The Central Division is stacked heading into the 2026-27 season, with the Minnesota Wild, Dallas Stars, Colorado Avalanche, and Utah Mammoth.
One young team and rival of Utah that will try to get back to contention is the St. Louis Blues, who have some big questions to be answered.
What will the Blues look like this next season?
The Blues' first line will be led by Robert Thomas, Dylan Holloway, and Jimmy Snuggerud. Each of the three carried the offense after the Blues struggled mightily early.
St. Louis brought in some new faces as well, including Connor McMichael and Mason McTavish. Both have a high ceiling, but both have struggled in recent seasons. The Blues also traded away Jordan Kyrou after he put up ugly numbers, and Snuggerud proved he could take his place.
The Blues offense also has some other key pieces, like Pavel Buchnevich and Jake Neighbors, with the latter having a high ceiling. The offense can be good, but there are plenty of reasons to worry about the team's youth and inconsistency. Unless some young players can break out, then St. Louis wil struggle mightily to reach the postseason.
The top line isn't bad, but compared to the Avs, Wild, Stars, and even the Mammoth, it's not much. As for the goalie situation, the Blues aren't in a terrible position. St. Louis needs a good version of Joel Hofer and hopefully a bounce-back from Jordan Binnington.
St. Louis could collapse if Hofer is bad and Binnington is as bad as he was last season, so this position is a bit of a question mark. The good news is that if both are good, though, then a postseason appearance is possible. Right now, St. Louis doesn't even have a captain yet, which will be interesting to see who it will be.
But for now, this little preview of the Blues does prove one thing: the Blues have a lot of work to do to get back to contention.
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