Could Adam Jiříček Be St. Louis' Next Big Thing?

0:00Hey, it's former blue cam Jansen. If you've been thinking about a hot tub or a swim spa, trust me. You don't need to look any further than spas and more. They got a full lineup of hot tubs, swim spots, cold tubs and sonas all made right here in the Midwest by master spas. Spas and more is located at one, two, nine, five, seven, gravity road in sunset hills, stop by the showroom and check it out for yourself or visit spas and more stl.com that's spas and more. Go see my girl Angie and her team. They'll treat you great. What's up, everyone? We are back with a new episode of the last minute blues podcast. We talk about the roster decisions, including Finley's son, Quisted Walker being sent down and I'm year check being called back up. What do we expect from him and Donnie J. R and I we give our Western conference predictions buckle up. Last minute blues podcast. This is the last minute blues podcast with Alex Ferrario, Donnie Fandango and Jeremy Rutherford on your home of the St. Louis

1:02Blues 101 ESPN. It is the last minute blues podcast brought to you by spas and more. The largest sellers of hot tubs, swims and swim spas in St. Louis. Visit spas and more stl.com, Donnie Fandango in the Jeff Burton studios with our hosts. I'm going to say homeboy and I'm like, I like homeboys. Well, Alex Ferrario won a 1 ESPN, Jeremy Rutherford from the athletic sitting diagonally from the gentleman. As we stand here on this Wednesday, sit here on this Wednesday, we are two days away from hockey season for the blues. And I cannot wait. How about hockey? Did you watch the other night last night? I didn't watch a ton because there were. I was helping Dexter had an ELA test today. So I was kind of doing that and then running through, but I did have it on in the background. And it was nice. Do you know what also is kind of a sea change for me as a person? And I know we have a lot of stuff to talk about. So I won't spend a lot of time with this. But man, when I was growing up, if there was playoff baseball on, it's superseded

2:03everything. And that, that not just the cardinals, anything, any baseball, dude, I forgot playoff baseball was on until last night when I was kind of flipping back and forth between the hockey games and between the red socks and the Yankees. Hockey has completely overtaken my universe. That's how that was me. I watched it all last night from four o'clock on. I had it on in the background. I had my girls dance and I had it on my phone. So that just goes to show you how much I miss playoff hockey to where the blues haven't been in it, but also how long it's been since hockey because I'm like, oh, I'm all in on this. Yeah. Because I found the Canadian channel. So I go watch the Maple Leafs in the Canadians. That's how desperate I was to watch hockey. Yeah. Kind of hit me in the head yesterday too. I had to look at my calendar and see what time I'd leave tomorrow for Dallas. Yeah. I'm like, I don't even know. I booked this like a month and a half ago and like, Oh, 145. Okay. Better be ready at the airport by noon. So are you doing all three of the road games or the first two? I'm going to do Dallas and Colorado. Then come home. The teams coming home too. Sometimes they stay out on the road, but they're coming home and then maybe drive

3:03up to Chicago for that game Tuesday. Very good. Yeah. We'll be on the road for the first couple at least. And yeah, it's definitely hockey season because I brought my little guy home from hockey practice last night at nine o'clock. And he kept dead. Would you trade, Rantan for and so his fantasy hockey and it's like, buddy, it's the first like we're making trades or I thought he was giving you trade proposals for the blues. And like, JR can't get away from it. Years from me. He hears it from BK and I get it from Eli. Well, before we get started here real quick, do you want to mention that even though we won't have JR with us Friday, we will be at the St. Charles home and builders show out at St. Charles Convention Center. Cam Janssen will be our guest will be there from three to five probably start podcasting around three thirty or so. And we will have a pair of tickets to the blues home opener against San Jose to give away. So we would love to see you on Friday afternoon again, three to five and parking and admission to the home and remodeling show is free. Yep. So it won't cost you nothing.

4:04Nothing. And you get to have a little bit of time to do meet and greet with Cam, which is very important. Or if you're one of those nerds, one meet and greet with Donnie and I, but really this is Cam. Listen, when you're there, I mean, when people come there and they don't want to take a picture with me, but they do with Cam feelings not hurt at all. Oh, no, I understand. No, actually, my feelings are hurt if you say you want to take a picture with us and not Cam. Like, oh, come on, do that to Cam. You can do better. Actually, we actually at the training camp, a family came up. It's right. It drove in from Kentucky and they walked up to Alex and they said they listened to the pod and wanted to get a pic. So all of us and said they listened to those, their sons. Oh, God, I might put you to the 10th, 9th, 10th birthday, but said they listened every single week. That's amazing. The episode comes out. They were disappointed you weren't there. And I said, well, Donnie does the actual work where he's got a radio show and everything. I don't know about that. I don't know about that. All right. So guys, let's talk about this opening night roster here real quick. There are a couple of different questions that I want to ask. And obviously, we preface all of this by saying that the roster was put into a bit of

