The St. Louis Blues had an impressive 2024-2025 season, making the playoffs after missing the past two years of postseason hockey. The Blues finished with 96 points and found themselves in the second wildcard position in the west. Although the Blues had a heartbreaking Game Seven elimination in round one against the Winnipeg Jets, the determination of the Blues made the rest of the NHL take note. While the Blues are making strides in improvements, a few missing pieces prevent this team from taking the next step. Here are three lingering questions.
1. Late-Period Goals
The Blues must focus on finishing games this offseason without letting up a last-minute goal. While evidently this was the biggest factor in their game seven loss against the Winnipeg Jets, it also happened 17 times in the regular season. The solution isn’t just bringing in new players; it could be bringing in new assistant coaches to better assist Coach Montgomery. Either way, this ongoing program needs to be addressed before October. Don’t understimate the value of addressing this lingering question, for example, by upgrading the video teaching sessions in game prep.
2. The Blueline
By now, it’s evident that the defense corps has been an issue with the Blues. After it was announced at the end of the season pressers that Torey Krug most likely won’t play hockey again, the Defense takes yet another hit. However, Justin Faulk and Nick Leddy had underwhelming performances on ice this season. With the addition of Cam Fowler and Ryan Suter as veterans alongside Colton Parayko, it’s time for the Defense to get younger. Phillip Broberg is a solid two-way defenseman, but his strong suit isn’t the penalty kill, which is why the Blues need to go shopping around the league to find talent that will be able to replace (if the Blues decide to move on from Faulk and Leddy.
3. Second-line center
Team captain Brayden Schenn had a stellar faceoff record in 2024-25. Unforunately, on a shift-in and shift-out basis for 82 games, he can’t play 2C anymore. While Dalibor Dvorský played a few games with the Blues, mainly spending most of his time with the Springfield Thunderbirds, the question arises as to who would fit into the 2C role. This is something that the Blues thought they figured out last off-season as they had Pavel Buchnevich in the 2C role, but it didn’t last for long. Schenn would be fine as a winger or even a 3C, but at the end of the day, there’s too much of a drastic shift from Robert Thomas’ line to Schenn’s line with speed and puck control.