthy scratch, as the physical defenseman played just 26 games but still led all Blues defensemen with 42 penalty minutes.

Pierre-Olivier Joseph is a 25-year-old newcomer who played 52 games for Pittsburgh last season before the Penguins did not qualify him this offseason, making him an unrestricted free agent.

As a UFA, Joseph chose to sign in St. Louis in part to play with his brother Mathieu, whom the Blues acquired from Ottawa via trade.

Of the entire group on the back end, only Kessel can be sent to the minors without passing through waivers. Perunovich, Tucker and Joseph would all have to be waived in order to be sent to AHL affiliate Springfield (Massachusetts).

If the Blues choose to keep eight defensemen in the NHL, that means one player will have to be trimmed. Of course, if the Blues opt for 14 forwards and seven defensemen, that’s one fewer job on the back end.

Tucker might enter camp with the most work to do, given his relative lack of experience and the specialized role he tends to play as a policeman on the ice. That also could mean he might get a healthy amount of playing time in the seven preseason games.

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Torey Krug tried to push away surgery.

In the six years since he first fractured his ankle in an awkward collision into the boards, Krug successfully managed and dulled the pain. Over the years, he felt comfortable playing hockey, in part because the skate helped to support his ankle. And although the 2023-24 season was “definitely tough trying to manage the pain level,� Krug said, he was ready to return in the fall for another season wearing the Note.

“I felt good leaving St. Louis last year,� Krug said on Wednesday morning. “I thought the things that I was doing I’d be able to continue to progress and play hockey. The following few weeks after that when I picked up my training, there were some red flags where I had to get on the phone and talk to the Blues and let them know what was going on.�

But unlike before, Krug’s ankle was hurting when he was on the ice, and that sounded alarms. He tried to spend more time on the bike in order to keep weight off his ankle but maintain conditioning. He tried to give it some rest, but “almost immediately when you try to come back into the gym and put the skates on, it was one of those things where you realize it wasn’t going to work,� Krug said.

The official diagnosis was pre-arthritic changes in his left ankle, and the subtalar fusion surgery Krug will undergo will sideline him for the entire 2024-25 season. Krug said he will have the surgery in the coming weeks.

“It’s been something that I was going to have to do regardless at some point in my life,� Krug said. “Getting it taken care of as a 33-year-old professional athlete is a little bit different. I thought I would have to do it when I was 50 down the road and retired.�

The initial injury happened on May 4, 2018, when Krug was playing in a second-round series for Boston against Tampa Bay. During Game 4, Krug was pursuing a puck in the corner when Alex Killorn made contact with him and sent him crashing into the boards. Krug’s left ankle crunched into an unnatural position, and he “fractured a few bones,� Krug said.

Krug said that none of the other broken bones or fractures that he’s suffered impacted the pain in his ankle.

“It was one of those things that over time, it got worse,� Krug said. “Anyone with arthritis knows that there are some good days, then there are some bad days. I was able to tolerate it for so long, and we did many things to help with that, whether it’s different treatments, done injections to help with the pain. ... To be honest, I don’t know what a healthy ankle feels like. As far as pain level goes, it’s always there.�

While Krug has become well-versed in the physical pain that the injury has brought him, the upcoming season will present him with a mental challenge.

In each of the previous 12 Septembers, Krug has been preparing himself for an NHL season. That won’t be happening this year. He won’t be around the Blues at every practice, every flight, every game. But Krug vowed to be present in some capacity.

“I’ll be around for sure,� Krug said. “That’s what I’ve known and loved for so long.�

On a personal level, Krug hopes the surgery will help him live his life more normally, the thought of which made him emotional enough to pause for about 20 seconds in order to compose himself.

“I’m going to feel better as a person,� Krug said. “I’m going to be able to carry my kids up and down the stairs, which I’m able to do it some days. Waking up, it’s tough.�

But what about Krug’s hockey future?

It’s unknown at this point whether Krug will be able to return to play in the coming years, and it’s something that Krug has thought about during this process and admitted that “looking forward, I can’t forecast too much.�

“I’ve always wanted my kids to watch me play and see how hard I work,� Krug said. “I think regardless of what you’re doing, they’re going to see that. Even if it’s away from the rink, how hard I work at being a parent, working on the house, doing stuff in the yard. They’re going to see that. I think it’s just in your DNA.�

Dr. Kenneth Jung, a foot and ankle surgeon at Cedars-Sinai Kerlan-Jobe Institute in Los Angeles and for the Anaheim Ducks, called the procedure uncommon in professional sports. The most high-profile athlete who underwent the surgery was Tiger Woods.

