Fantasy Take: Berube Fired by the Blues
Alexander MacLean
2023-12-13
Let's get the first thing out of the way here with the Blues relieving Craig Berube of Head Coaching duties and appointing Drew Bannister as interim HC: This is a flawed roster, and it was not necessarily something that Berube was doing poorly here. He had his warts, sure, but based on public opinion so does just about every NHL coach. This roster as currently constructed has a ceiling, and it's lower than the current management wants to believe that it is.
Without a new head coach appointed yet, and with a search underway, for now we'll just stick to the impacts that addition by subtraction may bring to the squad.
Most notably, those changes could come on the power play, where apparently STL has retained Brad Richards as a consultant to come in and try to help their direction. Who that stands to benefit are the offensive players like Robert Thomas, Jordan Kyrou, and Pavel Buchnevich, as well as whoever is manning the point. It's possible that Torey Krug and/or Justin Faulk continue to be run out, but the in-house future replacement is Scott Perunovich, and with this a lost season already, he could very realistically be given a real shot to shine, as could Jakub Vrana if he is left in the NHL or called back up at some point.
Looking at the forward deployment, Sammy Blais has been relatively sheltered, which is not a guarantee to continue. He could see his hit and block numbers increase with more D-Zone starts, though that would be at the expense of some already thin offensive production.
Some of the underlying percentages will positively regress towards the norm, meaning we should see Thomas, Kyrou, Buchnevich, and Kevin Hayes start to put up a few more points at evens – though it won't likely be in large part due to the coach.
In net, it has been Jordan Binnington's crease for the most part, but his play hasn't exactly inspired of late, and it could be an opportunity for Joel Hofer to turn this into a time share.
Players this helps:
Players on the top power play
Joel Hofer
Players this hurts:
Possibly Torey Krug, Sammy Blais, Brayden Schenn, and others.