5:08a flux after the game against Chicago where Logan Mayu broke his goddamn finger and had to get surgery. I have a whole thought process about preseason fights and what are we doing? But I shouldn't take away from the guys playing the game, you know what I mean? But a couple of things, one, before or when the roster was finalized, the Blues had assigned their put on waivers a trio of guys that we thought there was a good chunk that maybe two of these three were going to make the team and Walker, Sonny, and Finley. First question, were you guys surprised by that at all and the Blues keeping Dean and Dubay? Wait, first of all, did Alex tell you to bring this up because he said Dubay is going to make it and he made it so he wants to gloss over the stuff. Let's go back in time. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, not only and to pump his tires even more. I mean, the reason that he's on the team is essentially what they have said because he

6:09can do multiple fricking things. Are you talking about that? Yeah, no. To be honest, you know, I'm surprised. Look, I had Finley as a lock to make the team and no problem admitting that, you know, Young Center wins a lot of draws, big body. But as Jim Montgomery said, you know, he just didn't change the momentum in a game when he's on the ice. You know, Sunquist Walker, you know, yeah, I probably said that both of them would make it. But I felt like at the very least one of them was going to make it. Yeah. You know, Dean is the wild card here and Dean had a great camp and he deserves to be on this team based on his camp. The one thing is that he needed waivers and it's one thing to put a 32 year old like a Sunquist or a Walker on waivers. If you lose them, you lose them. They're not necessarily part of the future. But a 23 year old with speed kind of tough to put Dean on waivers. Even though you probably would have snuck him through, you might not want to risk that. So now, as you said, Donnie, the Blues have a couple guys with speed to burn as options to put in the lineup. Yeah, I mean, the Dubé one, that's a two-million horn.

7:09But like the moment that they signed that contract, it was like, okay, two, two, thank you sir. Two, hey. The moment he signed that contract, I'm like, you're not giving him a one year, one way deal where it doesn't matter if he's in the age of the NHL, they're paying him the NHL money. Like they thought that this guy could be a part of their roster and help and just everything that Steve was saying about him last year in the playoff run. It's like, I think they're going to give him a shot to make the team. The Dean one is the one that surprised the hell out of me. I thought Jack Finley was a lock. I mean, you claimed him on waivers last year. You played a lot. You know, a lot he was playing at 6 on 5 to win fair and over time to win face-offs. He was playing penalty kill. Like to me, he had the ultimate upper hand on all of these other guys. And like the sunquist and the walker thing, sunny signed that contract. And I think we all said on the podcast the moment it did. It's like he's probably going in the minors. Nathan Walker, I mean, I hate to say it because I love that little Aussie. But like when they signed Ross Johnston, it kind of made Nathan Walker's role relevant for the team because

8:10Johnston plays that role. So like you looked at their fourth line and said, okay, well, where's the upside here? And I thought that was Finley because he's big. And that's a big fourth line that could play the penalty kill for you. But in all reality, I kind of get where they're going with this. Like they want the speed factor, which Dean has more so than most of those other guys. Dubé has as well. They want the versatility to where guys can move up and down in the line up if possible. And I mean, Dean's got the offensive side of it. And you know, the one thing I was talking with Joey about before that last preseason game. Man, if you look at the upside of what that fourth line could be in terms of offense, you got Torip Chanko, who's been a guy who has scored double digit goals. Puse Souter, who two years ago scored 23 goals and Zach Dean, who led juniors and scoring in the playoffs. So like there's offense of upside there. And in games where they don't need that Ross Johnston and Forcer like player, they're going to emphasize offense. And so Dean and Dubé provide that over sonquist or Walker or Jack Finley.

9:12And frankly to Jack Finley, he did not outperform Dean and Dubé in the two preseason games that they played in. So the Dean one was very surprising, but as camp went on, it's like, yeah, I get where they're going with this. And I think the better news was that they were able to sneak Finley through waivers so that they can still work with him to what they're trying to accomplish by giving him to Steve Ott for a little bit. All right. So just real quick guys for my own personal brain and the folks out there. So with the addition of Dean and Dubé, can you just run through real quick with those top four lines or are looking like offensively? Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Obviously number one, you got Thomas, you got Thomas. Yeah. Yeah. Then you'll have Mason McTavish in the middle with Boots Nevich on the left and Mick Michael on the right. And that's a switch. And then third line, you'll have neighbors on the left. You'll have divorce game in the middle. And then you'll have Berger and in the right. Speaking of which, I heard I thought I heard Kerber say that he asked him, you know, Yannatin, because that's what we've been saying. And he said he told him Jonathan.

10:12So Jonathan. So so we'll go Berger and I just call him Berger and it's easier that way. Then Alex just mentioned you got Torpchenko Ross, Johnston and Piusuda. Yeah. And I think that's going to be your fourth line for Dallas. And then I think Colorado probably is going to be where you see one of Dean or Dubé on that fourth line in place of Johnston. And Montgomery did say a couple days ago at practice. He said all those guys will play on the first road trip, which would include the Chicago game, even though they're coming home before they go there. And then he said, but if they play well, opening night, he said, look at my job. I got to make those decisions. Yeah. All right. This being said, and we've talked about it a bit on previous podcasts. We've brought up questions about secondary scoring and all of those things. But before we get started here, guys, as it is Wednesday, before Friday, roster is final. Just with the forwards, how do you feel? I feel like there's upside. But after the four preseason games, and I understand one of those was all at A.H.L. guys.