The surgery will fuse the subtalar joint that involves side-to-side motion of the foot: “If you’re standing on uneven surfaces, walking on the sand, that side-to-side motion, that’s what that joint gives you,� Jung said.

The procedure will limit Krug’s motion in that area, which could have already been limited due to his injury.

“If he’s already been performing at a high level with minimal motion or little motion in that subtalar joint, having a fusion may not affect him too much,� Jung said. “It all depends on what his pre-optive range of motion is. Once it’s fused, that joint does not move anymore.�

There is also the possibility that there is a higher chance of pain developing in the nearby ankle or midfoot joints after the surgery.

“In general, we tell patients the stress of the activity doesn’t go away,â€� Jung said. “It just gets passed to the next joint. In general, you’re trying to avoid fusions if you can because adjacent joints will have increased stress. ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ will ultimately have increased chances of getting arthritis.â€�

Krug can no longer push away the surgery.

“You always try to hold out hope that you get healthy,� Krug said. “Obviously, at some point, you do have to commit to fixing it.�

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Matthew DeFranks @MDeFranks on X (formerly Twitter) MDeFranks@post-dispatch.com

Diamond ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ Group will air NBA and NHL games, including the Blues, for the 2024-25 season under a plan approved in court Tuesday.

Last month, Diamond filed documents outlining deals that will ensure fans can watch their local teams on television, but the plans weren’t solidified until Tuesday during a hearing in a Houston federal bankruptcy court.

Diamond — the parent company of Cardinals and Blues regional telecaster Bally ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ Midwest — has been in bankruptcy proceedings since March 2023, a result of dwindling cable viewership over the years. Currently, the broadcaster is working on finalizing its reorganization plan to emerge from bankruptcy.

The newly approved NBA and NHL plans offer certainty to the leagues and their fans that there will be coverage of local teams throughout the entire season, even if Diamond does not emerge from bankruptcy.

Judge Christopher Lopez also approved the rejection of Diamond’s agreements with the New Orleans Pelicans and Dallas Mavericks, which were set to expire after the 2026-27 and 2029-30 seasons, respectively.

Diamond attorney Joe Graham called that move a “critical building block� to Diamond’s amended plan. He said the company plans to schedule a confirmation hearing in early or mid-November, which could put Diamond on the path to emerge from bankruptcy before Nov. 30, in time for the 2025 MLB season.

“Diamond also believes that providing this adequate assurance is a sound exercise of business judgment,� Graham told the judge Tuesday. The deal gives the NBA and NHL certainty for the upcoming season, while the bankruptcy case proceeds.

Diamond attorney Andrew Goldman said that these NHL and NBA deals don’t negatively affect the company’s dealings with the MLB.

But, during the hearing, MLB lawyer James Bromley raised concerns over what he said is a lack of transparency regarding Diamond’s deals. He said Diamond’s plan to appear in court this fall is not set in stone and Diamond shouldn’t wait until next year to reach a baseball deal.

“We have to keep in mind that what is being described to the court is a Band-Aid at this point,� Bromley said. “We are talking about complete uncertainty with respect to 2025�

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Editor’s note: This is the third of 10 installments analyzing questions facing the Blues entering the 2024-25 season.

8. How does the bottom 6 shake out?

In reconstructing his bottom six, the directive from Blues general manager Doug Armstrong was simple: add size and speed.

The Blues did both of those over the summer, revamping a unit by bringing in above-average skaters like Alexandre Texier and Mathieu Joseph while bringing back speedster Kasperi Kapanen. St. Louis also acquired big center Radek Faksa from Dallas to help with defensive assignments and penalty killing and executed a successful offer sheet to pry the highly competitive Dylan Holloway away from Edmonton.

Those additions augment the depth pieces already in place in St. Louis like Alexey Toropchenko, Oskar Sundqvist and potentially even Nathan Walker. Mackenzie MacEachern will return from shoulder surgery that ended his season in 2023-24 and will try to once again crack an NHL roster.

