St. Louis Blues’ Newcomers and Goaltending Having Minimal Impact So Far

The St. Louis Blues were quite busy during the offseason as general manager Doug Armstrong made several moves after the club missed the playoffs last year. He added some scoring depth to the roster, but most fans felt the newcomers wouldn’t have much of an impact if the goaltending wasn’t up to par. This meant top goaltender Jake Allen would constantly be under the microscope. The moves may eventually work out, but the Blues owned the second-worst record in the NHL at the quarter season mark and head coach Mike Yeo was fired because of it and replaced by Craig Berube.

St. Louis jumped head first in the free agency pool in the summer by signing forwards Tyler Bozak of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Patrick Maroon of the New Jersey Devils and David Perron of the Stanley Cup finalist Vegas Golden Knights. Bozak, a 32-year-old center had notched 365 points with Toronto in 594 regular-season games, while 30-year-old winger Perron had 444 points in his 722 outings and 30-year-old winger and St. Louis native Maroon had played 375 times and contributed 178 points. In addition, Perron was returning to St. Louis for his third stint after previously playing seven seasons with the organization.

There was a bigger move though as 27-year-old center Ryan O’Reilly was acquired from the Buffalo Sabres in a trade. O’Reilly was the league’s best faceoff man last year and could also produce offensively as he had 422 points in his 651 regular-season games. St. Louis gave up Patrik Berglund, Vladimir Sobotka, and prospect Tage Thompson in the swap along with a 2019 first-round draft pick and a 2021 second rounder. The trade made sense since the Blues were looking for a good two-way center after dealing Paul Stastny to the Winnipeg Jets at the trade deadline last season.

Before the season faced off it looked like the Central Division team would be in the hunt for a playoff spot since they already had some good offensive guns in Jaden Schwartz, Vladimir Tarasenko and Brayden Schenn. The blue line also appeared solid with a corps that included Alex Pietrangelo, Vince Dunn, Colton Parayko, Jay Bouwmeester and Joel Edmundson. That meant the only concern may be in net with Allen between the posts. The 28-year-old Allen goalie was taken by the Blues in the 2008 draft with the 34^th pick and is playing his sixth NHL season.

He entered the campaign with 219 games under his belt and a mark of 117-71-15 along with a goals-against average of 2.47 and a save percentage of 91.3 and 16 shutouts. His playoff numbers were 9-10 with a GAA of 2.10 and a save percentage of 92.2. Allen played  in 99 games during his first three years while sharing the crease with Brian Elliott. Once Elliot left Carter Hutton, who has since signed with the Buffalo Sabres, was brought in as the Allen’s backup. Allen was then the number one and played 61 and 58 games over the last two seasons.

Allen isn’t without his critics though and some of them believe he’s struggled since Elliot left. He was benched at one time by Yeo when his save percentage dropped to 89.7. However he then caught fire and lost only eight of his last 27 appearances in 2016/17 and St. Louis made the postseason. Allen continued to shine in the playoffs with a fine save percentage of 93.5. He slipped last season though and Hutton made 32 appearances and arguably outplayed Allen, who posted a 90.6 save percentage and GAA of 2.75 with a lone shutout.

The Blues were hoping Allen would bounce back this year, but his GAA at the quarter mark of the season was 3.33 while his save percentage was was 89.5 and his record stood at 5-5-3. Since joining the Blues, Allen’s stats haven’t been much above the league-average. But with most of his teammates also in a funk this won’t be good enough to make the playoffs. Bozak had 11 points in 19 games, but just three goals while Perron had 11 points and five goals and Maroon had contributed no goals and just seven points. On the bright side, O’Reilly was pulling his weight with 10 goals and 13 assists. By no means should the newcomers and Allen take all the blame for the Blues situation though as most of the squad has been underperforming.