The Blues were a wreck of a team to start the CTCHL season in the fall. There was an unhappy Mario Lemieux, who resigned with the team in hopes his fellow vet buddies would also stay for a cup run, but the Blues lost almost the whole core of their team via free agency in the summer. Instead of players like Straka, who decided to leave for more money, the Blues had to rely on younger players like Nash and Staal to take on a bigger role than maybe they were ready for. The loss of Mattias Norstrom was huge on the blueline that fell apart without him at the start of the season.

Almost a quater way through the season Blues GM Nuvolone decided the team wasn't going foward and didn't have enough assets left to keep up with the top teams in the west. Even though he was very happy with his vet lineup he decided to rebuild with younger players and good depth guys. Nuvolone traded away every vet the team had except for Alex Kovalev, Steve Shields, and Vlad Malakhov. Kovalev is not going anywhere as it's well known how much the GM loves the talented russians game. It is reported and confirmed that the Blues did make an offer to Kovalev that is a 4 year deal and a no trade clause. Kovalev has yet to sign, but it is assumed thougout the league that he will before going to free agency.

Coming back to the Blues after all the smoke cleared after many trades is an impressive list of young talent. The club is very very deep at defense and right wing expecially. The core of defenders are a younger, but experienced bunch with Markov, Brewer, Zidlick, McLaren, and Backman all gaining great experience this season and pushing them are Ryan Whitney, Fedor Tyutin, Richard Stehlik, Tomas Pock, and Braydon Coburn who was the prize in the Alfredsson trade. Right wing has some great depth with assuming Kovalev returns; after him the depth chart reads: Alexei Morozov, Ales Kotalik, Vaclav Varada, Fredrik Sjostrom, Dustin Brown, and Jed Ortmeyer. Most of these players have seen some action up with the Blues this season along with younger centers like Umberger and Taffe.

How the Blues made the playoffs after the trade deadline nobody knows. Nuvolone, who just came back from a long vacation said the team just got hot for some reason after Alfredsson was traded. "Ricci is another reason I think. That guy came in on the first day and was talking about the playoffs. He really got those young guys pumped and the experience gained through it is great for the long term of the Blues." Nuvolove also thought that the addition of Zidlick really got the powerplay clicking. Asked about what he would rate the season as a whole for the Blues: "Well we totaly retooled our club from a vet contending team to a young hungry team in one season. It was a huge face lift to say the least. Now somehow we made the playoffs and that was just the cherry on top even though we lost in the first round. I would have to give the season a A as far as how it came out."

The CTCHL draft is fast aproaching and the Blues have 3 of the first 15 pick in the draft. The have thier own and the Islanders, and they also own the Buffalo pick which was first overall before the league decided to do a draft lotto for the first time ever! The Blues lost the lotto and now the pick is 2nd overall. One thing that just came of note that the GM shared with us: "Yeah I was really disapointed about loosing first overall, but I'm not stupid. I knew the chance of that happening so in the Gonchar deal with Atlanta there is a clause that if the pick isn't first overall, which it isn't, the rights to Eric Nystrom now belong to the Blues." So add another prospect to the list for St. Louis. Nystrom is a good young energy guy at a position the Blues need most, left wing. When asked about the 2nd overall pick and what he plans to do with it: "I think we are gonna keep the pick. I mean there are two great players in this draft and we are getting one of them. I maybe willing to move the pick if the offer was something I couldn't turn down, but I think we will keep it and choose Malkin. I will listen to offers to trade down with one of our other first round picks though." So it seems after the draft Malkin will be in the fold for the Blues along with two or three other good prospects from other picks. If Nuvolone is as good of a drafter as he is at trading the Blues will be one of the top teams in the west for a long time. Bottom line Blues fans, St.Louis is on the right track for a Stanley Cup.