11:15And the other two, you really didn't get that chemistry. But you scored a total of what was at five preseason goals. That was a little concerning in the sense of man, is that secondary scoring going to come. But with all that being said, I saw a stat yesterday that was the blues of the fifth, fifth or sixth youngest roster going into this upcoming season. To me, that puts it into perspective of like there's still a lot of, hey, we're working through what we're trying to accomplish. And even Steen said the other day, you know, what he would value as a good season. And he was talking about how the ultimate goal is to get to where they're hoping for. And you want to start seeing that urgency and that performance from the players. I think there's real upside. I think McDowish has the chance to be a 20 plus goal score, same with me, a counter-mic Michael. I think Davorski's got a chance to move forward and then that top line, that top line. I'm still a little iffy on will we see consistent offense from this team? And I think that's just because there's a lot of newness in this roster.

12:16So I'll be fascinated to see what it looks like. I mean, you get the ultimate test in those first two games. If they lose those first two games, I don't think that's a testament of what this season is going to be. I think that's getting your feet wet against two really great teams that you're trying to get comfortable with all of this newness on your roster. I don't put a ton of stock in the preseason. I've seen it where they don't do anything in the preseason and then score a lot of goals the first month of the season and vice versa. The thing that I like is an Alex said it is the upside. I mean, you can look at let's say six out of those nine and think that look, this guy has a potential to score 25. This guy has a potential to score 30. You know what Alex, we're going to do it again. It's an allergy time. Yes. Blues offense is like a lot of scratch. Oh, baby sit down in your car in Jefferson County out at the on the run right there off of Vogel. And you sit in your car after you just bought your two $10 scratch offs and you get your pen of your dime. I can I can smell it right now. I can smell it like I'm picturing it. I just got in his car smells like McDonald's has been in there for a couple of days.

13:19Forgot that bag of flail fish that was in the back. Little Johnny only took two bites of it and stuff that under his seat. No, you don't step in. It's a penny by the way. If he stuffs under seat, I'm Graham and finish the one. Michael Scott the office. You got a lot of filial fish containers back here. But but if you got that let it Christmas time, you're going to have your Christmas lot of scratch off. Right. So snug rude and these guys, they're like that scratch off because you're sitting in your car and you're thinking, okay, you know, I might get 20 goals out of them. Maybe 25. Oh my gosh. I just got 40 goals out of them. And that's what it is. And so with all those guys and everybody I talked to, listeners of the pod, they're so excited about that potential upside because we don't know if we're going to see it this year. It might see it next year with some of these guys. But it's not a bunch of veterans who you know are going to score 20 goals, 21 goals, 22. And that's the ceiling. There's three or four guys who haven't reached their ceiling yet. And if that comes a fruition, then this could be a really exciting offense to watch. All right. So let's shift to the defense.

14:21This was obviously, as I said from the jump, kind of thrown into a bit of a mix after the game on Saturday against the hawks with Logan. May you getting hurt and the dude from what I have been reading from what people have been saying had a really outstanding camp came to camp ready to friggin roll. So it's really a bummer and a setback for May you who was hoping to continue that momentum that he had built up towards the end of last year. But, but, it gives us the opportunity to bring up and see Adam Urichek already. And the question that I have for you and I also want to talk about Justin Barron, the guy that the blues picked up off waivers from Nashville, who's young former first rounder as well. But is this this Adam Urichek situation? And I'm sorry to steal from this from you J. R. and we were talking about this before we started taping. But could this be an Albert Paul situation where Urichek gets the opportunity to play? And never ever ever sees the A. H. L. ever in his career that he just takes this thing over and makes it impossible for the blues to send him down.

15:26I am really freaking excited to see this kid play really excited to see him play. Yeah, first let's hit the May you injury because that's tough. Yeah, this guy is playing really well. I thought it was awesome in preseason. Yeah, you thought going into the camp. Is he going to, are they going to put him with Philip Broberg and they did, right? And he looked good and he's shooting more and he just looked more assertive. And listen, I don't want to say that, you know, this is going to send his career in a different direction. This injury, it's only two months. But if you get off to that great start and build on that confidence and you're playing well with Broberg and Broberg's playing well and you're solidifying, this guy can play top-line minutes, you know, you're a guy, right? Like you're that guy. Now you come back two months, you know, strengthen the hand. Can you shoot it as hard? Can you get it going? You know, it's just going to take some time. And at that point, what is the Blues defense? Look like has Eurocheck become pool holes, you know, and so, you know, there's a lot that can happen in these, in these two months. So I feel for Logan Mayu because he's gone through a lot last year and a half and it looked like he was going to start to put himself in that conversation

