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Let’s take a moment to review the expected Blues forwards for the upcoming season.

In looking at the Blues roster, things will likely get a lot more clear by Wednesday night as I expect the Blues and Colton Paryako to agree to a contract extension by Thursday, the date Parayko’s scheduled arbitration. I don’t have any inside information on a pending deal but common sense suggests the Blues and Parayko will get a longer term deal done by Thursday as both likely want to avoid the arbitration process.

Once you get an actual AAV you can book into the Blues roster, it will be easier to predict how the roster fills. Other than goaltending which is set, the defense is least likely to be impacted by Parayko’s contract signing.

CapFriendly.com shows the Blues with a little over $7.6 million in cap space and one roster spot for Parayko open. This is very misleading as it assumes that the Blues will only carry six defensemen (they won’t) and Klim Kostin will make the team. This is very unlikely. I expect one of Chris Butler, Petteri Lindbohm, Jake Wallman, or Jordan Schmaltz to effectively replace Kostin in CapFriendly.com’s roster. Perhaps the Blues bring in an inexpensive experienced player or a PTO type player on similar money fills that 7th defensemen role but there are not many players this year that fit those criteria.

It should be interesting to see how this plays out in the defensive corps. Do the Blues want Wallman and Schmaltz to log big time minutes so they keep them in the NHL? Does Chicago’s partnership with Las Vegas impact their minutes and the Blues strategy? Will the Blues do at true rotation with three defenseman, giving each one about 54 games? Will injuries make these decisions easier?

On the forward side of the roster, you have to assume Chris Thorburn has a roster spot though he likely will be a press box regular with an occasional game here and there. If Partrik Berglund was healthy, the Blues would be choosing to keep four of the following players: Dmitrij Jaskin, Magnus Paajarvi, Oskar Sundqvist, Ivan Barbashev, Zachary Sanford, and Beau Bennett. With his injury, all but one will likely be on the opening night roster. Fans should count on Tage Thompson and Kostin both starting the year in Chicago. It’s not impossible that one would make the team but unlikely.

Regardless, we should know a lot more about roster flexibility later this week. Once Parayko's deal is done, we'll know how little room and cushion the Blues will have for this season.

It’s a great day for hockey.

Fellow Hockeybuzz blogger Minnesota Wild's Dan Wallace agreed to a 1st round, friendly charity wager. Since the Blues won, Dan will be making a donation to Dream Factory St. Louis (http://dreamfactoryincstl.org/). Dream Factory grants dreams to critically and chronically ill children from the ages of three to eighteen. They have one of the highest program expenditure ratios I have ever seen, an amazing 97% is used for actual program services. Usually, more than 3% is used for administrative and fundraising efforts but not at Dream Factory.

With the Predators win, fellow Hockeybuzz blogger Nashville Predator's Paul McCann won our bet and I made a donation to Best Buddies of Tennessee (https://bestbuddies.org/find-programs/tennessee/). Best Buddies works to establish a global volunteer movement that creates opportunities for one-to-one friendships, integrated employment and leadership development for people with intellectual and development capabilities.

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