Jeff Curry-Imagn Images

How the Canucks stack up against the Rest of the West: St. Louis Blues

Originally posted on Canucksarmy | By Tyson Cole | Last updated Aug 23, 2025 12:00 PM ET

In the National Hockey League, you not only have to get through your division, but also your conference to reach the end goal of competing against the top team in the opposing conference for the hardest trophy in sports to win: The Stanley Cup. With the Vancouver Canucks falling short of the Wild Card last season, they have more than just the Pacific Division to compete with: The Central Division.

Earlier in the summer, we went over how the Canucks stack up against their seven Pacific Division rivals. Check out those previews below:

– Vegas Golden Knights
– Los Angeles Kings
– Edmonton Oilers
– Calgary Flames
– Anaheim Ducks
– Seattle Kraken
– San Jose Sharks

In this mini-series, we’ll be covering the Rest of the West…but not every team. After taking a step back last season, the Canucks are more competing with the teams competing for the Wild Card, rather than the top or bottom of the division.

With that in mind, we’ll kick this off by diving into the…

St. Louis Blues

The St. Louis Blues were a team on fire down the stretch of the regular season. After the 4 Nations Face-off break, the Blues won 18 of their following 22 games – including a 12-game winning streak – and firmly cemented themselves in the playoff picture. The hot streak continued as they were mere seconds away from taking down the Presidents Trophy winners in Round 1, but wound up dropping Game 7 in overtime.

However, after a quick retool after their 2019 Stanley Cup Championship, the Blues are back on the rise with a ton of young skill ready to make names for themselves in the NHL.

The Blues were relatively quiet in the free agency, outside of a pair of bottom-six signings in Nick Bjugstad and Ex-Canuck Pius Suter. They placed veteran defenceman Nick Leddy on waivers, who was then claimed by the San Jose Sharks. But then, they were able to replace him when they shipped Zack Bolduc to the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for Logan Mailloux.

According to Daily Faceoff, here are the Blues’ projected lines for next season:

Pavel Buchnevich – Robert Thomas – Jimmy Snuggerud
Dylan Holloway – Brayden Schenn – Jordan Kyrou
Jake Neighbours – Pius Suter – Nick Bjugstad
Alexei Toropchenko – Oskar Sundqvist – Mathieu Joseph

Cam Fowler – Colton Parayko
Philip Broberg – Justin Faulk
Tyler Tucker – Logan Mailloux

Jordan Binnington
Joel Hofer

If their young players hit, the Blues have one of the best up-and-coming top-nine forwards in the league and have the clear edge on the Canucks’ forward group.

Holloway definitely took the steps last season, but Snuggerud is the player to watch. Former 2022 first-round pick now coming out of the University of Minnesota, where he put up 51 points in 40 games in his final year, Snuggerud produced at the NHL level. He tallied four points in seven regular season games, as well as four points in seven postseason games. And we haven’t even brought up their elite playmaking centre in Robert Thomas, their established goal scorer in Jordan Kyrou and all-around weapon in Pavel Buchnevich.

On the back-end, the Canucks have their number. A mid-season trade to the Blues certainly revitalized Fowler’s career, while Parayko is an outstanding defensive rearguard to pair him with. Their second-pairing has offensive upside with Broberg and Faulk. But all in all, they do not have the high-end talent to compete with a Quinn Hughes or Filip Hronek.

In net, the Blues’ tandem is nothing to scoff at. Coming off a gold medal at the 4 Nations Face-off, Jordan Binnington proved he can still perform at a high-level. Joel Hofer is a young netminder who many teams around the league tried to acquire this offseason to give him a chance to be a their starting goalie before he re-upped in St. Louis. However, it’s tough for any team in the entire NHL to be able to compete with the goaltending duo in Vancouver.

Looking into last season, the Blues finished with six more wins than the Canucks, but only six points ahead in the standings.

Head-to-head, the Blues took the season series 2-1. However, both of the Blues’ wins were close, defeating the Canucks 4-3 in overtime in both of their wins. Vancouver’s handled St. Louis 5-2 in their victory.

It’s going to be difficult for the Canucks to keep up with the offensive firepower that the Blues will bring night in and night out. But the way this team is build, set to rely on their defence and goaltending, the Canucks will need to try and win low-scoring affairs. Will they be able to contain the forward group? Only time will tell. But the Canucks and Blues look fairly even on paper, and will likely be competing against each other down to the wire for a Wild Card spot next season.