16:28where the Blues thought he would be. But Alex, let's get into Eurocheck. You hate to say this because they record these podcasts and they can play them back in six months. I think the guy, St. Louis fans know how much they love when somebody comps a player that's coming up. Could be over. I think the guy has got star material. I think he does. And you don't see it too often from a defenseman 20 years old who's never played a game. But what we saw in the preseason, granted against other lineups, you know, lesser lineups with the other teams, you know, he just jumps into space. It's like, you know, for years, you'd see a young defenseman and you'd say, go, like, move it. And he's doing it. And he's finding that space. He's creating opportunities. He's jumping in there and now we'll see where he plays. He told me that he was penciled in with Cam Fowler that day. Oh well. But they didn't run the pair that day. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. That was just what was up on the board. But, you know, if he gets a chance to play with Logan Mayu, we'll see what happens. But Blues fans, if you have not seen this guy yet, Adam, you're a check.

17:31First round pick from a couple years ago. He is the real deal. We don't know how long it's going to take for him to show it at this level. But there's a ton of promise here. Just remember that when they drafted him because of the injuries that your check had suffered, he was supposed to be one of like the top five players that could potentially go on that draft. But he had a knee injury that season and they were a little questioning if what it would look like recovery. So the Blues got him in some what kind of a steel situation. I mean, like, I'll be honest watching him throughout the preseason. My first reaction was just to skinny so like he is really small, not small size wise, but like he's just skinny. And I'm like, I wonder how much that impacts the preseason in terms of you guys kind of manhandle him a little bit. But then watching him like there were a couple of games that he played in that you could see there was a little bit of, I don't know if I want to say hesitancy, but not releasing what his skill was. And the one that comes to mind the most was that third preseason game, though game against Chicago on home ice, if I remember correctly, like I didn't notice

18:33them. And then the second period started and he comes on in the ice and then all of a sudden he's everywhere. I mean, he had a play where he looked up and he saw two players and just went straight through them into the offensive zone and created a one on one. He's taken one timers on the blue line on the power play. He's putting pucks on net. He's jumping in on the on the offensive zone rush. And you're looking at him like, well, where did this come from? And I think afterwards somebody asked Jim Montgomery like, you know, have you what stands out to you about or have you seen other defensemen that do what he does in terms of just identifying open ice and he said, yeah, Makar and Queen Hughes and those types of players. So the upside is there, but I will be a hundred percent honest. I was the most confident in the defense going into this upcoming season because you brought in Carlo, you felt good about Mayu. That was the area I had no questions about. I'm a little iffy on it now because like you are putting yourself in the same spot that you were in last year to where you're going to be relying on a younger

19:36defenseman, really two younger defensemen eating a lot of minutes. Now it's like on the one to 10 panic meter, like a two or a three because you brought in Carlo to cover some of that where last season it was Tucker and Kessel. Mayu and Tyler hold my ball, Justin Falk. So like Carlos, a very good defensive defenseman that can cover some of those words, but man, your checks got all of the upside you can ask for. I just wonder when you start your NHL career against Dallas and Colorado, how much are you going to have to protect that player to make sure that you don't lose the confidence early on? Yeah, and I need to answer your question. I don't think he's going back now. I don't know. You know, I talked to him and I said this on became for yesterday is that he was back in Springfield. He actually did go down. It wasn't like a hey, stay in St. Louis and we'll figure you know what's going. They sent him to Springfield and he was going to get a bed. He was going to buy a bed and they were moving some stuff into Picarchic's house because he was going to stay with him and they get the call.

20:38Hey, come back to St. Louis. We got an injury here and you're going to start here. And so they threw his hockey bag into the U Hall that they were going to move furniture with and his hockey bag and the U Hall went to their port and he flew from Springfield to St. Louis and so the real question did. And if I could lose a roommate and is he by himself? Yeah, he's with Stan so I can't dance also. He's still got a guy and then Alex mentioned that Jim Montgomery did mention Hughes and McCarty the other day and I asked you're a check about that. And he said, yeah, I got a lot of text from my friends about that come. Yeah, there's the pressure for it. Now I feel like what I said was super negative there. So let me like put a little more positivity on it. I do really want. I know it was weird, right? No, I don't think that it was overly negative. I think that we're looking at a team with a lot of ifs and you're just bringing up the ifs. That's all I do think there's a chance that if he looks good and where he fits and I'd play him with Broberg off the start. I wouldn't break up Fowler and Carla. We saw Fowler struggle last year with a younger player and I wouldn't put

21:39an offensive defenseman with Kim Fowler who's an offensive defenseman. If he hits boy, that's going to be really tough for Logan Mayu because I don't know how that player comes out of the lineup and then look at the roster around that like Mayu's injury and you hate talking about this could have gone from potentially top pair defenseman to seventh defenseman and then you got to add in the Justin Barron side of it to where not only if you're Logan Mayu, you're competing against getting back into the lineup with a year of checking how he performs. But now you're going up against another former first round draft pick defenseman who's on the roster that's going to have eight weeks of advanced work with you. So I'll be fascinated to see what this looks like because if I remember correctly, Mayu can still avoid waivers if they get to that point. So I don't think they will. That's eight weeks, two months plus from now. But and you brought in some more help on the defensive side that makes that battle a little bit more difficult is Justin Barron a seventh defenseman or is he going to play every day? Yeah, right now. Right right now is the seventh. Okay. And again, former first rounder, he'd been traded a couple of times.

