St. Louis Blues Standouts of the Week

Blues’ Standouts of the Week: Buchnevich, Hofer, and Binnington

Originally posted on The Hockey Writers
By Andrew Willis | Last updated Dec 28, 2025 1:30 PM ET

The St. Louis Blues are coming off Christmas break. Due to the break, they only played in two games. They broke even on the week, going 1-1-0. The page turns to the new week, which will include the calendar turning to 2026. Before the ball drops, however, let’s take a look at the team’s standout players of the past week.

Standout #3- Jordan Binnington

Typically, in these standout articles, we take a look at players who stood out positively. This time, we are going to look at a player who stood out negatively.

Jordan Binnington played only one game, but he did not look sharp. He gave up four goals on just 17 shots in a loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning. His poor performance was the latest in what has not been an excellent month for the 2020 All-Star. He is 1-4-1 with a 4.51 goals-against average (GAA) and a .832 save percentage (SV%).

Binnington is slowly but surely losing his starting job to Joel Hofer. At the same time, Binnington is also hurting his chances to be the starter for Team Canada at the upcoming Olympics. Neither the numbers nor the eye test looks good at the moment.

Binnington has won a Stanley Cup and led Team Canada to the 4 Nations Face-Off title last season. His resume shows he is capable of more than what he is showing at the moment. Can he turn it around? Of course. Until then, Binnington should expect to see more of the bench for the Blues.

Standout #2- Joel Hofer

Binnington’s struggles have been Hofer’s gain. The 25-year-old made 30 saves in his only start this past week, shutting down a Nashville Predators team that had scored 12 goals against the Blues coming into Saturday’s game. It was not a perfect game for Hofer, as a giveaway led to a Nashville goal, but it was waved off because the play was offside. No harm, no foul, right?

Hofer will not want to see the calendar flip to January. December has been kind to the young goaltender this season. In nine games, including seven starts, Hofer is 5-2-0 with a 2.10 GAA and a .929 SV%.

As long as this keeps up, Hofer will continue to get the majority of the starts for St. Louis. He definitely deserves it.

Standout #1- Pavel Buchnevich

Pavel Buchnevich heads into the new week coming off a strong game on Saturday. Buchnevich scored two goals, including what ended up being the game-winning goal. Both goals were typical Buchnevich goals, showcasing his strong puck-handling and his ability to go to the net.

Pavel's got two. pic.twitter.com/uQJYfQogHr
— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) December 28, 2025

The 30-year-old now has seven goals on the season, a far cry from the 25-30 goals he is used to scoring. Buchnevich showed on Saturday that he is still capable of being a game-changer.

The Blues are starting to get healthy. If the team can return to full strength alongside Buchnevich heating up, it can put the team on a run like the one we saw last season.

It will be a new calendar year soon, but the Blues are hopeful for more of the same from past seasons from Buchnevich.

The Week Ahead

The Blues will play four games this week as we celebrate New Year’s. Three of the four will be at home. However, the one road game will be a big one. It will be a New Year’s Eve matchup with the Colorado Avalanche, who currently have a strong lead for the Presidents’ Trophy and only have two regulation losses on the season. Perhaps the Blues can ring in the new year with a “mile high” upset.