VladimirTarasenko2

The fantasy hockey lowdown on the St. Louis Blues and the Nashville Predators

St Louis

St Louis has been a top team in the Central Division, and the league, for a few years; the emergence of Vladimir Tarasenko as a dynamic scoring threat added a new dimension for them. They were briefly in on the Mike Babcock sweepstakes meaning Ken Hitchcock's return is not a given. If Ken Hithcock leaves they could become a more offensive team even though scoring has not been an issue as they have been just under three goals per game for the last two years.

This was another year of platooning goalies with Jake Allen taking Jaroslav Halak's spot alongside Brian Elliott. The platoon gave the Blues average goaltending and was a little worse than the year before. Allen is the future in net for the Blues but was especially bad on long range with a save percent two points lower than the league average on the worst, most common type of shot. Allen improved upon 2012/13, which bodes for his development going forward. Brian Elliott remained a league average goalie and is a good platoon partner as Allen continues to develop. With a cap hit of 2.5 million for the next two years Elliott will continue to get starts through the end of his contract.