It goes without saying that the St. Louis Blues have evolved into a model of NHL efficiency and consistency as a franchise. The Blue Notes have found themselves in the playoffs four years in a row and won the Stanley Cup in 2019. Last season wasn’t a shambles either as they finished out the year with a record of 49-22-11 and lost to the eventual Stanley Cup champions Colorado Avalanche in the second round of the postseason. Statistically speaking, the Blues were as solid as a playoff-bound team could be with special teams being the franchise’s real strength. Registering a 26.97% on the power play and an 84.09 on the penalty kill, the Blues were in the NHL’s top five for both both categories. Furthermore, the Blues were equally strong on the offense with 309 goals for last year – third in the league.
Playoff results from last year and statistics are nice evaluation tools to have to examine the overall “health” of a hockey team but they can never truly spell out the real heartbeat of an organization. The St. Louis Blues have been a consistent winning franchise overall and seem to find ways to get invited to the postseason dance each spring. Comeback players like Vladimir Tarasenko led the offensive onslaught last season and bounced back from previous injuries in the Covid-plagued year to lead the Blues in goals with 34 goals and 82 points. However, Blues fans should enter this season with a level of trepidation as Tarasenko’s contract runs out this year; he could wind up as an unrestricted free agent before everything’s said and done.
Kyrou and Thomas have become the core around the Blues offense.
Jordan Kyrou and Robert Thomas rightly can be called the “Blues Brothers” of this franchise since they are the present and the future of the organization. Although playing on different lines, these two young hockey players seem to truly be brothers from a different mother and their long-term longevity in St. Louis only foreshadows more success on the ice not only this season but for the coming years. Kyrou recently signed a massive, eight year contract extension that will keep him in a Blues sweater through the 2030-21 season. The contract itself mirrored a similar contract extension that teammate Robert Thomas received and calls for an enormous $65 million dollar extension worth $8.125 million dollars each season. The Blues front office feel that Kyrou is worth every penny of this extension which is more about securing the future of the team that merely rewarding a good player with a contract extension.
Jordan Kyrou has become a staple of the Blues offense and garnered 75 points last season for St. Louis which includes 27 goals and 48 assists in 74 games played. With the contract extension, there is every hope that Kyrou should see action in all 82 regular season games this year (barring any injury of course.) Kyrou topped off a highly successful 2021-22 season with a trip to the All-Star game where he earned the Fastest Skater award where he beat out no less than Connor McDavid for that honor. Kyrou was a staple of stability in the postseason with seven goals in 12 playoff games as well. Kyrou was selected by the Blues in the second round (35th overall) in the 2016 NHL draft and both organization and team have never looked back on that fateful decision to bring Kyrou to St. Louis. The 24 year old had a career epiphany last year and with Kyrou’s continual success, he should be a staple for ice time to help lea the Blues offense on a nightly basis.
Fellow Blues and quasi “brother” Robert Thomas is the second part of this young power tandem and the 23 year old was equally rewarded with an eight year contract extension of his own this past summer by the Blues front office. Thomas had 20 goals and 57 assists for 77 points in 2021-22 and looks to break the 80 mark or better this season as well. Thomas looks to be the anchor on the second line as Kyrou performs a similar function on the first line. Both young players seem nearly inseparable both on and off the ice as they are also avid video game players and won a Fortnite tournament back in 2020 during the darkest days of the Covid pandemic with the winnings donated to charity. As other Blues veterans face free agency at the end of this season, the Kyrou-Thomas duo look to be the cornerstone of the Blues organization as they continue their winning ways for years to come.