Of course, there’s also the possibility that one or more of the Blues prospects — Dalibor Dvorksy or Zack Bolduc — does enough during training camp to earn a top-six role for opening night. In the process, that would push down a player like Brandon Saad or Brayden Schenn, into bottom-six duties.

Armstrong constructed a versatile enough mix of forwards that it’s unknown how coach Drew Bannister will deploy his options.

Does he want to play Texier or Holloway at center? Neither has played center as their primary position in the NHL, but both have the ability to move inside. That would push either Faksa or Sundqvist to the wing and potentially add more youth higher up the lineup.

Who gets the more offensive role and minutes? While there’s not expected to be much of a difference between the third and fourth lines, there still is a difference, and it primarily shows up in the amount of ice time. Texier, Holloway, Joseph, Kapanen and Faksa have all played middle-six minutes in their careers before, but which ones land the job to begin the regular season on Oct. 8 in Seattle?

Can those players take some penalty-killing responsibility from top-end players like Robert Thomas or Pavel Buchnevich? This was something Bannister spoke about in July, when he mentioned that the bottom-six additions could make life easier on the team’s goal scorers. Last season, Thomas and Buchnevich were often the first forwards on the ice for the penalty kill, and having more defensive players could allow Thomas and Buchnevich to slip into an even more offensive role.

That could also extend to event strength, should Bannister want Faksa’s line to help Thomas’ line in a defensive assignment throughout the night.

Who is the odd man out? Kapanen’s return to St. Louis was a mild surprise given his career-worst production last year (six goals and 16 assists in 73 games), but his $1 million salary suggests that his role could be as a fourth-liner or a healthy scratch. Walker will be once again trying to become more than an NHL-AHL tweener, while Texier, Joseph and Faksa will have motivation after they were dumped by their previous teams in the summer.

Is this an upgrade over last year? The answer on paper is a clear yes, having seen what players like Kevin Hayes, Sammy Blais and Jakub Vrana produced last season. But Faksa, Joseph, Texier and Holloway bring their own set of questions to the ice.

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Blues defenseman Torey Krug will miss the upcoming 2024-25 season due to surgery on his left ankle, the team announced Tuesday morning.

Krug was diagnosed this summer with pre-arthritic changes in his ankle and was attempting to rehabilitate the injury through non-surgical means. The announcement comes about two weeks before the Blues are set to begin training camp.

Krug, 33, will speak with reporters about the injury and the surgery Wednesday morning.

The news clarifies the Blues’ situation on the back end, where they previously had 10 defensemen signed to one-way contracts. It also opens up a spot in the top four on defense, where Krug had played most of his four years in St. Louis, primarily paired with Justin Faulk.

The Blues will likely turn to Nick Leddy or Ryan Suter to play in the top four, joining Faulk, Colton Parayko and Philip Broberg, who general manager Doug Armstrong said was viewed as a top-four option on defense.

Leddy played alongside Parayko all of last season as the top pairing in St. Louis, a resurgent season for both veteran defensemen. Suter, meanwhile, signed a performance bonus-laden contract over the summer after he was bought out by the Stars.

St. Louis will still have to trim a player or two when constructing its opening night roster, perhaps from the group of Tyler Tucker, Pierre-Olivier Joseph and Scott Perunovich, but Krug’s injury status means there is one fewer decision to make.

Krug’s absence also means there is an opportunity for someone to step forward on the power play.

The easy choice for the Blues is to move Faulk from the second unit to the top unit, but they could also ask Perunovich to take over as the team’s top power-play quarterback. He did it successfully during the 2022 playoffs but hasn’t done so consistently since then.

Even last season, when he played 54 games, he was not a constant presence on the man-advantage until the tail end of the season, when Krug was scratched as the team fell out of the playoff picture.

Parayko, Suter and Leddy have also all run a power play during their careers. Broberg ran the power play with Bakersfield in the AHL last year but was used sparingly in that role with the Oilers. Does he become a potential option during his first year in St. Louis?

From a cap perspective, the Blues don’t need to put Krug and his $6.5 million cap hit on long-term injured reserve. Even with him on normal injured reserve, Oskar Sundqvist potentially on injured reserve and a full 23-man roster, the Blues would likely still have about $400,000 in available cap space.

Players on normal IR still count toward the salary cap and must be out at least seven days. Players on LTIR must be out 10 games and 24 days, and they allow their team to exceed the salary cap by roughly their cap hit, depending on timing and current roster construction.