22:40Montreal, Tannashville now here. Are you guys, I mean, what should we be looking for when we see this guy out on the ice? You know, I when they claimed him, I was like, that makes a lot of sense because it's a 24 year old first round pick draft to defenseman and he's got offence of upside. And I remember that trade from Montreal to Nashville. And I think it was a one for one deal to where he was traded for another young defenseman and Nashville just wanted a little bit more experience because Barron was having some success with the Canadians. And he just never meshed with Nashville. And I think a lot of people look at the Nashville and say, well, this guy's nothing, but let's also remember Nashville is at a rough couple of years in terms of their identity on the ice. Man, like 25th overall, he's got offensive ability. He's maybe a little shaky in the defensive zone, but I think this guy plays into at least what the blues are looking for with their core, which I originally told J. R. when the claim happened, it's like, not just may you, but boy, if I'm Tyler Tucker in this injury, how does that work?

23:41In terms of my role on this roster because now you're competing against your check may you and they bring in a Justin Barron who could potentially have a little bit more offensive upside than Tucker. So I'll be fascinated to see this is that internal competition that stein stalked a lot about right on. All right, let's do this. Let's take a break. Let's come back for the second segment of the last minute Blues podcast. Alex and Donnie from the last minute Blues podcast excited to have spas and more as our presenting sponsor Mike Laihei has been selling master spas since 1996 locally owned and operated since 2006 and two locations in St. Louis and Overland Park. Spas and more offers a full line of master spa products, five hot tub lines, two swim spa lines, including the Michael Phelps signature swim spa cold tub and infrared sun as you can find out much more at spas and more where we put the ah in spa. All right, second segment here of the last minute Blues podcast brought you by Spas and more the largest sellers of hot tubs and swim spots in St. Louis visit spas and more STL dot com.

24:41I'm not lying when I say this Jeremy seems like legitimately the busiest person alive and I'm talking to you who also is one of the busiest people that I like it just seems like that man is always moving. Yeah, always. Yeah, one of these say he's got to do a couple radio hits, a couple of meetings, a couple of stories and then hop on a flight to get to Dallas because he's there for the next four days, five days. He's like working on two stories. Yeah, has to go and do the hit with TMA then go run to sales. Then he has I think that jerks trying to one up me and try to make it look like he's busier than me. You know, screw it. I'm gonna come up with five different things that I need to do moving forward. You well, but you know, here's the thing for you is that it's on the way because your three daughters are gonna all be it because I think your oldest is playing soccer. Yeah, so pretty soon they're all going to be doing two or three different things and you are going to be just like that. They're already there. It's like they do soccer and dance and swim and gymnastics. Oh, jeez. I don't even know when we're home.

25:41Yeah. And then you know, on top of Katie and I doing separate things. It's like, all right, see you later. See you later. So yeah, it's a this is that time of the year, but it's so funny because my girls are starting to understand that I love hockey because we're watching it last night and you know, Adelaide, my oldest will sit and watch with me and she's like daddy, do we want the red team or the blue team to win? And I'm like, baby, it's this image. She goes, okay. And so she's rooting for that team with me. I like they get bummed when they hear hockey is coming because they know Daddy's working, but then it's also, but hockey's coming and daddy loves it. So like they kind of understand it. So it's wonderful. It's really fun now because they're getting into that sort of they start to pay attention to the things that you like and they want to be a part of it too. So I told curbs this the other day because you know, when I started doing the blues in 2013, I guess is when I started doing no 2011 was when I was doing my internship and then I did it all the way through KMO X and then to 101. I was in the booth when curbs as three daughters were in the booth.

26:43So like he'd bring his daughters with them and now they're all grown up two from her in college. One of them's going to college soon. But like I told curbs, I said, I'm getting to that point now to where my girls can come down to the hockey game with me and set up in the booth during the night. So like that's the part that kind of gets me super pumped to get there with them. That's wonderful. Not there yet though because I think they jump off the the broadcasting booth just because they think it'd be fun for real. So I'm like, no, you guys got a couple more years before we get there. I do want to mention one thing here real quick about J.R. And it was an article that he just posted this morning. And it's not the ice guardian's podcasts, which is an absolutely fantastic. Listen and watch with Brett Holland Kelly Chase. And blues fans. I just encourage you to take the time to read this article. To me, you know, obviously Chase are struggling. Yeah. And it's really tough to see. But what is beautiful to see is his best friend, Brett whole.

