Blues Looking to Streak Again

The Blues made an incredible run in the second half of the regular season to eventually make the playoffs, coming up from the very deep parts of the Western Conference. Of course, they will look to keep that winning trend alive in the regular season of 2010, by improving on their already young formula of players.

The biggest additions to the team were not by trade or signings, rather by healed injuries, as it looks like both Paul Kariya and Erik Johnson should be ready for the opening face-off of the season in Europe. That'll be a huge lift to a St. Louis team that managed to play exceptionally well without them. Ty Conklin is the major prize of the off-season signings for the Blues, as he'll challenge Chris Mason for the starting job, right out of the gate.

St. Louis might be a sleepy little spot for fantasy points in 2010, as their young talent should be primed and ready to score. Hold out until the last possible moment for their goaltending situation to pan out, as you don't want to get caught with the wrong goalie for the first part of the season.

Forwards	Defense	Goaltenders
Brad Boyes	Carlo Colaiacovo	Chris Mason
David Backes	Barret Jackman	Ty Conklin
David Perron	Mike Weaver
Keith Tkachuk	Eric Brewer
Patrik Berglund	Erik Johnson
Andy McDonald
T.J. Oshie
Jay McClement
Alex Steen
B.J. Crombeen
Brad Winchester
Paul Kariya
Cam Janssen

The Blues are definitely one of the younger teams in the league going into this season and with that comes a very reasonable cap cost. The 20 players signed above come at a cap hit of $46.1 million, which is above the cap floor and well below the ceiling. The team will also employ some of their young players to fill up some spots, including Alex Pietrangelo on defense and possibly Lars Eller up front.

Roman Polak looks to be their only major RFA left on their list and there shouldn't be much issue fitting him in underneath the ceiling. Polak's numbers are quite low and should be reflected in a new salary cap hit.