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Projecting the St. Louis Blues’ 23-Man NHL Roster

By Patrick Karraker

May 23, 2016; St. Louis, MO, USA; San Jose Sharks center Joe Pavelski (8) skates against St. Louis Blues center Paul Stastny (26) in the third period in game five of the Western Conference Final of the 2016 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Scottrade Center. Mandatory Credit: Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports
May 23, 2016; St. Louis, MO, USA; San Jose Sharks center Joe Pavelski (8) skates against St. Louis Blues center Paul Stastny (26) in the third period in game five of the Western Conference Final of the 2016 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Scottrade Center. Mandatory Credit: Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports /
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Jake Allen St. Louis Blues
May 21, 2016; San Jose, CA, USA; St. Louis Blues goalie Jake Allen (34) deflects a shot by the San Jose Sharks in the third period of game four of the Western Conference Final of the 2016 Stanley Cup Playoffs at SAP Center at San Jose. The Blues won 6-3. Mandatory Credit: John Hefti-USA TODAY Sports /

Goalies

Goalies: Jake Allen, Carter Hutton

This group is the most obvious one, as Allen and Hutton are locked into their roles unless an injury occurs. The only real question is exactly how much playing time Allen will get; the Blues obviously have a certain level of faith in Hutton since they pursued him in free agency this offseason, but he’s played in a total of just 35 NHL games over the past two seasons, and he’s mostly built his reputation around being serviceable while getting extremely limited playing time behind ironman Pekka Rinne.

Next: 5 Questions as Blues Approach Training Camp

The thought is that Allen could ascend into that same type of role, playing 60-65 games in 2016-17. With that said, he’ll need to avoid the prolonged slumps that he’s endured over his first two full seasons if he wants to become that type of netminder. He showed that he could stick in net night-after-night over the first couple months of last season, but his effectiveness eventually decreased, and an injury in early January put an end to that type of usage. We’ll see if Allen can rebound and cement himself as one of the NHL’s most durable goaltenders this season.

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