27:44Fly from Dallas to St. Louis to record these podcasts with his buddy to hang out with. I mean, I just get this idea in my head and I've interviewed Brett before a very brash, a very, you know, rough around the edges kind of guy. But man, you see the heart coming out of that guy when he's talking about Chase or even doing this podcast with Chase. It's beautiful. And I also want to give a shout out to the producer Drew Yount. Yes. Who is who is taking care of that podcast? Drew was huge for us early on and getting us started in our old podcast room. He was always amazing about making sure that we were square and ready to do what we wanted to do. So I wanted to make sure to give him a shout out to, but that article is wonderful. Yeah, great job by you to shout that out because it really was. And it's great work by J. R. to be able to get that behind the scenes. And yeah, Drew is one of a kind and loved everything about Drew when he was with us here.

28:45He was actually the guy that we we restarted the live at O. B. Clarks for the blues post games on Thursday nights where it would be me curves in a player from the blues or somebody from the blues that would be with us. And Drew was the one that was out there with us for all of those. He helped us in the podcast. So he's the perfect person to be doing that with the ice guardians. But man, just keep your prayers and thoughts going for Chase or because I mean he is going through a put your right down. He like as much as it hurts to see. It's also so sweet to see because like I can watch more of Kelly Chase and frankly if for anybody who's going through those types of battles, all you want is time and the ability to to hear the stories and to keep those bottled up. And now I mean, it's such a genius thing that they did because every story that Kelly Chase has is being told on this podcast and Brett Hall's with them and it's two best friends telling their story and giving you the inside and giving you all of the behind the scenes. And I can't wait to listen to the one that just dropped with Joey Cosa and Deer and McCarty because like those are

29:49three of the toughest dudes. Ever played the NHL and like they're telling their story. So keep doing what you're doing. I hope Chaser is just continues to battle this thing like I know he can. And I hope we get more and more of these things because that podcast is fun to listen to. Absolutely. So so one of the things that that we want to do before we get to the email segment is talk about the West, the Western conference. Oh yeah. Where are blues could finish in this and who we think will win the conference and kind of how things are going to shake out. More importantly, I was like, I got to put these together because I think this will be very enjoyable six months from now when the playoffs are almost set and we're looking at the battles and I'm like, oh, we will be able to go back and see how good or how bad we all know how great we were with our bold predictions last year, Donnie, right? Pavel Vuchnevich, Jordan Kyra, yeah, awesome. Hey, do you remember my very first hot take for this year? Wasn't it Logan Mayu? Yeah. Yeah.

30:50You know what? I shouldn't wish anything on anybody. I should just hold the other team. That's the first thing I thought of when I saw him get hurt. I was like, I should not say anything. I didn't even think of that. I think I told this story on the podcast before and if I did, I apologize. But Grant Francis, our old producer for the Blues games, dude, is just the worst bad luck. And I gave him so much crap because blues, the first few seasons were making the playoffs. They were great. And then the year they missed the playoffs was the year Grant took over as the producer. And for the next three years, they had just missed and missed until the one year they beat, they got to win a peg. But that was the year that Grant told us he was leaving the next year. And I told him, I said, dude, I said you leaving is what helped this blues team. Anyway, he loved Philip Brober. Yeah. He went out and bought a Philip Brober jersey and that first start to his blues career where he put up like, what was it? 13 points and 13 games. The day he had the jersey, he came to the arena and he showed me because he was there with his boyfriend

31:52and they were watching the game. And he walked up and he goes, I got my brober jersey and I go, I can't believe you just did that. I said, this is not going to be good news. And then that first period was when Brober blew his knee and was out for two months. I texted him. I said, you better go return that damn jersey right now. I know you still got to be. So you might be Grant. I very much might be. All right. So how do we want to do this? You might start. Well, let's, so we broke it down in terms of divisions, in terms of first two, whatever, the last place in each division. And then we can point out our teams that made the playoffs. So we gave Noah our visuals of this one. So although we be able to put our visuals up and you can watch this. For those of you that are listening on the podcast, make sure you go check it on on YouTube and you could see it. But I'll start with mine, Don, because I broke this one down in the central and the Pacific. We only did the West because nobody cares about the East right now. In the Pacific division, I only have three teams that make the playoffs.

32:53I have Edmonton, San Jose and the Vegas Golden Knights. I have the LA Kings, the Anaheim ducks, then Seattle, then Calgary. It doesn't look so good now considering they beat Edmonton in the game yesterday. But Vancouver is the worst team in the Pacific division. Dude Edmonton gave up six goals. Yeah. 23 shots. Yeah. It turns out the Mike Babcock experience actually isn't good. And more Tristan Jari stop it. Stop pretending. Stop. Well, but let's also remember they have Frederick Anderson. He's injured. He'll come back at some point and Devon Lee, Devon Levi or they traded for him. So they've got gold tending. I'm more concerned about their defense because they moved on from Darnell Nurse, who I don't think is a $9 million defenseman. They obviously got defensive problems there. Sorry. I still have Edmonton as my first place team in that division though. Now into the central Colorado and Dallas and Utah. Those are my top three teams. I'm a peep might be surprised by that because I have Utah and not Minnesota.

