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Three Intriguing Storylines To Follow During The St. Louis Blues' Training Camp
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- Three Intriguing Storylines To Follow During The St. Louis Blues' Training Camp
The St. Louis Blues revealed their training camp roster early Tuesday morning.
The roster includes every Blues player projected to be in the opening-night lineup, AHL players signed to NHL contracts, and prospects playing in the CHL. Among those not on the training camp roster are NCAA prospects like Tynan Lawrence and prospects playing in Europe , like Love Harenstam, Dmitry Buchelnikov , and Milton Gastrin .
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With that said, here are three intriguing storylines to follow during training camp and the shortened four-game pre-season.
How Does The Middle Six Shape Up?
With the top line expected to be Dylan Holloway , Robert Thomas , and Jimmy Snuggerud , that leaves six spots between the second and third lines. The competition for those spots isn't necessarily about who earns the role, but rather where.
The two centers are expected to be Mason McTavish and Dalibor Dvorsky. The wingers will be Jake Neighbours , Pavel Buchnevich , Connor McMichael , and Jonatan Berggren . The only two players who could realistically compete for any of those spots are Pius Suter and Otto Stenberg , and the only player really eligible to fall out of the middle six is Berggren.
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So, in all likelihood, those six players will be looking to find chemistry with one another. Neighbours and Buchnevich have plenty of history playing together, so we could likely see them together, leaving McMichael and Berggren together. McTavish is a more established NHL center than Dvorsky is, so it's fair to assume he lands on the second line.
Nonetheless, anything can happen, and the internal battles will be worth following.
(IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect)
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Tyler Tucker vs. Theo Lindstein
The Blues' defense corps is nearly set. Philip Broberg and Logan Mailloux will be the top pairing, followed by the next three veterans: Colton Parayko , Cam Fowler , and Brandon Carlo , but the final spot will likely come down to Theo Lindstein and Tyler Tucker.
Tucker is the more experienced of the two, but Lindstein is held in high regard within the organization as a 2023 first-round pick. In 17 games to end the 2025-26 season, Lindstein looked solid alongside Parayko. Tucker has 159 NHL games, including 69 last year.
Whoever stands out for better reasons in pre-season will likely land the job, while the other sits in the press box as the seventh defenseman.
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Do The Prospects Stand Out?
The Blues will bring several prospects to training camp, including Justin Carbonneau , Adam Jiricek , and Maddox Dagenais . Dagenais is the farthest from being NHL-ready, but Jiricek and Carbonneau enter camp with aspirations of putting themselves on the map.
Carbonneau was among the final cuts last season, and Jiricek had a breakout campaign that has really excited the Blues. Both are very much on the outside looking in, but a strong camp could accelerate their timeline.
Outside of the recent first-round picks, players like Aleksanteri Kaskimaki , Zach Dean, Juraj Pekarcik , Dylan Peterson, and many others are looking to show they are ready for call-ups.
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