I always love how people evaluate previous NHL drafts as if it’s an exact science.
The Blues will be the first to admit that not drafting Avalanche forward Paul Stastny in 2005 was an awful, awful mistake.
The knock on Stastny at the time was that he wasn’t a good enough skater. We all know that Blues scouts missed the boat on that one and they are often reminded of the mistake. There is no reason the Blues can justify having Stastny rated as a “C” player.
With that being said a lot of teams passed up on Stastny that year, but the obvious difference is that Paul grew up in the Blues backyard.
One of the more difficult things to do in hockey is to take a list of 300 and try to find a way to narrow it down to 60-80 players.
In reality the NHL draft is a business of missing.
As I have said in the past you have to have so much luck in order to have a successful draft. The main thing for a GM and scouting director is to believe and trust in your people. If two of your picks make it to the NHL you have had a successful draft.
I have had scouts often tell me the hardest players to know inside and out are the USA kids. There are so many leagues in the United States not to mention I don’t think there are enough scouts employed by some NHL clubs to really get to know the kids playing Junior in the USA in the same fashion they know the CHL players.
Let’s not get shortsighted and focus on one pick. The year the Blues missed out on Stastny they chose Scott Jackson, a D-man who never made it to the NHL. Several mock drafts heading into that draft had Jackson projected to be a 1st round pick.
Don’t forget you’re dealing with 18 year old kids who in just about every case are several years away from playing in the NHL. Even Erik Johnson didn't begin to really come on until late in his second year after he was drafted.
The Blues did get a player named T.J. Oshie in the first round back in 2005 who has a chance to develop into a very good player. Very few teams had Oshie rated as high as the Blues did that year.
The Blues will almost certainly be selecting a D-man in this month’s entry draft.
Assuming Drew Doughty and Zach Bogosian are taken before the Blues are on the clock St. Louis will be selecting one of two D-men, either Kelowna’s Luke Schenn or Niagra’s Alex Pietrangelo.
The Blues love both players and without question value hockey sense over talent. With that being said it certainly helps if the player has a little bit of both. These two D-men bring enough of both to the table.
I’m a little confused why Schenn is being labeled by some as a stay at home defenseman. He may not put up eye popping offensive numbers, but he can definitely handle himself just fine in the offensive zone. He is more a shutdown defenseman, but sees the ice very well and has the ability to see the second and third option.
International Scouting Service has St. Louis taking Schenn with the fourth overall pick next week.
I know St. Louis is high on Schenn but they are also more than impressed with Pietrangelo’s offensive upside. It is a close call at this point and I wouldn’t be surprised if they took either guy.
I had a scout recently tell me Pietrangelo has incredible hockey sense, vision, and passing ability.
I don’t want to drive Blues fans nuts here because I know I recently said and wrote that I thought the Blues would be drafting Schenn. I also know for a fact that they love Pietrangelo and many in the organization feel his game may be best suited for today’s NHL game.
Rink Rats!
With the recent move made by Los Angeles GM Dean Lombardi which completely caught the Kings organization by surprise don’t be surprised if they look to assistant coach Mike Johnson as a replacement for Marc Crawford. Lombardi has told the rest of the coaching staff that they are safe as of now. Obviously a new coach could come in and decide they want to bring in their own guys.
John Tortorella makes little sense in my opinion as he is too similar to Crawford. They both like to challenge players and are very emotional.
I am hearing the Kings may be looking towards Kitchener Rangers Head Coach Peter Deboer who has been linked to the Ottawa opening. Word is Lombardi would like a teacher to come in to help develop the group of young, impressive, forwards the Kings have in their organization. The pressure in Ottawa would be pretty high for a first time NHL coach. Don’t get me wrong here, the Senators job would be a good gig, but let’s not get too carried away. This isn’t Toronto or Montreal in the sense that the Senators job is too good to pass up for a native Canadian.
In Crawford’s defense, he and his staff have done a nice job with guys like Dustin Brown who has emerged as a true elite power forward under his watch. Other guys such as Anze Kopitar, Patrick O’Sullivan, and Alexander Frolov all enjoyed career seasons in 2007-2008. Frolov did this despite dealing with a sports hernia, and no one saw O’Sullivan having the type of breakout year he showed.
Michael Cammalleri is a great talent whose down year can be contributed to injuries this past season.
LA is no different than any other team and their challenge is to find a way to discover some secondary scoring if they want to emerge in the Western Conference. A little defense and goaltending wouldn’t hurt either.
Back to Mike Johnson, he’s a guy who has very good hockey smarts, can make adjustments, and believes in the people around him. A source tells me that if the organization decides to go with Johnson it could be a sign that the entire regime is in trouble in the next short while. Why would they fire Crawford now to bring in an assistant?
Another theory that has been tossed around to me is that the Kings organization feels Crawford’s involvement in the Steve Moore, Todd Bertuzzi case would become too big of a distraction for the hockey club. Having a head coach giving depositions and making court appearances could be too much to handle.
I’m hearing New Jersey is the frontrunner for free agent rookie Blake Wheeler who skated for the University of Minnesota last season. More than 20 teams have expressed in interest in Wheeler including St. Louis. I expect Wheeler to make a decision within the next week.
Recently I was told not to be surprised if a team throws an offer sheet to Buffalo center Paul Gaustad. I’m not too sure about this one, but he is an emerging huge (6’5) center.
Ron Wilson is expected to meet with Darcy Tucker in a matter of days. Those who read this blog in Toronto certainly had a head start to this buyout story.
Blues Clues!
The Blues prospect camp will be a little different this season with Peoria assistant Davis Payne handed the responsibility of running the camp. Last summer Head Coach Andy Murray ran the camp. This year you can expect the camp to involve way less focus on systems, structure, and team play, stressing more of an importance on team bonding.
The camp is designed to give the organization a chance to see where their prospects stand offensively and defensively. Fans can expect to see a little more scrimmage time and the camp will once again have a prospects game at the end of the week to conclude the camp. The on-ice sessions will still be fairly intense, but not as intense as what we saw a year ago.
Andy Murray will most definitely be involved and is expected to spend lots of time with the kids off the ice.
Payne remains a strong candidate to get the Head Coaching job in Peoria but the Blues are in no hurry to make an official announcement on the next head coach of their AHL club.
Did you know the Scottrade Center was voted as having the 5th best ice in the NHL is the final quarter of the 2007-2008 season.
The Blues brought in a few ice gurus early last season including Dan Craig to evaluate the ice after Paul Kariya complained to Ownership about the quality of the Scottrade ice surface. Craig found the ice to be fine.
Don’t be surprised if the Blues exercise their right to buyout a contract sometime after the draft and before the June 30th deadline. Dan Hinote, who has one year remaining on his deal at $1 million, could be a candidate. The Blues bought out Dallas Drake’s deal last summer who also had a year remaining on his deal at the exact same price. Drake was also the Captain when he was bought out.
Congrats to Marty Brooks who has been hired as the next GM of the Scottrade Center. Brooks has been the GM of the Hartford Civic Center for the last several years and has a long history with Blues Ownership going back to his days with the MSG Network. Brooks will start on July 9th.
Current Scottrade GM Dennis Petrullo has been promoted to a position with SCP Worldwide and will continue to work inside the building.
The Blues are trying to re-sign Yan Stastny. It’s going to take a one-way deal to get it done.
ISS GM Matt Ebbs is my featured guest on tonight’s edition of my Blues Buzz radio show on 1380 am in St. Louis. The show can be heard online at www.team1380.net
More to come,
Andy Strickland
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St Louis Blues Blogger •1380 ESPN • 
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