This is WAY better than we expected...

This is way better than we expected as the NHL recently dropped their top centers list and one Blues player is headlining the list. But not only that, with Doug Armstrong continuing to add talent to this roster, the center position for the St. Louis Blues has never looked better. We're going to break down all of this and so much more later on in the episode before we get into that. I just want to give a huge shout out to everyone watching this. We're trying to reach our goal of 4,000 subscribers before training camp stops. So if you're a Blues fan, you want to stay up to date on everything to do around the team, not only going into training camp, but the rest of next season. Make sure to go down and hit it. We'll give you daily updates. And once again, thank you so much for watching, Blues fans. But let's just hop straight into this. And before we do, listen, welcome back, curious. Having you back is awesome. Blues fans have been missing you, but we do see the NHL network drop their top 20 centers heading into next season. Now listen, there's a lot of centers in the league that are very good. Listen, Connor McDavid, Nathan McKinnon, you can work your way down, but things get interesting when you get to Brighton Point, Shifley, Nick Suzuki. There is a name missing. We're going to continue in with Jack Hughes and Robert Thomas. Now Thomas coming in at number 12. Listen, there's a debate that he should be top 10 ahead of guys like Nick Suzuki, even ahead of Mark Shifley. His season was phenomenal, putting up 81 or 80 points, 81 points in the season last year. 70 games played would have been a hundred point player if he played the entire year. Looking at this list, do you think he's a little bit snubbed? Listen, regardless of it, you have a top 12 center in the NHL, but do you think there's a world where he should have even been a little higher? Yeah, I think Blues fans are very happy about the fact that obviously you have a top 12 center in the entire league. Again, the rankings are based off of last year. So there's a lot of centers in the top 10, let's say that could be reorganized by a lot of fans. And we've seen a lot of outrage out there about that specifically, but obviously a top 12 center in the league. And I think that when you're looking at last season for Robert Thomas, you have to consider how much money he makes. This is a guy who's over a point a game player. Like you said, if you played in all 82 games, he probably would have touched a hundred points or very close to doing that. That's great value for the money that he makes. We went over his contract last week and some of the rankings as well. And he's playing at like a $12 million pace. And he's your first line center making much less than that. And when you compare him to the rest of the league, because he's making so much less and you can sign other players, the team is going to be deeper and they're going to be better for it. So for that reason, I know they don't consider these things in the rankings. I feel like he should be a little bit higher because he's playing above a lot of guys that I think make more than him, for example. Right. And actually should be relied upon to put up more points than Robert Thomas. And they don't. So Robert Thomas has been a hidden gem in the league in St. Louis. I know blues fans know how good this guy is. And a lot of fans around the league do too, but he has a bit of a hidden gem in St. Louis. A lot of the league and fans around the league tend to forget about how good this guy is. So I'm happy with the ranking. I think it's a fair ranking. I have to be honest. There was some questionable ones in the top ten, like I said, and the fact that he lands top 12. I think a lot of blues fans should be happy about for and for other reasons, like I mentioned, that, you know, they probably don't take into account. You probably should be higher because he gives his team such a great chance to, you know, to win, first of all, and to build around him. And I think the big thing is to win looking at him. He's a complete player going into last year, over 50 percent on the draw, getting 21st in voting for the Selkie as well. A bit of heart votes as well. Everything is in Robert Thomas being the franchise of this team. We know how good he is. He's underrated around the league from other fan bases, but it kind of leads into what Doug Armstrong had done with his roster and going in with the center position. We know this year, going into the season, they're going to have their one and two center position being Thomas and Shen. But bringing in guys, and we kind of want to headline some of players as well. Listen, Shen is incredible. We know the backbone of this team, someone that's going to lead this team as a leadership role and in physicality when it goes into next year with Shen being on the team. And I know there's been so much talk about going to find a new center, but are you comfortable once again with Doug Armstrong running it back with Shen as the number two center? Absolutely. I think this team is ready to win as it is right now. And there's bonus points to be had. I think if you go out and make another trade, we talked about it last week, maybe they go out and trade for Pavel Zaka, who could be on the market right now, or even Casey Middlestad. I think Middlestad doesn't make as much sense for this team. But if you go out and get a Pavel Zaka, then like you mentioned, Suter actually was better on the Canucks on the wing. You move him to the wing. If there are injuries, he can play center. That's a useful asset. So I think that, you know, this team is really deep. They can move money out. You have LTIR relief coming from Torrey Krug's contract once