The Blues would likely wait to put Krug on LTIR until they absolutely must due to accumulating injuries. Teams using LTIR do not accrue cap space and are subject to bonus overage charges for the following season. Given Suter’s hefty bonuses (totaling $2.225 million), the Blues would like to avoid having that count toward next year’s cap.

When he returns for the 2025-26 season, Krug will have two seasons remaining on his seven-year contract. In his 255 games with St. Louis, Krug has 22 goals and 124 assists.

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Editor’s note: This is the second of 10 installments analyzing questions facing the Blues entering the 2024-25 season.

9. Can any of the prospects impress enough to make the NHL roster?

If there is one thing that Blues general manager Doug Armstrong made clear this summer, it’s that he expects a competitive training camp.

There are a dozen and a half forwards vying for NHL jobs. There are double-digit defensemen who think they should begin the season in St. Louis. There will be battles for jobs and placements and playing time and paychecks when Blues camp opens later this month.

But the players with the most to gain from camp?

Well, that would be the young prospects who could earn a spot out of training camp for the first time in their careers. That includes Dalibor Dvorsky, Zack Bolduc and Zach Dean.

“I think training camp is going to be a great opportunity for these young guys,� Armstrong said in August. “I look at a guy like Bolduc. He played really well for us last year, and he wants to push for a top-six role on our team. I think he can do it. The veterans that have been here for a while usually come into training camp just to get their rhythm. I’m not sure that’s the best course of action for them this year because the competition is going to be really strong.�

It won’t be an easy path for those three former first-round forwards, not with veteran depth in the Blues bottom six and not with all the bodies in front of them. But they should be given a chance and could look to become the latest young player (like Jake Neighbours has done multiple times before) to crack the opening night roster.

Each of them will have a chance to make a first impression next week when the Blues host the Tom Kurvers Prospect Showcase at Centene Community Ice Center in Maryland Heights. It’s a three-day event including Blackhawks and Wild prospects, with Blues games on Sept. 13 (7 p.m. vs. Chicago) and Sept. 15 (3 p.m. vs. Minnesota).

Dvorsky will play in a prospect tournament for the first time, while Bolduc and Dean will be in the minority having already played a full season professionally. Combined, Bolduc and Dean even played 34 games in the NHL and are the only prospects on the Blues showcase roster with NHL experience.

After that, it’ll be about preseason practices and exhibition games as they fight for roles.

For Dvorsky, 19, he knows what kind of expectations there are for him. He’s the jewel of the Blues retool, a No. 10 pick in 2023 who opened eyes with a prolific season with Sudbury of the Ontario Hockey League last season. After coming over from Europe last season, he now has a chance this season to battle for a roster spot. It was something he conceded during development camp in July.

“It sounds great, and it’s all up to me,� Dvorsky said. “I’ll do my absolute best every time I’m on the ice to prove (to) the coaches that I belong on the team. Sounds great, but it’s all up to me and I’ll do my best every time I’m on the ice.�

In the long run, Dvorsky profiles as the No. 2 center behind Robert Thomas and could potentially play there at some point this season.

Bolduc, 21, came on late in the season for the Blues and had five points in the team’s final five games after they fell further from the playoff race. He logged top-six minutes. He played on the power play, and he received praise from the coaching staff for his play away from the puck, too.

To win a spot in training camp, Bolduc will likely have to push a forward like Brandon Saad or Brayden Schenn to the third line.

Dean, 21, played limited minutes during his nine games in the NHL and will have to show more physicality and bite in order to earn a spot this fall.

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Doug Armstrong already was dealing with some angry allergies — stuffy nose and watering eyes — when I mentioned something that really made him want to sneeze.

The Blues’ first game that counts doesn’t come until October. Playoffs? Achoo.

“We’re not even into training camp,� Armstrong said. “So I hate talking about the playoffs. We just have to look right in front of us, day-to-day.�

Here’s why I brought it up. It seems no one knows what to make of these Blues, and I think that’s a good thing. For this team at this time, the so-called hockey experts who are busy predicting who will thrive and who will underachieve this season are mostly staying away. The Blues aren’t being celebrated as a Stanley Cup threat. They’re not being clowned as a bottom feeder. They’ve become a bit of a mystery team.

Some would translate that as irrelevance. I’m not so sure. I think the hockey experts are avoiding calling the Blues’ ceiling because they don’t want to look wrong. It’s already happened once this offseason.

