The Blues would have likely been a top-3 seed if not for the throttling Chicago gave the rest of the league. Unfortunately they wound up taking on the Kings in the playoffs for the second straight season and got the same result.
Team Name: St. Louis Blues
Record: 29-17-2, 2nd Central, Lost 4-2 to Los Angeles in Western Conference Quarterfinals
Player of the Season: Chris Stewart led the team with 18 goals and 18 assists including six of each on the power play.
Breakout of the Season: Vladimir Tarasenko burst onto the scene with five goals and four assists in January. He only scored ten points the rest of the season for an 8-11–19 finish but still wound up five points (3G, 2A) on the power play. Tarasenko missed about a month with a concussion but if he can stay healthy, he should produce nicely in his second season.
Disappointment of the Season: Jaroslav Halak was supposed to be one of the better netminders in fantasy and had an ADP of 33. Yes, he missed a dozen games with a groin injury but when he was on the ice he was perplexing. He went 6-5-1 with three shutouts and a 2.14 goals against average. On the downside he only had a save percentage of .899 for the season. He would record shutouts on games where he faced less than 15 shots. In other games, he would give up three goals on 11 shots and still win (January 21 vs Nashville). He faced more than 25 shots in a game once this season and continued to be a risk in leagues where save percentage was a factor. Add to that the solid play of Brian Elliott and Jake Allen and it could spell jeopardy for Halak’s ice time in 2013-2014.
Team Analysis: The Blues had nicely balanced scoring. After Stewart, Patrick Berglund lit the lamp 17 times and David Perron added 10 tallies. Six other players each scored seven or eight goals on the season so they were a team with plenty to offer in fantasy. The downside is that it was hard to predict who would put up the points on any given night but eight of them wound up with at between 20-30 points for the season.
2013-2014 Story Lines: Berglund, Shattenkirk, Stewart and Pieterangelo are all restricted free agents this summer. How can the Blues keep them all? Halak and Elliott will both be UFAs after next season as well.
Who will be the goaltender for this team? Can they get past the Kings? Will this team take the leap from solid to spectacular?
2013-2014 Fantasy Guys to Have: Stewart, David Backes, Alexander Steen, Berglund, Alex Pieterangelo, Kevin Shattenkirk, TJ Oshie (half his points were on the power play), the starting goaltender when named, Tarasenko
Guys On the Fringe: Jaden Schwartz, Jay Bouwmeester
| PLAYER | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | ATOI | PPG | PPA | SHG | SHA | SOG | SPCT |
| Chris Stewart, RW | 48 | 18 | 18 | 36 | 0 | 40 | 15:49 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 97 | 18.6 |
| David Backes, C | 48 | 6 | 22 | 28 | 5 | 62 | 19:37 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 100 | 6.0 |
| Alexander Steen, LW | 40 | 8 | 19 | 27 | 5 | 14 | 19:00 | 3 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 129 | 6.2 |
| Patrik Berglund, C | 48 | 17 | 8 | 25 | -2 | 12 | 16:50 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 74 | 23.0 |
| David Perron, LW | 48 | 10 | 15 | 25 | 0 | 44 | 18:00 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 84 | 11.9 |
| Alex Pietrangelo, D | 47 | 5 | 19 | 24 | 0 | 10 | 25:07 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 93 | 5.4 |
| Kevin Shattenkirk, D | 48 | 5 | 18 | 23 | 2 | 20 | 21:18 | 2 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 84 | 6.0 |
| Andy McDonald, C | 37 | 7 | 14 | 21 | -2 | 16 | 17:15 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 86 | 8.1 |
| T.J. Oshie, RW | 30 | 7 | 13 | 20 | -5 | 15 | 19:06 | 2 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 65 | 10.8 |
| Vladimir Tarasenko, RW | 38 | 8 | 11 | 19 | 1 | 10 | 13:25 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 75 | 10.7 |
| Vladimir Sobotka, C | 48 | 8 | 11 | 19 | -4 | 35 | 15:27 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 69 | 11.6 |
| Jaden Schwartz, C | 45 | 7 | 6 | 13 | -4 | 4 | 12:28 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 50 | 14.0 |
| Barret Jackman, D | 46 | 3 | 9 | 12 | 6 | 39 | 19:19 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 39 | 7.7 |
| Chris Porter, C | 29 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 5 | 0 | 11:38 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 46 | 4.3 |
| Kris Russell, D | 33 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 9 | 16:03 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 41 | 2.4 |
| Jay Bouwmeester, D † | 14 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 5 | 6 | 23:24 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 24 | 4.2 |
| Adam Cracknell, RW | 20 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 3 | 4 | 8:37 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 21 | 9.5 |
| Roman Polak, D | 48 | 1 | 5 | 6 | -2 | 48 | 18:25 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 39 | 2.6 |
| Ryan Reaves, RW | 43 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 3 | 79 | 7:27 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 24 | 16.7 |
| Wade Redden, D † | 23 | 2 | 3 | 5 | -2 | 11 | 14:59 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 23 | 8.7 |
| Jordan Leopold, D † | 15 | 0 | 2 | 2 | -2 | 0 | 18:22 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 22 | 0.0 |
| Matt D’Agostini, RW† | 16 | 1 | 1 | 2 | -4 | 2 | 11:52 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 19 | 5.3 |
| Scott Nichol, C | 30 | 1 | 0 | 1 | -2 | 25 | 9:47 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 7.7 |
| Ian Cole, D | 15 | 0 | 1 | 1 | -4 | 10 | 17:45 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 0.0 |
| Jamie Langenbrunner, RW | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 9:47 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0.0 |
| Dmitrij Jaskin, RW | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 0 | 7:30 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0.0 |
| Andrew Murray, C | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7:49 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0.0 |
| PLAYER | GP | W | L | OTL | GAA | TOI | SV | SV% | SHO | TGA | TSA | PIM |
| Jaroslav Halak | 16 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 2.14 | 812:35 | 257 | .899 | 3 | 29 | 286 | 0 |
| Brian Elliott | 24 | 14 | 8 | 1 | 2.28 | 1291:56 | 477 | .907 | 3 | 49 | 526 | 0 |
| Jake Allen | 15 | 9 | 4 | 0 | 2.46 | 803:53 | 313 | .905 | 1 | 33 | 346 | 0 |
