Strachan sent to the Peoria Rivermen / Season Opening Roster

[SIU LAW]

Strachan was sent to the Peoria Rivermen. So here is the opening day roster with the IR. The NHL allows for an extra goalie for the Sweden trip (Bishop). At the moment the Blues have 2 healthy fowards and a defenseman that will be sitting in the pressbox. 25 players total.

The Blues have a rather silly logjam for the 4th line…but as long as the problem is contained to the 4th line, who cares?

Forwards (14 healthy, 1 IR)

Perron
Tkachuk
Oshie
Kariya
Berglund
Boyes
McDonald
Backes
Winchester
McClement
Steen
Crombeen
Armstrong
Janssen

King (IR)

Defensemen (7)

Johnson
Jackman
Polak
Pietrangelo
Colaiacovo
Weaver
Sydor

Goalies

Mason
Conklin
Bishop

[Sweetred95ta]

I like it. The only thing up in the air is what are they going to do when King comes back off of the IR? I thought I read somewhere that he might be ready for our first game in the states (home opener) on the 8th of October.

[not_a_wings_fan]

I think the new leadership team has done an outstanding job of turning over this roster to improve the on ice product in just a couple of short years. We look to be in much better shape than we were coming out of the lockout.

I just hope the young ones continue to improve and the veterans don't all go to pasture at the same time.

[theohall]

Defensemen (7)

Johnson
Jackman
Polak
Pietrangelo
Colaiacovo
Weaver
Sydor

I'm liking what they can do with the defense as long as Pietrangelo is still here. They could field defensemen with solid offensive skills on three separate pairings - Johnson, Coliacovo, and Pietrangelo. Run out something like this.

Johnson-Jackman - Jackman doesn't have to be the be-everywhere guy like last season which hurts his game. He could concentrate on playing defense. And EJ is apparently more or of a beast than he already was.

Colaiacovo-Polak - Hopefully Polak improves on last season and we already know Colaiacovo is very good at moving the puck.

The problem is who to play with Pietrangelo. Weaver is good due to his instincts and hustle, but his lack of size kills him sometimes. Sydor is old and slow. Wondering how long the Sydor experiment is going to last. I don't see Pietrangelo being sent back to Juniors this time around given that roster.

Now if Murray wants to play 4 d-man more often than 6.... Johnson/Pietro; Colaicovo/Polak - or any combination of those 4... while Jackman/Sydor/Weaver get the lesser ice time. The concern doing that is Pietro moving from Junior play to the NHL and the wear and tear of an 80 game schedule against players as good as him every night as opposed to the 60 game schedule from Juniors.