I doubt Dvorsky makes it before them. He seems like more of a project. I'd give him a year in the AHL with a few call-ups unless he does well in his 9 games.
Could for sure see Snuggerud make the jump next year and I expect to see him by the end of the year.

My understanding is Dvorsky isn't on loan rn so as a CHL player per the agreement he will either be in Sudbury again or NHL. If I'm wrong and he can go to the AHL then I agree that should be the move.

Buying out Krug would be a nightmare imo

Snuggerud is NHL ready but should spend time in AHL first, Dvorsky isnt NHL ready imo and needs a full year in NHL. Bolduc isnt NHL ready but id give him the first call up next season no matter what, just to get him experience and see if he could keep pace, Dean is slowly busting. Yeah he is only turning 21 next month but he looks terrible. Obviously not giving up on him but he needs to fix his game. Even his film is just bad, he looks lost

There is no reason to buyout Leddy.

- Dvorsky/Snuggerud leapfrogging- Possible sure. They also have been much higher regarded prospects. Could see Snuggerud sticking in the NHL at the beginning of next season if he signs after this NCAA season. Dvorsky i'd venture to guess will be a year after next situation. I think the hope was have him play in the SHL this season and come over and help the Blues next year. With the setback i'm not sure they'll jump him from OHL to NHL.

Have to remember in terms of Dean/Bolduc they also just turned Pro. There's alot of figuring out how to go about it for them right now. Look at Neighbors last year vs Neighbors this year. There's alot of growing to do moving up from the CHL.

Also if we have this much cap space it would be very dumb to buyout Krug and/or Leddy.

Oh I didn't even know he was in NA rn. Even if he performs well in his 9 games next szn I'd prolly send him back to the O unless the Blues can give him top6 minutes in the NHL

What do you mean leapfrog? DD and Snuggs are already more highly rated than Dean and Bolduc. Do you mean on the timeline? Because Dvorsky probably won't be ready by next October. Snuggs is more likely.

All that said, I think you need to not sleep on Bolduc, who seems to be figuring it out already in the A. He's got 2g 3a with a +3 in the last five games.

They already have. Although… I’m wondering if Bolduc gets some games this year. They haven’t called up anyone all season despite obvious need and I wonder if they’re just waiting for a prospect to start taking off and earn the spot.

14g 14a in 17 games for Sudbury so far.

Its better just wait another year, Leddy, krug, faulk will lose their full NTC. Letting play nhl games without ahl expirience will be harmful for develompent.

More likely they're waiting to trade a body (or for an injury opening) so they have space to call someone up without sending someone else through waivers.

I would genuinely pay double their buy outs to have them play for another team. When you consider how lousy they are and how much strain they put on their partners, they ruin what would be a pretty good team. I don't think Army will buy out either but as we saw last offseason w/ the NTCs he really has no other way to transform the D.

True but I’m surprised it hasn’t happened yet. Berube clearly has no trust in Blais and Alexandrov and Vrana is pretty awful. I thought we’d have seen Gaudette or Walker or Mac by now.

Yeah fellas... sorry I meant that they could make the NHL roster before Dean and Duc. And fwiw I don't consider another year in the AHL as a "failure" or "bust". The T-birds are using Walker-Peca-Gaudette for all the heavy lifting right now. Maybe next year could allow for more opportunity for the younger guys in AHL.

Edit: and I should explain, with Dvorsky the question as I understand it is OHL vs NHL next year. I think he'll make enough strides between now and then to make the team but we'll see. Always a headache with the 19 yr olds and the CHL agreement. Does he really need to go be a 2ppg in Sudbury next year? He already looks like he's gonna graduate from that league IMO.

I’m definitely disappointed in Dean. I really convinced myself he was gonna be on the team and effective this year. Not the end for him, but it’s not usually a good sign when a prospect can’t score at all in his first AHL year.

