The St. Louis Blues will enter the 2023-24 season off of a rough 2022-23 season where they were sellers at the deadline and missed the playoffs by 14 points. While the team struggled a lot last season, there is hope for a team rebound in 2023-24. With the hopes of a rebound season, the Blues will need players to outperform expectations, and here are my three bold predictions for the upcoming season.
1. Pavel Buchnevich & Jordan Kyrou Will Each Score 40 Goals
The 2022-23 Blues scored 48 fewer goals than they did in the 2021-22 season, where they ranked third in the NHL in goals scored. If they want to get back into the playoffs this season, they will need their stars to emerge and score goals. With that being said, I believe that Pavel Buchnevich and Jordan Kyrou will each score 40 goals or more.
Starting with Kyrou, he scored 37 goals last season and has the potential to be the Blues’ first 50-goal scorer since Brett Hull in 1994. His electrifying speed and skill make it easy to believe that he can score 40 goals this season and beyond. Although a lot of Blues fans are hard on Kyrou’s lack of defense, he’s in the lineup to score and make offensive plays, so I’d be surprised if he didn’t score 40 goals this season.
As for Buchnevich, he’s been the Blues best overall player in his two seasons after being traded from the New York Rangers to St. Louis. He scored 30 goals in 2021-22 and 26 in 63 games last season, but I believe he’s going to surpass those numbers easily this season. He will have ample opportunity to reach 40 goals as he’ll play the most minutes above any forward and on the first line with Robert Thomas as his center. So, my first bold prediction is that Kyrou and Buchnevich will each score 40 goals or more.
2. Blues Will Have a Top 5 Power Play
The last two seasons have been nearly the opposite for the Blues’ power play. In 2021-22, the Blues finished behind only the Toronto Maple Leafs as the league’s second-best power-play unit at just under 27 percent. It was much worse last season as the Blues finished 22nd in the league at under 20 percent. There are several reasons for this decline, but none bigger than the loss of assistant coach Jim Montgomery, who got the head coaching job for the Boston Bruins.
Related: Revisiting the Brayden Schenn Trade
With new assistants Mike Weber and Michael Babcock in the mix, the Blues can give themselves a revamp on the power play with fresh ideas and perspectives from two youthful coaches. I also believe that a full season with players such as Jakub Vrana, Kasperi Kapanen, and Sammy Blais will help both units as well. Even if the Blues don’t have a top-five power play, I expect them to be much better than last season.
3. Joel Hofer Surpasses Jordan Binnington Midseason
The final bold prediction is out there, but I believe that Joel Hofer will surpass Jordan Binnington by the middle of the season in a similar way to how Ville Husso did in 2021-22. This is a prediction that I’m not overly confident in, but I think Hofer will play really well this season.
Hofer played well overall last season even with a few shaky starts to end it. In his first three games with the Blues, he tallied a .959 save percentage (SV%) and allowed just four goals overall. He’s played well the last two seasons in both the NHL and American Hockey League (AHL), so I think he has starter potential in the NHL. As for Binnington, the last two seasons have been rough. He has an .897 SV% in 98 games dating back to the beginning of the 2021-22 season, so it’s probably been worse than rough. It’s clear that the Blues’ lackluster defense has hurt Binnington, but there’s a strong argument to make that he’s not the same guy he was when he led them to a Stanley Cup in 2019. All in all, I wouldn’t be surprised if Hofer made more starts than Binnington down the stretch this season.
The Blues 2023-24 season will be an interesting one to watch unfold. They can take advantage of a lack of depth in the Central Division and return to the playoffs. The other outcome is another middling season and missing the playoffs for a second straight season. Either way, they will be interesting to watch.