Follow me on twitter Follow @stlgoalie On Monday, the Blues made their final roster adjustments for the opening of the 2017-18 season. As predicted, Wade Megan, Oskar Sundqvist and Vince Dunn made the opening night roster. In a bit of a surprise, Tage Thomson edged out Samuel Blais for the final forward spot.
When asked about Blais, coach Mike Yeo said “the meeting was extremely positive. I am very, very pleased with the development he’s had in a year and the improvement that he has shown even through training camp.… He later added: “Sammy did a great job. He’s not with us right now. Things can change. Hopefully he goes down there and continues down the same path and we’re real excited what he is going to bring for us in the future.…
In turning his attention to how Tage will handle his first NHL game, Yeo said they “want to make sure Tage doesn’t go in paralyzed by fear thinking that one mistake is going to put him back in the minors.… He wants Tage to “have some comfort, some confidence they[he] can play the game…. He commented that he likes his size, shooting ability, and skill level. He talked about the ability to play a role with a line and how the Paajarvi, Sundqvist and
Thompson line has played 2 games together and looked like an NHL line. He thought the line showed they can be “defensively responsible and can eat up minutes by hanging onto the puck in the offensive zone.… Yeo said Tage “is a player that has shown me that he is engaged in all aspects of the game. Every time he is on the ice he is engaged. If he is in defensive zone, he is aware, alert. If he is in the offensive zone, he is involved.…
Yeo hinted that Sundqvist’s consistent play was the key to him making the final roster. He talked about how Sunny has “been more reliable in his defensive play, a little bit more consistent in his overall play… and how his face-offs “have been very, very good and his penalty killing has been very good.…
Yeo seemed mostly impressed by Wade Megan and was very forthcoming in the interview saying Megan “was not a guy that when you draw up lines and placing things and figuring out who might be here for the start of the season… and that he “didn’t think that Wade would be here.… Yeo believed he “could be depth, and a guy that could fill in and play some games for us given what he did for us last year… but “he changed our mind with his play. He made the team by playing at a real high level.…
As I predicted on defense, the Blues opted to keep Vince Dunn over Jake Walman. According to Yeo, “Both guys have shown us they have high end offensive ability. They are going to add to our organization for a long time. Both are going to have real solid careers.
The difference was the play without the puck. Both had their moments with the puck, both showed at different times they have some learning to do and growth with the puck. Without the puck, Dunner was a probably little bit more solid and steady and reliable and consisted.…
I found it interesting that Yeo seemed to suggest that both Ivan Barbashev and Joel Edmundson have struggled a bit in this camp and preseason, something I have mentioned recently.
In regards to Barbashev, he said “for me personally, especially, I have a ton of trust in Barby and belief in him as a player and am confident he will come around but his level of play isn’t what we all remember from last year right now. We have to find a way to get that back.…
In regards to Emundson, Yeo said “Eddy is not quite at the same level that he was at at the end of the year. He was a monster in the playoffs. We’ve seen some good moments….but there have been a few dips in his game. We need to make sure we get that out now.…
Yeo also commented on Dmitrij Jaskin, saying he had a “decent camp… though he talked about him beinc inconsistent, saying Jaskin “had a couple games where he looked really good and a couple other games where he wasn’t quite on top of it to the same level…. Yeo further commented on some things that Guru and some of us have talked about in the past saying “he is a guy that certainly is going to play better when he is surrounded by players that can help him get to his game. Guys that can help him get through the neutral zone and guys that can help him get to the offensive zone. He has to be a top of the circles and down type player.…
Overall, Yeo talked about how “the process is ongoing… and that “none of them[the young players] are going to be as good as, right now they are not as good as where we want them to be in the future and so the bottom line is, we believe that if a player is not here to be in our opening lineup right off the hop then we don’t want to keep young players around and not have them develop.…
He also commented that Alexander Steen is getting closer to returning and is chomping at the bit to get back into the full swing of the season. He also, likely to the chagrin of GM Doug Armstrong, made the comment that the AHL situation was "less than ideal" before qualifying his statement.
It’s a great day for hockey.
Fellow Hockeybuzz bloggers Nashville Predator's Paul McCann, Winnipeg Jet's Peter Tessier and Minnesota Wild's Dan Wallace have generously agreed to a friendly charity wager. We were hoping to do the whole division but don't have it fully represented yet. The blogger whose team finishes the highest the standings at the end of the year gets to pick a charity to whom the others will donate in their name.