He hasn’t played in the AHL for almost two months, and he leads all defensemen in the league with 20 points.
#STL BLUES FULL#
Scott Perunovich is the Blues’ blue-chip defensive prospect, full stop. His pairing with Mikkola has brought consistency to his play, which has been helpful. Parayko, who signed an eight-year contract extension worth $6.5 million per season this year, is still working on recovering form. Both players have settled into the system and the club nicely, and while they clearly bring different skill sets than Bouwmeester and Pietrangelo, they’re the cornerstones as it stands. For some players, like Krug and Faulk, it has paid off. The team has missed the stabilizing presence of Jay Bouwmeester certainly, and Alex Pietrangelo leaving in 2020 to head to Vegas was also another destabilizing blow, but the team has had plenty of time to recalibrate the defense.ĭoug Armstrong seems to be taking a wait and see approach. The Blues’ have a future quality blueliner in Scott Perunovich, two vets in Torey Krug and Justin Faulk, Parayko and whoever he’s paired with, some rotating 7th defensemen who play well when needed, and Robert Bortuzzo. You can get away with that during the regular season, but playoff runs depend on defense. They’ve been doing so mainly through the strengths of their offense and goaltending, especially from Ville Husso and Charlie Lindgren when needed. The Blues have been keeping pace in the Central Division despite the injuries and despite the players (twenty so far) who have gone on the NHL’s Covid-19 protocol list. The possibility that those hopes will be dashed by March much like the hopes for Parayko and Scandella were still exists. Right now, the Blues are banking on the pairing with Mikkola to be the new shutdown pair, and so far they’ve been perfectly cromulent. The Blues went from “hoping they had their shutdown pair” to “you know, this pairing isn’t working at all” within the span of two months. He also was paired with Marco Scandella for the first half of the season so far, and that was, well, to be judicious, less than impressive.
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Despite some stretches of good play from Colton Parayko since he’s been paired with Niko Mikkola, he still doesn’t look like the same guy from before his back injury. It’s no secret that the Blues’ defense this year has been less than ideal.