ST. LOUIS — After two preseason projections of the St. Louis Blues 2024-25 roster, we finally have certainty.
The Blues announced their 23-man roster Monday ahead of the 4 p.m. CT deadline, and there was really only one surprise: Zack Bolduc was left off.
Bolduc, 21, a first-round draft pick in 2021, might have played well enough to make the season-opening roster, but the Blues’ salary-cap constraints forced the club to assign him to AHL Springfield for the start of the season.
The Blues are keeping 12 forwards, eight defensemen and two goaltenders. According to PuckPedia, that leaves the club’s salary-cap total at $87,532,208 — just $467,792 under the NHL’s $88 million cap. Bolduc’s $864,000 cap hit would not fit under the cap.
Somewhat complicating matters is Brandon Saad, who is not traveling with the Blues as he awaits the birth of his family’s third child. Saad is not expected to play in the season opener and perhaps for the entire three-game road trip. He does not count toward the Blues’ 23-man roster, but his $4.5 million cap hit does count against the Blues’ overall cap hit.
So the Blues are doing some cap gymnastics at the start of the season, but other than Bolduc, who may not have been in the opening-night lineup anyway, it doesn’t appear to have had an impact on who will suit up against the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday.
There have been a few changes since our initial Blues roster projection on the first day of training camp. Zach Dean was centering the fourth line for that, but now it appears Radek Faksa will be in that spot. Dean was reassigned to AHL Springfield on Sunday.
With Blues roster projection 2.0, there were some changes to the forward line combinations. Most notably, forward Jake Neighbours went to the left wing, making room for Bolduc in the top six on the right side.
But Blues coach Drew Bannister did some shuffling with the combinations recently, moving Dylan Holloway and Alexandre Texier into the top six and dropping Brayden Schenn to third-line center. The club responded with a 4-3 overtime win over the Dallas Stars, and for a team that went just 2-5 in the preseason, Bannister liked the results.
“It’s a step in the right direction,” he said. “There’s still things that can be cleaned up in our game, but the way we competed for each other and had each other’s backs, I thought we played a quicker game. Offensively there were a lot of good things that happened in the game. Defensively, I didn’t find that we were ever under a lot of duress.
“Is that the lineup we start with? Things can change when we start on Tuesday.”
In Monday’s practice in Seattle, those changes were still holding firm.
Dylan Holloway-Robert Thomas-Jake Neighbours
Alexandre Texier-Pavel Buchnevich-Jordan Kyrou
Mathieu Joseph-Brayden Schenn-Kasperi Kapanen
Alexey Toropchenko-Radek Faksa-Nathan Walker
Extra: Brandon Saad (paternity leave), Oskar Sunqvist (injured)
Nick Leddy–Colton Parayko
Philip Broberg–Justin Faulk
Ryan Suter–Matthew Kessel
Extras: P.O. Joseph, Scott Perunovich
Jordan Binnington
Joel Hofer
By the end of camp, the only real roster questions were whether Bolduc would remain in St. Louis or start the season in Springfield. He had moments that led you to believe he’d be with the Blues, but then Bannister acknowledged that his preseason play had leveled off.
“We’ve tried to put him in positions to have success and play up the lineup in games,” Bannister said. “In practices he’s been playing with top linemates and we put him on the power play. There’s a lot of good things with Boldy. (But) I spoke about it before, the deficiencies in his game, I haven’t seen a drastic improvement from game to game.
“I think he’s a player that’s extremely close to being an everyday NHL player. He’s just got to find that next level in his game and that consistency in his game.”
Based on Monday’s practice, Kasperi Kapanen will be in the lineup against Seattle. He was arguably the Blues’ best player in his past couple of games, and the team took note.
“Kappy was a player who came in motivated and (helped) our depth got a lot stronger, especially in our bottom six,” Bannister said. “In all honesty, now I see a player that is fighting for his job and quite honestly has taken control of that job. It’s a player who wanted to come in, wanted to make a statement.”
Defensively, the battle for a final roster spot, or spots, came down to Scott Perunovich, P.O. Joseph and Tyler Tucker, and who made the cut depended on how many defensemen the team decided to keep. After placing Tucker on waivers Sunday — he cleared and was assigned to AHL Springfield — the club kept eight, including Perunovich and Joseph.
With that, let’s look at the Blues’ opening depth chart for the 2024-25 season with a breakdown by position.
Forwards
The biggest takeaway is that after three weeks of practices and preseason games, the players general manager Doug Armstrong acquired this summer look like quality additions. Wherever they play in the lineup, Holloway, Texier and Mathieu Joseph bring much-needed speed, tenacity and personality.
The other headline in camp was Pavel Buchnevich playing center, and despite continued mixed results, it appears that the Blues are going to stick with the experiment at the start of the season. It will be imperative to surround him with wingers who can help take on the load, especially with faceoffs.
Originally, Schenn was on Buchnevich’s wing and helping on the dot, but again, Bannister has since moved Schenn down to third-line center and Faksa to fourth-line center. That may be the club’s best chance at having strength down the middle, after attempts in camp to play Holloway and Texier at center.
Overall, there’s talent in the top six, depth at center and speed on the wings. Remember, the lineup that suits up Tuesday in Seattle will look a bit different when Saad returns and when Oskar Sundqvist is 100 percent healthy after offseason knee surgery.
Defense
The top six defensemen are exactly the way they were projected early in camp: Colton Parayko, Nick Leddy, Philip Broberg, Justin Faulk, Ryan Suter and Matthew Kessel.
The Blues had Parayko with Broberg a lot in camp but eventually reunited Parayko and Leddy and put Broberg with Faulk. There could be a rotation with those four players throughout the season, but the bottom line is that with a big body in Broberg and a healthy Faulk, this top four looks to be a lot more formidable than last season, when it had an injured Faulk and injured Torey Krug.
Ryan Suter, 39, was a much-debated signing among the fanbase, but with Krug out for the season and Kessel in need of a mentor in the third pairing, this could be a beneficial situation. The 24-year-old Kessel was not without a few hiccups in camp, but the Blues are invested in him, and for now, he’s earned a spot in the starting lineup.
As mentioned, the Blues kept eight defensemen on the roster, including Perunovich and Joseph. Perunovich still has to prove that he’s not a liability defensively. If he can, perhaps he can get games and help on the power play. But Joseph, who was fairly good in camp, may have the edge on him in terms of the coaching staff’s trust and his ability on the penalty kill.
Goaltending
Jordan Binnington and Joel Hofer are back as the Blues’ tandem in 2024-25, and they just want to drop the puck. The goalies split a few starts down the stretch in the preseason and so far haven’t shown any signs that they’ll be a concern this season.
Beyond Binnington’s desire to help the Blues get back to the playoffs, he’ll have some extra motivation trying to show Team Canada he’s deserving of playing in the 4 Nations Face-Off. Meanwhile, Hofer will be pushing Binnington for more starts after a successful rookie year in 2023-24.
(Photo of Brayden Schenn, Zack Bolduc and Nathan Walker leaning against the Blues bench: Rick Ulreich / Getty Images)
