St. Louis Blues Take Tanner Kaspick in Fourth Round of NHL Draft

The St. Louis Blues continued stocking up on centers with their fourth-round selection in the NHL Draft.

With their fourth pick in the 2016 NHL Draft, the St. Louis Blues made it very clear which position they wanted to stock up on the most. Tanner Kaspick, a 6-foot, 200-pound 18-year-old who has spent the past two years with the WHL’s Brandon Wheat Kings, became the third center to be selected by the organization this weekend, following first-rounder Tage Thompson and second-rounder Jordan Kyrou.

Kaspick is definitely more of a project than the players taken before him, but it appears that he has good potential as a two-way forward who’d probably fit well on a fourth line. Though Kaspick had just 13 goals and 18 assists for Brandon in 2015-16–which actually was a huge improvement over his offensive production as a WHL rookie–he had a plus-15 rating and collected 37 penalty minutes. In 21 playoff games with Brandon, he had five goals, five assists, a plus-8 rating, and 28 penalty minutes.

Next: Blues Take Evan Fitzpatrick with 59th Pick

Obviously not all of the centers who the Blues take will end up playing the position at the NHL level. Notable players such as Robby Fabbri and Jaden Schwartz have been drafted as centers and then switched to wing after joining the Blues, while guys like David Backes, Patrik Berglund, and Alexander Steen have switched back and forth through the course of their NHL careers. It’s quite possible that Kaspick ends up playing left wing as a pro, but it’s nice that he at least has the flexibility to play up the middle.