I think I agree with you on both fronts. Snuggerud is probably ready for a limited role in the NHL and Dvorsky might be ready however there is a little bit of uncertainty after his stint in the SHL. Dvorsky will be a great player, but seeing him in the AHL might be beneficial to know his readiness.

All four players could be ready, maybe two make the jump. My guess is that Bolduc and Snuggerud get a spot on the roster or they split a spot on the roster.

My question is when does Buchinger become ready and are we ever able to make a D change?

Frankly, Berube's line-up management (who dresses/line combos/D pairings, etc) has been a big problem this season, but nobody talks about it. I doubt it gets any better any time soon.

Meh, there’s not a lot for him to work with. Only 13 forwards and 3 of them barely play.

Would this be a pretty good team though?

We have 4 guys playing at over a .5ppg mark. Thomas has been extremely good this season, he's played matchups and has produced offensively. Buch is Buch. Kyrou is barely over .5ppg, Schenn is also barely at it.

As much as we have issues on the backend and probably some of our scoring issues comes from poor breakout passes it's hard not to overlook our glaring hole of secondary scoring. Now alot of the lower point totals can be accounted for due to our anemic PP. But as of right now we really only have 4 top 6 players and Schenn is pretty borderline there at the moment (more or less shouldn't be a key cog of a line).

Proposing buyouts would help with clearing cap space for the next couple of years but it also handcuffs you down the line.

I don't think Krug drags down Faulk. Tbh I don't think Faulk is that good defensively. He has some ability to play in his own zone, but too often he gets caught over anticipating or not seeing a play. Krug certainly doesn't help/ but i wouldn't say he's the sole root of that d pair giving up alot of chances with heavily sheltered minutes.

I will agree with you that Leddy drags down Parayko. It seems like 75% of the goals against that pair are as a result of Colt trying to cover for Leddy. It's extremely tough deployment regardless, I think if you slotted him in with Faulk you'll see much better results and wont have to shelter that pair as much easing the burden on a Parayko pair.

TLDR: We aren't a pretty good team. We have good goaltending that was red hot at the beginning of the season. We have some pieces. But we have alot of holes that aren't ready to be adressed in the next year or two do to lack of cap, and lack of players nipping at the heels to get into the spots. There's no reason to spread out the pain versus just staying the course until we can fix the problem currectly.

I would trade every defenseman on the blues for nothing if I had the chance. Only partially kidding because if they can find a deal for any they should take it. Besides Perunovich, not one is helping them win in the present and they won’t in the future.

All I'm saying is it would be a lot better team with an actually good partner for Parayko and a balanced 2nd pairing that you could throw out in more situations. I agree that we're not good enough currently but I really don't want to see the same D again next year... and the next year, and.. (I didn't want to see them this year!). Obviously the more years we can get through before making changes on D the better, but I also don't think we have any internal pieces that are coming in to fix things on D when the current guys finally leave. Buchinger prob gets the Walman treatment where they neuter him into a robot and then trade him. Lindstein will take 3+ years just to be Carl Gunnarsson 2.0.

I think you're severely downplaying what Parayko brings to a team. But in general yeah, the rest of the group has some strengths but also some glaring weaknesses.

I don't think anybody wants to see it but it's the reality of the situation unfortunately. I really thought Doug would strong arm Krug into taking the trade to Philadelphia. I'm not sure of the reasoning for him being so stringent on NMCs yet he allows NTCs to be NMCs.

The problem with Parayko (who has always been my favorite of the bunch) is that he’s signed for oblivion and will almost certainly not be helping the team when they’re ready to compete and make the playoffs. Plus, trading him might make the bottom fall out of this team which could put us in position to draft top talent. And he theoretically could get a nice return.

I’d take Carl gunnarsson out of Lindstein!

BOOM BOOM GUNNARSSON! I've seen some people talk about Lindstein like he can be a Jonas Brodin and I'd love that! I just don't see much from him... hopefully he's just a late bloomer.