33:54I have Minnesota making the playoffs, but I have them finishing below St. Louis. I have St. Louis is the number one wild card. The wild is the second wild card and then Nashville, Winnipeg and Chicago is the worst team in the central. All right. So here is what I got and man, you want to talk about overthinking something that truly in the big grand scheme of things is not that important. All I've thought of was when Donnie, when I told Donnie to do this and I'm like, I just put that man through hell for the next hour because he's going to think this thing over and over and over. Dude, it's a fun overthink though. It's a fun overthink. So here, here is what I have in the central. This is how I have it breaking down. Colorado, Dallas, Utah. I just think Utah is going to be real goddamn good. If they get any sort of goal tending whatsoever consistently, dude, they're going to be tough, tough to face. I do think Minnesota finishes ahead of the blues. So Colorado, Dallas, Utah, Minnesota, St. Louis, Nashville, Chicago, Winnipeg.

34:57The reason that I flipped those is I do feel like there could be some bright spots for those black Hawks as much as I hate to say it. And I feel like once the jets trade kind of hellabuck boy, a Stewart Skinner is really your number one. You're in trouble. I think you're in trouble. I totally guess so. So that's just kind of how that shook out, but if, but if it was reversed, I wouldn't be surprised. Over in the Pacific, I'm just like you, dude. I'm not in show me some of those teams in the Pacific, but I got Edmonton winning out. I just think that that group is going to be so keyed in on winning, on proving that they can do it. And they got the best player in the universe to help them do it. Do I'm really right? So Edmonton, I did pick Vegas to finish second. I still just believe in the talent on that roster, even though I'm still not convinced of the Carter Hart gold tending situation there. And then I had San Jose third. I just am a firm believer in Maclin and this team.

36:00If you get any kind of growth out of Will Smith or any of those guys, any kind of competent defense and gold tending, dude, they are going to be tough. And then the rest, I mean, I feel like it just kind of a crapshoot. Anaheim, I just believe that they have lost so much in the off season. I don't think that they're, I don't think, I think if they make it, it's going to be one of those last wild cards, but I don't have them picked LA. Yeah, I think that's going to be a mess. I'm just wondering if that's going to be a maybe rebuild situation towards the end of this year. It could be. I think there's the potential there. And then you've got Seattle, those poor crack and fans, Calgary, at least you got a gold tender there. And Vancouver, I think Vancouver is going to be bad. But again, they scored six last night, but again, game number one. The one that might surprise me as if Seattle is really bad and becomes like the worst team in the NHL. Like that, that I could see them being kind of like Vancouver last year. But man, it's funny because you have Minnesota head of St. Louis and real quick, we'll show you J.Rs as well.

37:02So J.R. he has Dallas, Colorado, Minnesota as the top three. Then Utah and St. Louis, Nashville, Winnipeg, Chicago. And he's got Utah and St. Louis making the playoffs. And then he's got Vegas, Edmonton, San Jose, same as we do. Anaheim LA, Calgary, Seattle, Vancouver. I, and this might be the boldest of predictions. I really wonder if Minnesota barely sneaks into the playoffs or misses the playoffs. The only reason that I don't have them missing the playoffs in my projection is because I don't know if anybody's going to be good enough to unseat them. But Donnie, like if you look at that roster and this is why I find St. Louis so fascinating because they're upside play. Minnesota's got boldy. They've got Caprice off. They just lost Brock Faber for at least like four months. Dude's got a fractured skull. That is scary. That injury was incredibly scary. Think about that for a minute. Fractured skull. They traded away Jacob Middleton, who was a very good middle six defenseman for them.

38:04I get they got Quinn Hughes, but if that dude doesn't sign a contract that noise gets so much louder. Yeah, yeah. Cold look at their center depth, honey. Their number one centerman is Daniel Uroff, who like any good team is probably a third centerman. They've got Erickson, they've got Ryan Hartman. They lost Zuccarello this past off season because they couldn't afford to keep them. They don't have a lot of greatness in terms of center. They don't have a whole lot of depth beyond Caprice off and boldy. Unless they make a move for like Dylan Larkin, I think the blues are going to be better than Minnesota this year. Now that might bite me in the ass in two months, but man, I look at Minnesota and I don't know how you make it through 84 with their lack of depth versus the blues. If they hit on their players, I think the blues could push for a third place spot. It comes down to how good is Utah's goal tending versus how good is St. Louis's offense. That to me is who could flip that third place spot. And real quick, not to sit on Minnesota for two terribly long, obviously, but one of the hiccups potentially in a wild getting Larkin deal is that Detroit wants a number one center in return.

39:14But what I'm hearing and what I've been reading is that even though the Dylan Larkin is a fantastic player, he's not viewed by a lot as a true number one. Yeah. On a great team, they think that he would slot in as the to see. I agree with that. I agree with that. Now if you put him with Capri saw, that's another thing because I think Capri saw is a lead to see make Larkin look better. Like I don't think natuces and a hundred point player consistently, but when you put him with McKennan, he's a 100 point player every season. So like I could see that working really well, but even then I don't know how a trade works. Like you'd have to involve a third team and what third team is going to help assist those two teams for getting players that they want to less. They're getting something great in return. So where did you have I have the blues is my wild card to. I have them as wild card number one. Okay. I didn't do points projection because frankly that's a dumb thing to do. I'm not going to even even remotely try that would break my brain. That would break my brain. But I think they could be in a competition with Utah for that. I think Utah St. Louis and Minnesota are going to be battling it out for third in the central and the two wild card spots.

