Center Kevin Hayes addresses a position of need for the Blues.

As Free Agency opened yesterday, July 1st, the usually active Blues were silent.

A number of names changed teams, as always happens at the start of NHL free agency. Recent years have seen the Blues add Tyler Bozak, David Perron, Nick Leddy, Noel Acciari, Brandon Saad, James Neal and Thomas Greiss join the team. But this year, only a handful of players for minor-league depth are joining the club (one of those is former Blue / AHL player Mackenzie MacEachern).

The Blues pretty much broadcast that they would be quiet in free agency because their roster is set. They didn’t have a lot of salary cap space to work with after the end of the 2022-23 season. And when they acquired Kevin Hayes (and half of his salary), they gave themselves even less cap space.

The roster is fairly deep anyway. They can project forward lines as follows:

While on paper those lines are not as impressive as the lines that the Blues started last season with, they are still very skilled and capable. Thomas and Kyrou have the benefit of another year of development. They really are entering their prime now. Vrana and Kapanen played extremely well after being acquired. They fit very nicely in the middle 6 group. Both of these guys seem to embrace the change of scenery. And Saad and Hayes are veteran players for the 3rd line.

I especially like the 4th line, which has a blend of feistiness with Toropchenko and Neighbours, and skill with Alexandrov (and Neighbours too).

All four lines have players that can and will score. It’s a deep group.

But now let’s talk about the Draft. Many of the media and fans were convinced that team president Doug Armstrong would trade at least one of the team’s first-round picks, along with one of the long-term signed defensemen, to upgrade the defense corps. In face, reports came out that he (Armstrong) was close to trading Torey Krug to the Flyers for defensemen Travis Sanheim, along with Kevin Hayes. That evidently fell through because Krug opted not to waive his no-trade clause. So the Blues settled on acquiring just Hayes, for a return of a 6th round pick, and the Flyers retaining half of his salary.

The Blues went on to pick all 3 of their first-round selections. The prize of their draft haul is #10 pick Dalibor Dvorsky, regarded by most as a very exciting player who should impact the Blues within a couple of seasons. I’ve heard he is already considered to be their best prospect, which is saying something because Zachary Bolduc and Jimmy Snuggerud are developing very nicely, producing some impressive point totals.

The Blues have really stressed drafting forwards in recent years. Their stable of prospects now includes Dvorsky, Bolduc, Snuggerud, and Zach Dean.

I can’t remember a time as a fan when there were so many promising prospects.

I see on Twitter many fans don’t think the Blues will be a contending team this year. I must disagree. Sure, they are returning the same defense and goalie, but the forwards have some churn. With some improvement from the blueline, the Blues should make things interesting in the playoff chase.

Nikita Alexandrov has emerged as a building block for the future Blues.

The NHL trade deadline has passed. The Blues roster as it stands today will be the roster with which they end the season. A lot of names were sent out. A couple were brought in. The playoffs are out of the realistic realm of possibility. This won’t be a glorious year for the Blues.