Last year, both Scottie Upshall and Scott Gomez earned jobs with St. Louis after coming to camp on a tryout basis. While Gomez didn’t make it through the year with the club, Upshall performed well enough to earn a second one-year deal with the Blues. St. Louis appears to be going back to that well again by inviting six players to camp on PTO agreements. Those in search of a job with the Blues are Yan Stastny, Chris Porter, T.J Galiardi, Eric Nystrom, Scooter Vaughan and Mike Weber.
Writing for the St. Louis Post Dispatch, Jeremy Rutherford provides a closer look at each of the six players invited to camp. Included in the post are comments from Blues head coach Ken Hitchcock. Those comments provide unique insight into the odds faced by each of the players attempting to make the 2016-17 Blues.
The Blues lost team captain David Backes and veteran power forward Troy Brouwer as free agents this summer. But the team acted quickly by signing David Perron to fill a hole on the wing. St. Louis also expects Vladimir Sobotka to return this season from the KHL and play a regular role with the Blues. That would seem to limit the opportunities for a forward to earn a job.
The team’s blue line is also stocked with enough quality players to fill all six regular slots, as the team’s depth chart on Roster Resource shows. Robert Bortuzzo is listed currently as the team’s seventh option on defense and he’s a decent fit for that role. Additionally, the team has their 2012 first-round pick, Jordan Schmaltz, waiting in the wings. The North Dakota product made his pro debut in 2015-16 with Chicago of the AHL and tallied 36 points in 71 games for the Wolves.