Traverse City and Injury recap and one signing (klim kostin)

klim kostin

Traverse City and Injury recap and one signing

By Jason Millen

Sep 17, 2017 • 1:35 pm

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Follow me on twitter Blues news in the last week included a strong performance in the Matthew Wuest Memorial Cup, aka the NHL Prospects Tournament, finally getting Petteri Lindbohm signed and yet another shoulder injury to a Blues forward.

Matthew Wuest Memorial Cup The Blues prospects cost themselves a chance at the championship after blowing a 5-1 third period lead in their opening game. The prospects from the Blues, Wild and Blue Jackets all went 2-1 with the Stars failing to win a game. Due to tie breakers, the Blues were relegated to the fifth place game where they easily defeated the Red Wings 5-1.

As expected the Blues defensive corps was anchored by Jake Wallman who posted 2 goals and 5 assists in the 4 games, tying Black Hawk Prospect Luc Snuggerud for the point lead among all defensemen. Snuggerud appears to have had a better tournament as he posted his totals with only 2 power play points all but 2 of Wallman’s points came on the power play. Thomas Vanelli tied for 6th among defensemen in the tournament with only 2 points.

While recent draftees Klim Kostin (3 goals and 2 assists in 5 games) and Robert Thomas (1 goal and 4 assists) performed well in the tournament, Tage Thompson stole the show, leading all players with 4 goals and 5 assists including 2 game winning goals. Thompson will turn 20 in a little over a month and is doing his best to either make the roster straight out of camp or be the first call-up should any injuries occur. He’s making another impression today at the Blues training camp scrimmage:

Adam Musil was having a strong tournament with 2 goals and 2 assists in the first 3 games before missing the last game with a lower body strain. It doesn’t sound too serious as he was skating in training camp. Jordan Kryou also missed the last game of the tournament due to a blow to the head but was skating in camp.

What may be concerning to Blues fans is that goalie Evan Fitzpatrick who played in 3 of the 4 games had the lowest save percentage of any goalie in the tournament. Without seeing the games, it’s hard to save if he played poorly or if the defense was giving up a disproportionate share of quality chances against.

Let’s take a look at some of the goals from the tournament.

Thompson goals

Kostin goals
Walman Goals

Other Notes Last Monday, the Blues finally came to terms with restricted free agent Petteri Lindbohm on a one-year, two-way contract which will see Lindbohm make $200,000 for his time in the AHL and $650,000 for his time in the NHL. I’m pleased by this signing as I see him as a more likely contributor than Nate Prosser or Chris Butler. He also compliments the other young defensemen, Walman, Vanelli, Schmaltz and Dunn.

Unfortunately, perhaps a few of us jinxed Zach Sanford. After talking about how Sanford needed to add some muscle to survive in the NHL, Sanford took a check from Dmitrij Jaskin and suffered a shoulder injury, sidelining him for weeks.

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.

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