When many believed the Blues roster was mostly set entering this month’s training camp, Armstrong added two exciting additions via the rarely used offer sheet option. Maybe more pleasant surprises come this season. That’s not just summer optimism talking. There’s talent. There’s speed. There’s potential, untapped.

“We hoped to not have to go through seven, eight, nine years out of the playoffs,� Armstrong said. “We are trying to do something where we are staying competitive. Last year, we pushed until the end. Our goal is to get to the playoffs this year now. We have enough pieces. We have changed the outlook of our team. The internal competition is going to be great enough to drive us to a consistent style of play every night.�

I think the Blues can make the playoffs, and I think this team checking that box would be a pretty big deal. Sometimes just getting in is viewed as the equivalent of a lost season — especially if you borrowed from your future for win-now moves at the trade deadline to make it happen. But for this group of Blues, getting in would be about the future as much as the present, a teasing taste for what ownership and Armstrong hope becomes a voracious appetite for seasons to come.

“I do think we are a team that could benefit from playing meaningful hockey games into March, April and hopefully May,� Armstrong said.

I interpret the absence of outcomes predicted for the Blues as a positive, a sign they could be ready to begin exiting this rebuild phase, perhaps sooner than initially thought. Armstrong being willing to give up future draft picks for Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway was an encouraging sign. It’s not something a GM only looking toward the future does. That future is now.

The wound created by Craig Berube’s firing has scarred over. Drew Bannister’s productive work with the team since then has helped expedite the healing. Fans haven’t loved missing the playoffs the last two seasons, and some were fairly steamed by Berube’s ouster, but they haven’t seemed to lose faith in Armstrong. If they had, they got some of it back when he announced a succession plan that has him handing power over gradually to GM in training Alexander Steen over the coming years. It was a move that reminded of Armstrong’s team-first vision. His offer-sheet addition of Broberg and Holloway reminded fans of his desire to win again before Steen starts calling the shots.

“You call it a transition because it takes a while,� Armstrong said. “If people thought we were going to transition and they were going to see 50 percent of the final product last year, it just doesn’t work that way. It’s like turning a freighter. You’ve got the wheel pointed in the right direction, but it takes a little bit of time to turn it. Each year we have a vision of how we want to play and what we want to look like. What we are trying to do with each decision we make is get closer to that.�

Considering how sideways the Cardinals and their fans have gotten during a down time, how the Blues have messaged their reset is commendable.

“We try to be honest,� Armstrong said. “We try not to pull the wool over their (fans) eyes, you know, in any way, shape or form. Sometimes we are too honest. But I think it’s easier. We understand who we work for. I get paid by Mr. (Tom) Stillman, but I work for the fans. Tom has said this on numerous occasions, that he is a steward for the franchise. That’s what we have to do. We understand we are very fortunate to have a fabulous fan base here. We need to continue to show our appreciation to them by being honest, by being the best we can be. You’re not going to make everybody happy all the time, but that’s part of the game. One thing in the Midwest and certainly here in St. Louis is that they appreciate an honest day’s work. If they believe the training staff, coaching staff, management staff and players are giving the best of their ability, then they can support it. That’s what we try to do.�

The Blues, pretty quickly, are crammed with players ages 26 and younger who should get the chance to perform together for a half-decade or more to come. They should be fun to watch. They should be faster than previous editions.

To make the playoffs, Jordan Kyrou, Robert Thomas and freshly paid Pavel Buchnevich must produce. Period.

“They’re core players,� Armstrong said. “This is the bell curve. Buchnevich, Kyrou and Thomas are at the top of their bell curve now. They’re at the primes of their careers. They have to be our leaders.�

Seasoned veterans should be capable of handling lesser roles. Legitimate chances abound for newcomers and up-and-comers to earn key spots. Goalies Jordan Binnington and Joel Hofer return as one one of the league’s most overlooked tandems. Bannister no longer has to coach under the uncertainty of an interim title. You can find yourself optimistically daydreaming of the pleasant surprises that could emerge from a team littered with first-round picks from the past half-decade.

Armstrong, it should be noted, has never missed three consecutive playoffs since he joined the Blues. Maybe he never will. The good thing about resetting smartly is that sometimes a team that could be really good later gets pretty good earlier than expected And fans who feel looped in on the process tend to feel good pulling for it.

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