St. Louis Blues Draft Review

Below we will be looking at the Blues draft review.  It was short and sweet as we moved a bunch of picks for what we can only hope is a more certain 2022 draft.   

Draft Review –

Pick# 10 Matthew Coronato - Going into pick# 10 the Blues were quite content that a scoring forward was going to fall into their lap, so was not really looking to move up.  If anything move back a spot or two, but that never came to fruition.  We had a feeling guys like Eklund, Guenther and Johnson would not be around so we scouted the likes of Lucuis, SIllinger, Lysell and what ended up being our pick Matthew Coronato very hard.  Coronato was at the top of that list due to his scoring prowess.  Not only did he outscore the next closest opponent in the USHL by 16 goals, but he was constantly the hardest working player night in and night out on the ice.  He showed he was able to competently play all 3 forward positions and ran one of the most dangerous PP’s in the USHL.   He has a plus shot, plus work ethic and even for his smallish size is not scared to mix it up in the crease or other high scoring areas. His playmaking ability is also very underrated. To be a dominate goal scorer at the next level he will have to lengthen his skating stride to get him to a higher top end speed, while working on getting to that top speed quicker.  Looks for him to do that at Harvard where he will most likely spend the next 2 or 3 seasons.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ak75OEYD5Po

http://youtu.be/ak75OEYD5Po

Pick# 30 - Francesco Pinelli – Once again coming into this draft St. Louis felt their prospect depth on D as well as in net was above sufficient so we came in looking for goal scorers, something we are lacking.  Given that the OHL did not have a season he was loaned to Jesenice in the ALPS HL.  We wish he would have played against some tougher competition but playing against men of any kind does not hurt.  He showed at the U18’s what he can do with players of his own age group and that is where he stood out most to us.  He is a 200ft center with an above average scoring touch and excellent playmaking abilities.  We had him ranked much higher that he went, so when he was still available in the 28 to 30 range we made a few calls to move up from the 37 to grab him. He reminds us of another former Kitchener Ranger Michael Richards, maybe with less tenacity. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmcB2D_dsjc

http://youtu.be/EmcB2D_dsjc

Pick# 169 – Isaak Phillips- We have had our eye on this he went undrafted last year, and the leaps he made in his progression made this a no brainer. Isaak is as raw as they come talent wise.  He is a big bodied mobile defenseman.  His long reach and plus skating helps his gap control, what he will need to do better defensively is learn how to read plays.  Once again his skating prowess also has turned up his offensive potential jumping into plays, but will once again need to learn to read plays better in order to not get caught.  He is just starting to tap into his potential and we believe his ceiling is extremely high with some hard work, which it appears he is willing to put it daily.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xev7aWKsxCw

http://youtu.be/xev7aWKsxCw

Overall we are very excited what we came out with during this very unusual draft year.  I think there is a few future core pieces that will come from this, and we could not be happier how it turned out.  Especially with the uncertainty with how scouting had to be done this year.