Blues take strong dose of optimism into offseason

The St. Louis Blues packed up for the off-season, reflecting on a tumultuous 2016-17 campaign and eagerly looking forward to next season.

“It still stings,” said defenceman Alex Pietrangelo, the team captain. “After a couple days of reflection, I think you have to be proud of the point that we got to. I bet you halfway through the season not many people thought we’d be where we are today having this conversation. It’s obviously still disappointing to us.”

After winning 49 games and advancing to the Western Conference final a year ago, veteran forwards David Backes, Troy Brouwer and Steve Ott and goalie Brian Elliott left the Blues as either free agents or via trade. The roster shake-up continued into the season with the firing of coach Ken Hitchcock on Feb. 1 and the trade of defenceman Kevin Shattenkirk not long after.

The Blues were 24-21-5 when general manager Doug Armstrong replaced Hitchcock with coach-in-waiting Mike Yeo and the team surged down the stretch to finish 46-29-7 and claim the third spot in the Central Division.

“This was probably the hardest season of my career and the longest one with the World Cup,” said forward Vladimir Tarasenko, who had a team high 39 goals and 75 points. “We had a lot of emotional stuff going on through the season, and a lot of ups and downs.”

The Blues have plenty to be excited about going forward and could return most of the same team next season.

They have just one unrestricted free agent, fourthline forward Scottie Upshall, but could lose someone in the Vegas expansion draft. Armstrong said they will protect seven forwards, three defenceman and one goalie.

The Blues feel good about their nucleus, led by players like Tarasenko, Pietrangelo, Paul Stastny, Alexander Steen, Jaden Schwartz, Vladimir Sobotka and Robby Fabbri, the growth of second-year defencemen Colton Parayko and Joel Edmundson and the resiliency of goalie Jake Allen, who was stingy down the stretch and then posted a .935 save percentage and 1.96 goals-against average in 11 playoff games.