Younger Core Taking Over for Blues

By ESPN

The St. Louis Blues enter this season without carrying a piano on their backs, their first-round elimination of the boogeyman Chicago Blackhawks last spring and subsequent trip to the Western Conference finals a certain measure of playoff accomplishment they had been craving for a long time.

Still short of a Stanley Cup finals berth, of course, which their loyal fan base remains hopeful for, but at least the narrative has changed.

The new script surrounding this team is that a younger core has taken over, with longtime David Backes moving on to the Boston Bruins in free agency, and clutch veteran winger Troy Brouwer getting an offer he couldn't refuse from the Calgary Flames.

The team now belongs to top defenseman Alex Pietrangelo, who replaced Backes as captain, but also to Jaden Schwartz, Alex Steen and Vladimir Tarasenko. The emergence of forward Robby Fabbri last season as a top-six force also helps mitigate the losses of Backes and Brouwer, as does signing unrestricted free-agent winger David Perron.

Life would have been better had Vladimir Sobotka found his way back to St. Louis from the KHL, but more on that later.

There's both an experienced, steady voice behind the bench in longtime coach Ken Hitchcock, but also a fresh one in Mike Yeo, who will officially take over as head coach in 2017-18. It's a bit unusual of a setup, but both coaches seem comfortable with the one-year overlap. For Yeo, it's a chance to learn from a man with two lifetimes worth of hockey knowledge.

The Blues remain a contender but not without questions.