The first step to our mock draft is to establish the list of players that will be available for the Las Vegas franchise to draft. To do this, we decided to have a blogger from each team represent their own franchise and select the players that will be protected from the Mock Expansion Draft available player pool. To see the rules which were followed to protect players, hit this link.

Next up, we have the St. Louis Blues. The Blues are being represented by David Rogers from FrozenNotes.com.

Protected Players

Analysis from FrozenNotes.com:

The Blues are a difficult team for this experiment. They have seemingly a perfect balance of talented youth and experienced veterans. I could have been given three additional selections and I would’ve still had trouble narrowing things down.

Ultimately, I tried a mix of players. The young stars (Fabbri, Edmundson, Parayko) with big upside and the established names (Tarasenko, Stastny, etc.).

As with any team, there were names I wish I wouldn’t have left out. Jordan Binnington for example was a painful cut.

I could have left out some of the older names (Backes, Steen, Bouwmeester), but the Blues would then be hard pressed as their lineup might be too young to compete in the playoffs.

The entire list of unprotected players that will be available for Team Lane and Team Pothier to select from can be found here.

To see more team explanations just like this one, check out The Sin Bin Mock Expansion Draft Landing Page.

Special thanks again to David Rogers from FrozenNotes.com. Be sure to follow @FrozenNotes on Twitter, and heck, throw us (@SinBinVegas) a follow too while you’re at it.