the season starts as well. They're in a phenomenal spot. They can trade for a position of need, which I don't even know if the team has one right now. By trading away some prospects, because they have a plethora of prospects. And of course, you never want to do that. You want them to stick around and develop with the team. But you have so many guys that are right on the edge of making the NHL that you can trade some of the younger guys that other teams want, again, for players in positions of need. So if they want to go out and get another center, I think that they can. Do they have to? Probably not. But if you want to make the team that much deeper, you definitely could do that. And again, this is a great team. What Doug Armstrong has done to set them up for, first of all, this year, but signing some of the multi-year contracts. And a lot of the players, I mean, there's no other team around the league that's like this, with so many solidified positions, so many guys who are locked up for multi-year contracts. And not too long into the future, again, the goaltending, having them both locked up and expiring at the same time is absolutely brilliant. So Doug Armstrong, you know, setting them up for success moving into the future with Alex Steen. Can't say enough good things about that. But in terms to bring it back to the center position, do they have to make a move? I don't think so. I'm confident with your top two centers there, especially with Thomas. I think Shen can still play at a high level. We saw that in the playoffs. But if they wanted to go out and make a trade, they can. And then you can move Suter to the wing, and you got a really good team there. Because I mean, looking at it on paper, you have a top 12 center, the heart and soul of the team on the second line. And it goes straight into Doug Armstrong picking up Pew Suter as a free agent from Vancouver. Listen, a Swiss Army knife, no pun intended. He comes in and is able to do everything for the team. He can play in a top six role as a winger. We've seen him be productive as a center as well throughout the NHL, coming off a career high with the Canucks, most of the points, coming at even strength as well. And I believe all 25, or at least most of them were, or 21, were all on even strength. He's going to bring something to this team, someone that can play on the penalty kill, play in front of the net, on the power play, everything with Pew Suter. Things are looking great. And I think someone that's severely underrated is Bukestad. Listen, a bit of a down year once they moved out to Utah. But the year previous, putting up 40 points with the Coyotes. Is there a world where you see Bukestad come back? Listen, his most productive season was playing with Micheli, a playmaker. Maybe they get something like this going with him again. And could you see him maybe scoring 20 goals? Maybe not 20 goals, especially in the role that he's going to play. He was playing a bigger role when he was playing, obviously, with Micheli. And Micheli is a great player on the wing there. But I think that he's going to be able to put up points. But the biggest thing to me is he's a big body who has playoff experience, knows how to play in the playoffs, and he's a good two-way guy. He doesn't shy away from defensive play and the physicality, all of that stuff. So I think that it's a really good option for the Blues in that role. I think that he can chip in. Is he going to put up that many points? I just don't think he's going to play enough to be able to put up a career high or anything like that. So a career high, I think, might be out of the question. Again, anything can happen, right? And injuries can happen. Maybe he moves up in the lineup. And that's another reason why it's a good move and why they made so many good moves this offseason, because injuries do happen over the course of a season and the playoffs, of course. They have so many guys that can, you know, kind of plug into a third line. If Bukestad then has to play for whatever reason, third line center, he can do that. We've seen it in the past. So they made a lot of really good moves there. So again, I don't think he's going to put up like 40, 45 points or anything like that. But listen, if he has a season where he scores 10 to 15 goals on the fourth line, you know, you're getting production out of your fourth line. You know, they're going to be fine defensively. You know, they're going to be good physically as well. This is going to be a hard team to play against. So I think the Blues are in a really good spot with a lot of these guys. And I mean, Blues fans, what is your thoughts? Listen, Robert Thomas, a top 12 center, where would you have ranked him on the list? Is he higher than this? What is your thoughts on how Doug Armstrong has built the center core on this team going into next year? Will Jim Montgomery unlock even more potential with these guys? Let us know down in the comments. And speaking of comments, we'll get in the comments of the day today, where we do get a comment. Competition will be fierce in training camp. Gotta love that. The best players will win the job for the season. Going in and speaking on some PTOs that we spoke on in the video yesterday. Listen, bring in Luke Cunningham, the hometown hero. We know what happened last time they did that. But what is your guys' thoughts on how Doug Armstrong has just constructed this roster? Let us know down in the comments, and you can be featured on comments of the day in the next episode. While you're down there, leave a like, subscribe, share this with your friends. We'll be back with another episode, so keep your eyes for that. But I've been your host, Miracle, with my co-host, Darius, and take care, Blues fans.