Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports
The St. Louis Blues were relatively quiet at this past weekend’s NHL draft, as they waited until the second round to make their first of six selections. Many would argue that a team which has consistently gone to the playoffs and suffered disappointing early-round exits like the Blues would need a rebuild from the draft or a major shakeup, but the problem on this team is not young talent. It is goaltending.
The Blues have a significant number of young players, such as Jaden Schwartz (23), Alex Pietrangelo (25), Jori Lehtera (27), Dimitrij Jaskin (22) T.J. Oshie (28) and Vladimir Tarasenko (23, free agent), who are starting to break out and become stars in this league. The talent on this team is not the issue. It would make little sense to shake up a roster with such great talent and potential and replenish it with 17-19-year-old players who need years of development in the minors. The Blues have done their part in drafting well in recent years and are starting to see their draft picks become the core of this team.
The key to the future success in the postseason is reliable veteran goaltending, something the Blues have yet to acquire since letting Ryan Miller go to free agency last summer. Obviously, Miller could not get St. Louis out of the first round and the Blues thought it made more sense to sign other free agents like Paul Stastny rather then lock down a veteran goaltender like Miller long term. This ended up being a crucial mistake as this past season was a disaster in the crease for St. Louis. Jake Allen and Brian Elliott were both very disappointing in their efforts in the first-round playoff loss to the Minnesota Wild. Martin Brodeur had a short stint after being signed by the Blues at the beginning of the season, but he is clearly out of the prime of his career and found himself out of a roster spot very quickly.
It would make little sense for a team that has all the weapons on offense and defense like the Blues to try and force a struggling goaltender like Allen or Elliott to lead them. Drafting and developing a prospect goaltender who may not see NHL action for 3-5 years also would be frivolous as the Blues are trying to accomplish postseason success right now. Waiting years to get a solid goaltender and letting all of the talent they currently have go to waste would be foolish. With Allen being an unrestricted free agent and creating a possible void for one of the two goaltender spots, it is clear that the Blues need to find another goaltender in the free agency market who can come in and compete for the starting spot and help carry this team.
So far this summer the Blues have missed several chances to acquire that missing piece in net. The New York Rangers dealt Cam Talbot to the Edmonton Oilers, and the Dallas Stars acquired Antti Niemi from the San Jose Sharks. Four free agent goaltenders I would expect the Blues to have their eyes on are Michael Neuvirth, Viktor Fasth, Karri Ramo and Braden Holtby. The clear No. 1 option would be Holtby, but it looks as though the Washington Capitals are doing all they can to clear space and sign the restricted free agent long term. With Talbot likely to be the new starter in Edmonton, it is likely that Fasth will want to find a new place to compete for a starting role. Jaroslav Halak will be the starter for the New York Islanders, as Jonas Hiller is being paid big money long term by the Calgary Flames with Ramo being the backup. Fasth, Neuvirth and Ramo are all unrestricted free agents and are all players the Blues should have their eyes on.
They may not be a perfect fit or have the credentials to become the automatic starter, but if we learned anything from this past season it is that any goaltender can go to a new place and suddenly become a wall in net like Devan Dubnyk did with Minnesota. The main priority for the Blues is to sign Tarasenko long term, and after that happens they should definitely make a move on one of those three unrestricted free agent goaltenders to try and fix this problem in net.
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