The St. Louis Blues are 5-4-1 through their first 10 games of the 2023-24 season. After a 3-4-1 start, they rallied and won back-to-back home games over the New Jersey Devils and Montreal Canadiens. The Blues have been rightfully criticized this season for their lack of consistency, but things seem to be improving.
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It was a quiet offseason in St. Louis, but their two additions have seen plenty of ice time thus far: Kevin Hayes and Oskar Sundqvist. Let’s look at how they’ve performed so far this season.
Slow Start for Hayes in Berube System
The Blues traded a 2024 sixth-round pick to the Philadelphia Flyers for Hayes prior to the 2023 NHL Draft. The Flyers also retained 50 percent of his salary through the next three seasons, so he only counts $3.5 million towards the Blues’ salary cap. Until the game against the Devils, which was the ninth of the season, he had zero goals. He scored two in that game and nearly had a third into an empty net. I think as he continues to feel more comfortable in the system, which seems to be happening, the better he’ll play.
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Through 10 games, Hayes has decent numbers, but it’s safe to say that he hasn’t looked overly comfortable to begin his Blues career. On a positive note, he has a plus/minus of plus-2 and has won 58.6 percent of faceoffs. He’s picked his game up as the Blues offensive attack has come alive over the past few games. He’s meshed pretty well with Alexey Toropchenko, so it wouldn’t surprise me if Berube keeps them together moving forward.
I still think general manager (GM) Doug Armstrong would make the Hayes trade if he had to do it all over again last offseason. They got him for almost nothing and only have to pay half of his salary for the next three seasons. He provides stability on the third line and can be used in several different areas of the game.
Sundqvist Picks Up Where He Left Off
Sundqvist signed a one-year deal with the Blues over the summer. He spent four and a half seasons with the Blues before being traded to the Detroit Red Wings in 2021-22. He looks as comfortable as ever in head coach Craig Berube’s system, even though some of his numbers don’t look great – such as his 30.7 Corsi For percentage (CF%). This stat measures puck control when a player is on the ice, so there’s been a lot of defensive zone coverage from Sundqvist. But that’s a lot of the reason why he’s in the lineup. Berube has always liked defensive forwards like him, so he’ll remain in the lineup as long as he’s healthy.
Sundqvist has four points in 10 games, including a shorthanded assist on a Kasperi Kapanen goal against the Calgary Flames. The Blues’ penalty kill is up near 80 percent through 10 games and Sundqvist has been a big part of their early season success after being just over 70 percent all of last season. One thing to work on is faceoffs, where he’s won just 31 of 92 (33.7 percent). Outside of that, he’s played his role well and I don’t expect that to change much moving forward. Sundqvist is well worth the $775,000 that he’s being paid this season, but that should go without saying.
Even after making just two moves of any significance over the offseason, Armstrong did a good job in stabilizing the Blues’ center depth, which was lacking last season. The cap issues were all Armstrong’s doing, but so far it looks like he did a solid job in adding Hayes and Sundqvist.