40:19Because I don't think LA or Anna high make it interesting. I think Anna high lacks the depth. I think at LA lacks the true star power beyond Adrian Kempay. I don't think they have much. So yeah, I think it's going to be St. Louis, Utah and Nashville. There's a chance St. Louis could be third, but I don't think they dropped to the second wild card. Let's do this. Let's come back. Let's do a couple of emails in the canter injury inbox, a third segment, final segment of the last minute blues podcast coming your way next. Hey, with Donnie on Alex last minute blues podcast excited to talk about our presenting sponsor spas and more. Mike Layhei has been selling master spas since 1996 locally owned and operated since 2006. And there's two locations for you. One in St. Louis and one in Overland Park, Kansas. Now spas and more they offer a full line of master spa products. But listen, these spas are so great for your joints post workout stress relief, a bunch of health reasons find out more at spas and more where they put the ah in spa. Last segment of the last minute blues podcast.

41:20It is the canter injury inbox brought you by canter injury law injured. You can count on canter visit canter injury law. Dot com. I first first Winston message. And this isn't even just a question. Look, I'm going to keep it quick and bypass the four paragraph minimum. Kirk Mueller is who are you thinking or who you were thinking of in the last episode about the last power play coach? Kirk Mueller prior to that sounds right. Armagh Gummery. That sounds right. So that's Winston T and he's very convinced that it is correct. I'm going to have to look at that because man, I thought there was somebody after that. Maybe not to my favorite podcast trio. I'm curious if you all have some insight into this when the blues designates somebody like sunny to the AHL and the start of the season is around the corner with the inevitable injuries to follow. Do they actually physically make him go to Springfield or they give him the old wink wink nudge nudge that implies stick around in case we need you JB forever? That's from Adam A Jordan Middleton forever. That's not just in barren forever, right?

42:21I'm assuming it's Jordan Middleton. I believe it's Jeff Burton. Even better the best JB. So in a scenario where they they know they're going to need that player back. Like there's times it's just a paper transaction of like we're sending you to the miners. But there's a guy that's going to be injured. So we need you to stick around. They will tell the player don't go anywhere. This is a paper transaction in the instance for Sunquist. This wasn't just a nudge nudge. This is we don't have a spot for you. You're going down to the miners and from when he was on the podcast. I think he knew that that this was coming. It was just a matter of can you outperform these players and a lot of those younger players impressed. So I think he always knew he was headed for Springfield at some point. So in that spot when he was sent down there was no nudge nudge hanging around. I think it was a don't get too comfortable because you're probably headed to the A.H.L. That's where you're going to be this year. All right. Another email here from a Ricky. Ricky says, Hey guys, long time listener, first time messenger. I was wanting to know what is you guys thought process when thinking divorce ski is a 15 to 18 goal guy.

43:26I don't know if I'm just being overly optimistic, but I feel like he has it in him to post 25 to 30 a year in the near future. Thanks guys and Ricky is from Oahu Hawaii. Oh, there we go. Look at us. We're spanning the globe. Pitbull isn't the only one that's where a one miss. I don't know if he's a 30 goal score. That seems like a lot. That's a lot. I mean, look, he's got the, I'll say he's got the shot to score 25 to 30 goals. But I just don't know if he's got that presence around the net. And as a centerman, it is rare. You see guys that are centerman, especially second or third line guys put up 30 plus goals. Like he's not going to get the ice time to put up 30 plus goals. He's not going to get the power play time to put up 30 plus goals. So the thinking behind this is look a second year player who's still trying to figure out his role in his own and gain that confidence. 25 is just a lot to put on that plate. I think this season he's probably best case scenario gets you 20 goals in a realistic world.

44:27I think he's probably a 15 goal score. But as he continues to develop, I do think there's a chance that guy becomes 25 goal score because I don't know how long he's a centerman. I really wonder if if he or McTavish don't really develop into that center that they want that they find themselves as a winger at some point in their career. And the blues find other sentiments to play there. But yeah, I just 25 to 30s a lofty expectation for divorce. He'd have to take a massive jump for me to think he could get there. Last minute blues podcast emails can be sent to LMBP at 1057 the point.com. Please keep in mind that we will be at the St. Charles Convention Center on Friday, three to five live podcast Alex myself and the one and only Kim. Yes. So we will have a great time. We would love to see it and somebody is going to walk away from the podcast on Friday with blues home opener tickets. Not too shabby. No, that's the way to do it. Not too shabby. So come and see us on Friday again. Thank you very much. As always for listening, watching and supporting the last minute blues podcast for J.R. for Alex.

45:31I'm Donnie Fandango and as always, let's go blues. Thanks for tuning into the last minute blues podcast on your home for blues hockey 101 ESPN.