The St. Louis Blues have signed center Tyler Bozak to a three-year contract worth $5 million per season.

The Blues get: a player who is an elite third-line center, a decent second-line center or a weak first-line center. Bozak is a go-to guy on the faceoffs and he can contribute to both special teams. The 32-year-old just signed with the best team in terms of needing a scoring-line center and this situation is probably the best one for him in terms of potential production (i.e. fantasy value).

Fantasy Players impacted: I already noted St. Louis’ new depth chart in the David Perron breakdown (here), but here it is again:

Jaden Schwartz                                 Brayden Schenn                               Vladimir Tarasenko

David Perron                                      Tyler Bozak                                         Alex Steen

Robby Fabbri                                     Vladimir Sobotka                              Tage Thompson

Zach Sanford                                      Ivan Barbashev                                 Nikita Soshnikov/Patrik Berglund             

Sammy Blais                                                                                                       Dmitrij Jaskin

With Oskar Sundqvist, Chris Thorburn and Beau Bennett as extras and a top prospect in Robert Thomas knocking on the door.

The key here is Bozak. On the Leafs he was a third-line center with limited PP time available and that held him to 43 points one year after getting 55. He has tallied 47 points or more in four of the last six non-lockout seasons. Any combination of Tarasenko, Schwartz, Perron or Fabbri on his wing will be tremendous and should see him get back up above the 50-point mark. This is likely a short-term scenario as prospect Thomas could take over the second-line center role by the third year of this Bozak deal, knocking Bozak back down to the third line the way he was in Toronto. But by then he will be 35, so he was likely headed that way regardless.

The Blues had been very weak at center, so the door was open for Patrik Berglund to finally put up a few points – or even Vladimir Sobotka. The door is now closed on that idea.

Fantasy Players this helps, in order:

1. Tyler Bozak

Fantasy Players this hurts, in order:

1. Patrik Berglund

2. Vladimir Sobotka

3. Robert Thomas