Pool Outlook for St. Louis

The Blues had one amazing second half of the regular season in 2009, only to be ousted in the first round of the playoffs. The season should be considered a success, since the team was mired in the basement of the Western Conference before their big run and they got to see a lot of their young players step up to the plate and swing for the fences. The best part for the Blues to look forward to is that they were also missing some major players due to injury, who will all be due back to play in 2010, which should make the Blues a much more formidable team to play against. The influx of good young talent should also make the Blues a hot bed for talent for your hockey pool too.

Despite all of their injuries, the Blues did have some sparkling talent on display, including an ever-improving Brad Boyes, who moved up in the pool rankings in 2009 from 63rd to 47th, after a 72-point season in all 82 GP. Boyes didn't have quite the goal-scoring season that he had the season before, but he did have a better all-around season, finishing off with a career-high in points.

David Backes, David Perron, Patrik Berglund and T.J. Oshie have all joined the likes of Keith Tkachuk, Andy McDonald and Paul Kariya as solid picks for the upcoming pool draft after some pretty solid years. That is really saying something when you have a team like that with four good young players that are 25 and under. If you find yourself in a draft and you're looking for a bunch of sleepers, it looks pretty wise to keep the St. Louis Blues under your breath.

On defense, the Blues were also rocked by injury, as Erik Johnson could not participate in any action this past season, thanks to a knee injury on the golf course. Carlo Colaiacovo did come in from the Maple Leafs and do an admirable job, while the big Blues defenders were hurt, but that isn't quite saying much at 30 points in 73 GP. Once Johnson comes back from injury and a few of their other big defenders are good to go again, the Blues could be much more solid on the blueline.

The Blues got some very reasonable goaltending from Chris Mason this year, as he won 27 games, 6 by shutout and added an assist for 67 pool points. After a good first round series in the playoffs, the Blues should be confident that they have a solid number one goalie in their system. Mason, a cast-off of the Predators, didn't get out to the best of starts, but certainly was instrumental in the team's surge to the playoffs. Mason took the job away from Manny Legace in the year and should be a solid number one goalie pick in the coming season.

2010 Season Outlook
The Blues have a pretty rosy outlook for the next season, having a good portion of their players that made their run into the playoffs already signed on. It'll be an interesting question to see how they fill some of the gaps in their line-up, but with the way the market is looking going towards this summer, it shouldn't be too difficult for them to find some help.

Forwards	Defense	Goaltenders
Brad Boyes	Carlo Colaiacovo	Chris Mason
David Backes	Barret Jackman
David Perron	Jay McKee
Patrik Berglund	Eric Brewer
Andy McDonald	Erik Johnson
T.J. Oshie
Alex Steen
Paul Kariya
Cam Janssen

The Blues are quite happy to have 16 players signed on for the next season with only $42.8 million (approx.) tied up in cap space already. That should give the team plenty of space to bring in Alex Pietrangelo and a number of free agents in or back into the mix. The forward lines seem to be shaping up very well, but the back-up goalie position needs to be filled and possibly a better number two defenseman is on their shopping list as well.

When it comes to RFAs in St. Louis, the Blues have a number of them that they need to look after, possibly before the July 1st market opens, just to make sure they know how much they can budget for in the next season. Jay McClement, B.J. Crombeen, Jeff Woywitka and Roman Polak are the most notable players on the list, as they played a good portion of games with the team in the regular season. These will be the players the team will need to budget for.

Keith Tkachuk, Manny Legace, Brad Winchester, Mike Weaver, Dan Hinote and David Koci are all up for UFA status this summer, but I can only see two or three possibly making it back for another season.

Well, saying that Alex Pietrangelo is one to watch is somewhat of an understatement. By somewhat, I mean, really... you should be watching this kid. Pietrangelo did get 8 games last season, but there was a little more seasoning needed, so he went back to juniors to get it, including a gold medal at the WJC. Unfortunately for St. Louis, they don't really have a great deal up front in their system, as they brought all of their key prospects in the forward ranks up already.

Sleeper city, St. Louis... wait your pool opponents out for the Blues and you should get some good sleepers. If you go after them too early, you may have given up on some more regular players, but a good pick out of St. Louis late could be clutch. I would also look for Mason to get a lot of starts out of the gate next year and if the Blues show the same sort of success that they did at the end of the 2009 season, Mason is a clutch keeper for your team.