Follow me on twitter Follow @stlgoalie Many of you likely saw the media reports yesterday that suggest the Blues will sign Scottie Upshall later today. Upshall was in town but it was only to sign a PTO. It is expected he will sign a contract in the coming days but it hasn't happened yet. Most fans likely correlated the signing to the announcement of Robby Fabbri being out for the season. I’m not convinced that there is a strong of a link there as some might be thinking. Blues fans and general manager Doug Armstrong have a lot of familiarity with Upshall. I think most of us can agree that it isn’t very likely that Armstrong will sign Upshall to play in a top six role.
The Blues are bringing @ScottieUpshall to St. Louis today to meet with GM Doug Armstrong and Head Coach Mike Yeo. #stlblues
— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) September 30, 2017
In regards to the Fabbri injury, let me dispel some potential myths floating around Blues fans. The Fabbri injury will not produce any cap relief unless the Blues add more cap hit while Fabbri is on LTIR. The Blues will still have room under the cap even with adding Upshall and LTIR cap relief only happens when you are above the cap. For more information on how LTIR, see this link.
With that out of the way, let’s talk about one of the Blues roster challenges - Who is going to play the point on the power play?
Say what you will about Kevin Shattenkirk, his departure should hurt the Blues power play. During the past four seasons, Shatternkirk averaged the most power play points per game of any Blues player. This isn’t surprising given that Shattenkirk logged the 2nd most power play minutes in the last four years. Who is going to fill those minutes?
Some of those minutes will go to Colton Parayko. Over the last four years, he averaged under 1.7 minutes per game on the power play. Expect it to at least increase to 2.75 minutes per game this year. Alex Pietrangelo certainly will keep his 2.5 minutes per game average or see an increase. Of course this still leaves a lot of minutes to be filled. Alexander Steen has also been used on the point a lot during the last four years and likely will be forced into doing so again this year when healthy. Steen has logged the most power play minutes of any Blues player in the last four years, as well as the most shots. Much of this has been on the point which may explain why his power play goals per minute ratio is lower than those of Shattenirk, Schwartz, Backes, Stastny and Parayko. As a result, I think it is fair to question whether Steen would have been more effective as a wing on the power play, assuming they had another strong point option but that is another question for another day.
Unfortunately, there really aren’t an obvious options to replace Steen on the point, either while injured or permanently. Jay Bouwmeester has a total of 3 points in over 60 minutes of power play time during the last two seasons. Robert Bortuzzo has a total 2 power play minutes in the last two years. Carl Gunnarsson barely has more at 8 minutes.
For those thinking that Jordan Schmaltz or Jake Walman may be the answer this seasons, think again. Have you noticed in the preseason that Jaden Schwartz and Tage Thompson have gotten time on the power play at the point?
Much like Steen, I’m not sure using Schwartz at the point is the most effective use of him on the power play but with Steen injured, I’m not sure there are a lot of better options.
Thompson is an intriguing option as he has a very strong, NHL style shot and great reach that could be advantageous in holding pucks in, changing shooting and passing angles and more. Unfortunately, I believe he needs more AHL seasoning before he can assume this role in the NHL, even on the 2nd power play unit. Thompson reads and overall game just don’t seem consistent enough yet for a regular NHL role. The talent is there and he has a very high ceiling but he still needs to grow more in my opinion.
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.