The Official Prospects Thread

[theohall]

Neighbours slides in for Bozak, who should retire. Bolduc should get the 9 games, but he's eligible for 2 more years of juniors (the last year would be as an over-ager if he isn't moved up), so I expect him to be sent back, unless he does something spectacular. There will also be more opportunities for forward positions in 23-24 given what's expected to happen with the cap when the Blues will be forced to make some hard decisions about older veterans. Dickinson I suspect will be in the AHL once he recovers.

Kessel and any other prospective defenseman not named Perunovich are going to depend on what happens with Leddy, Perron, and whether or not Armstrong can move Scandella. Shockingly, the Blues may be able to afford Leddy, who I'd like to see stick around.

[theohall]

Remparts won 3-2 over Shawnigan to take a 2-1 series lead.

Bolduc 1G 0A 1SOG. Goal was the GWG on a power play.

[theohall]

Remparts lost 3-2 in OT to Shawnigan. Series is tied 2-2. Shawnigan is doing really good limiting Rochette and Bolduc.

Bolduc 0G 0A 5SOG even

Series deciding Game 5 is Wednesday night at Quebec.

[theohall]

Edmonton Oil Kings will face Seattle Thunderbirds in the WHL Final beginning Friday night.

[theohall]

Remparts were eliminated from the playoffs in a 5-3 loss to Shawnigan. Shawnigan won by essentially stopping Bolduc and Rochette from scoring.

Bolduc 0G 0A 3SOG -1

so the only Blues prospect left who could potentially play in the Memorial Cup is Jake Neighbours.

[theohall]

Oil Kings lost 2-1 in opener of the WHL Final in spite of outshooting Seattle 44-22.

Neighbours 0G 0A 3SOG Even.

[theohall]

Oil Kings won 5-4 over Seattle to tie the WHL Final 1-1.

Neighbours 0G 1A +1 6SOG FOW 1/1

[theohall]

Edmonton took a 2-1 series lead with a 4-0 road win over the Seattle Thunderbirds.

Neighbours: 0G 2A +2 and a team leading 7 SOG

Seattle's goaltender, Thomas Milic, is undrafted, probably due to "only" being 6'0, but he's had back-to-back outstanding years in the WHL and has been exceptionally good in these playoffs. Score last night could've been 7-0 easily.

[theohall]

Oil Kings won 3-2 in Game 4 of the WHL Final to take a 3-1 series lead over Seattle. Game 5 is Saturday night in Edmonton

Neighbours 0G 0A Even 2SOG

[theohall]

Oil Kings failed to eliminate the Seattle Thunderbirds losing 3-2 last night. Game 6 is Monday night. Oil Kings lead 3-2.

Neighbours 0G 0A Even 4SOG

[theohall]

Oil Kings secured the WHL Championship winning the Ed Chenoweth Cup with a 2-0 victory over Seattle finishing the series 4 games to 2. Jake Neighbours had 2 assists in the final game.

Which means Neighbours will be the only drafted Blues prospect playing for the Memorial Cup.

[theohall]

Opening round of Memorial Cup games are on NHL Network at Noon and 6 Tue, Thu, and Saturday. Noon games are replays of the prior evening, 6 pm games are live or delayed by 1 hour.

[theohall]

Haven't caught up with the Memorial Cup games on my DVR, so if someone wants to play spoiler, feel free. I'll post after watching the games

[glen a richter]

A few guys have already started overseas.

Keeping an eye on Robertsson, Loof and Kaskimaki so far as players I'd expect will all be in Springfield next season to develop the US game.

[theohall]

We should see Kaskimaki and Robertsson in the World Jrs this season. With Loof having turned 20, he might be better served playing in the AHL and learning to hit properly, which is still an issue. He's not going to learn North American style defense in the SM-Liga. Loof was inches from being suspended again in the August WJC for yet another hit from behind.

[glen a richter]

Keean Washkurak is having surgery, re-eval in 6 weeks. He’s a guy I’m watching as a dark horse bottom 6 in a few years along with McGing so this is a step backwards as he’ll be starting his AHL season late.

Also on the subject of bottom 6, I’m hearing a lot about this Andrei Bakanov who I guess was an undrafted FA. Can’t find a lot but some people on twitter—and I’m skeptical about the opinion of random people on twitter—really want him to make the team. If anyone knows more than the very very little I can dig up online, I know he’s a big guy, I know he’s 20 and I know he’s Russian but that’s about the extent of it.

[glen a richter]

Bolduc headed back to juniors… let’s see what the decision is on Neighbours. I’d prefer he gets top 6 duty in Springfield until they really can’t justify that anymore but I think he’ll get himself a 3rd line role out of the gate.

[theohall]

Top 8 Forwards:
ROR, Tank, Schenn, Buchnevich, Saad, Kyrou, Thomas, and Barbashev.

The remaining forwards are:
Acciari
Walker
Brown
Toropchenko (delayed)
Leivo
& Neighbors

(No I didn't count Pitlick).

to fill either 5 or 6 roster spots. Which means someone in that group is going to get 3rd line time. We've seen reporters mentioning they want to give Brown a shot, so he might get that 3rd line shot before Neighbors, but if Brown struggles at all, Neighbors will take it.

With Toropchenko recovering, Neighbors makes the team, since that's 5 roster spots... and the cut decision will be whenever Toropchenko returns unless they keep 14 forwards and 7 D which the Blues have done before. With the injuries to Scandella and Perunovich, it seems more likely they will go with the extra forward. There just isn't an 8th defenseman who is standing out so much the Blues have to keep him.

We'll see how things look these last three preseason games with the Blues having most of their forward roster set.

[theohall]

The way Neighbours played tonight (10/4) vs the Wild against a mostly NHL roster, he's not going anywhere.

[glen a richter]

Looking like Alexandrov is probably making the club so as far as kids breaking camp with the team it’ll be him and Neighbours. If last night was any indication Greiss won’t be backing up Binner by December. Hofer has a few months to iron some things out in Springfield then Zherenko can take the reins as the #1 down there. I have this sneaking feeling we’re going to see a lot of Zherenko in the future. He’s going to leapfrog everyone and be the NHL #1 within the next 3 seasons.