Ready or not, it’s here.
The 2024-25 season for the St. Louis Blues kicks off today with a matinee game, the start of a three-game road trip that opens against the Seattle Kraken at Climate Pledge Arena (3:30 p.m.; ESPN, ESPN+, ESPN 101.1-FM).
The Blues, 43-33-6 last season which was good for 92 points but not good to make the Stanley Cup playoffs, which they missed for the second straight season, and are hopeful that the addition of depth will enhance their chances for improvement.
“I feel like we’re getting better every game,” said one of those new additions, forward Mathieu Joseph, acquired in a trade with the Ottawa Senators on July 2 for future considerations. “There’s a lot of new guys I feel. It takes time to get the new systems and know your teammates and develop chemistry with guys and see what works. I feel like it’s been only a couple games. Hopefully we can do that consistently and bring that pace like that, but that’s a step in the right direction and I like the compete level for sure.”
The Blues not only added one Joseph but two when they signed Mathieu’s younger brother, defenseman P.O. Joseph, to a one-year contract. They added center Radek Faksa via trade — also for future considerations — from the Dallas Stars, acquired forward Alexandre Texier from the Columbus Blue Jackets via trade, signed veteran defenseman Ryan Suter to a one-year contract as insurance at the time when it ultimately was announced that fellow defenseman Torey Krug would be lost for the season following left ankle surgery. But the biggest noise the Blues made was a double offer sheet to the Edmonton Oilers for a pair of 23-year-olds, defenseman Philip Broberg and forward Dylan Holloway, on Aug. 13 that the Oilers declined to match one week later.
The Blues also added veteran presence behind the bench with the hiring of Stanley Cup champion coach Claude Julien.
The Joseph brothers will become the seventh sets of brothers to play for the Blues franchise and first since Rich and Ron Sutter.
“It’s been a long time getting to this point,” said Blues coach Drew Bannister, who was given the full-time job on May 2 after replacing Craig Berube Dec. 12, 2023 last season and went 30-19-5 as the interim coach. “It seems like since a lot of us arrived in August, things really slowed down, and you can see the excitement in the group going into the (Thursday) night’s (preseason) game (against the Dallas Stars). I liked our focus.”
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The game group from that 4-3 overtime win against the Stars is expected to be the game group today since it was the best game the Blues played by a landslide in a 2-5-0 preseason.
“Definitely. I think we played a good game,” said forward Kasperi Kapanen, who won a job out of training camp after re-signing a one-year, $1 million contract on July 1. “There’s always little things that we can do better, but I thought we played a pretty solid game and we’ve just got to keep doing that. The season’s right around the corner so we just have to build on that. It’s a great effort from everybody, so we’ve got to get things going.”
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The Blues unveiled their season-opening roster on Monday and will only have 22 of the 23 available players they can maximize with forward Brandon Saad (paternity leave) unavailable for the opening road trip awaiting the birth of his third child.
They had to assign forward Zack Bolduc to Springfield of the American Hockey League to be cap compliant since Saad doesn’t count against the roster while out but his cap hit does.
Saad is expected to be available once the team returns from the trip, which includes games against the San Jose Sharks on Thursday and Vegas Golden Knights on Friday when they host the Minnesota Wild on Oct. 15.
* UPDATE — The Blues recalled Bolduc on Tuesday morning after rosters were officially set. It means they either placed Krug on long-term injured-reserve ($6.5 million cap hit) or Sundqvist ($1.5 million cap hit) was moved to LTIR but that scenario is doubtful.
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Blues projected lineup:
Dylan Holloway-Robert Thomas-Jake Neighbours
Alexandre Texier-Pavel Buchnevich-Jordan Kyrou
Mathieu Joseph-Brayden Schenn-Kasperi Kapanen
Alexey Toropchenko-Radek Faksa-Nathan Walker
Nick Leddy-Colton Parayko
Philip Broberg-Justin Faulk
Ryan Suter-Matthew Kessel
Jordan Binnington will start in goal; Joel Hofer will be the backup.
Healthy scratches include Zack Bolduc, P.O. Joseph and Scott Perunovich. Brandon Saad (paternity leave), Oskar Sundqvist (ACL) and Torey Krug (ankle) are out.
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Kraken projected lineup:
Jared McCann-Matty Beniers-Jordan Eberle
Jaden Schwartz-Chandler Stephenson-Andre Burakovsky
Eeli Tolvanen-Shane Wright-Oliver Bjorkstrand
Ty Kartye-Yanni Gourde-Brandon Tanev
Vince Dunn-Adam Larsson
Jamie Oleksiak-Brandon Montour
Ryker Evans-Will Borgen
Joey Daccord is projected to start in goal; Philipp Grubauer would be the backup.
The healthy scratch includes Josh Mahura. The Kraken report no injuries.
Related: St. Louis Blues 2024-25 Roster Revealed
Related: Kapanen Fortunate, Grateful For Another Opportunity With St. Louis Blues
Related: Ryan Suter More Than Willing To Be Mentor To Young St. Louis Blues Defensemen
