A look at the Blue's farm
St Louis Times Star Picaaayune (AP)
While the Blue's seem to be rolling along and have been hot recently, this reporter gets a lot of questions from the fans. "Is this a rash or something worse" "What's the little 3 pronged fork for" and "What's happening with the Blue's prospects".
Now this intrepid reporter can't answer the first two questions, but he can certainly try to answer the last. So we're going to take a look at some of the more interesting players on the farm.
Goalies
This might be an area of concern for the team. The three goalies sharing the crease in the minors have struggled this year, Hunter Miska, Evan Fitzpatrick and Adam Werner haven't had good seasons so far. However Drew Commesso has had a decent year at Boston University as their starting goalie, though Cameron Rowe has struggled at Wisconsin this year.
Defenseman
Connor Mackay has had a sold first 17 games in the minors firing 3 goals and 6 assists in 17 games and being named as the AHL player of the week. Though its likely that he won't see any time with the Blue's this year but should get a look next year.
Filip Johansson has had a decent start in the SHL with Frolunda HC with 7 points in 24 games as a 21 year old.
Dylan Coghlan is considered to be CPHL ready but sits in 8th in the depth chart and the likely 2nd call up.
Forwards
Ryan McLeod will probably get a look next year and could be a late season call up. He's played 15 games for the ECHL Edmonton Oilers and has 3 goals in 15 games.
Brett Murray likewise is playing for the Sabres in the ECHL and has had decent success with 3 points in 6 games
The organization is very excited about Egor Sokolov who came up due to Taylor Halls injury and played fairly well and got his first CPHL goal. He's back on the farm and has put up 4 goals and 13 points in 16 games.
Ilya Nikolaev is considered a long shot prospect but has done well with the Tri-City Storm of the USHL with 5 goals and 16 points in 16 games.
Samuel Poulin is a strong two way player with some offensive creativity. He's graduated to the AHL where he's put up 3 goals and 6 points in 18 games with the Wilkes-Barre Penguins.
Chase Stillman is a high motor no quit hardnosed player unlike his father. He's put up 9 goals and 16 points in 19 games for Sudbury. He also was fairly strong in last years WJC under 18 tournament putting up 4 points in 7 games.
Analysis
Though CaptainCrunch has worked on upgrading his farm system, he still hasn't garnered that sure thing game breaking style of player. Mainly because he keeps trading high draft picks to win now. Currently the Blues have 5 4th round and 2 5th rounds in this years draft so its unlikely that he's going to be able to acquire a game changer there. So he'll have to find a way to move up in the draft. Its also likely that some of the players on the farm won't be bought back unless they show rapid improvement as there is usually a hard barrier at the age of 25 when teams pretty much give up on that prospect.
__________________
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
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