St. Louis Blues

An expansion team that never got the usual grace period

St. Louis joined the NHL in 1967 as one of six expansion clubs, taking its name from the W.C. Handy composition "Saint Louis Blues". The league's structure at the time funnelled one expansion side into the final every year, so the Blues reached the Stanley Cup Final in each of their first three seasons — 1968, 1969 and 1970 — and lost all three, twice to Montreal and once to Boston. They did not win a single game across the three series.

That early rush gave way to a long middle period defined by consistency rather than silverware. From 1980 to 2004 the Blues qualified for the playoffs in 25 consecutive seasons, the third-longest such run in North American professional sport, and reached only two conference finals in that time. The one piece of regular-season hardware came in 1999-2000, when a franchise-record 114 points took the Presidents' Trophy.

The club played at the St. Louis Arena from 1967 until 1994, when it moved downtown to the Kiel Center, now Enterprise Center, where capacity sits a little above 19,000. Brett Hull, Bernie Federko, Al MacInnis, Chris Pronger and Keith Tkachuk passed through without a title between them.

Fifty-two years, then Game 7 in Boston

The Cup arrived in 2019, won in a Game 7 at Boston. Ryan O'Reilly took the Conn Smythe Trophy, and the win made the Blues the last surviving club from the 1967 expansion class to lift the trophy for the first time.

The run is also where the club acquired its best-known piece of match-night furniture. Laura Branigan's 1982 single "Gloria" was adopted by the dressing room and then by the city, and it was playing to a full Enterprise Center as the final whistle went and strangers hugged in the aisles. Jordan Binnington, a rookie goaltender who had started the season in the minors, played every playoff game.

Robert Thomas, then 19, scored once and recorded six points in 21 playoff games on that team. He is now the only significant piece of it still in a Blues shirt and taking a regular shift.

A coach fired in Boston, rehired in St. Louis

On 24 November 2024 the Blues dismissed Drew Bannister and hired Jim Montgomery on a five-year contract the same day. Montgomery had been sacked by Boston days earlier. The turnaround was immediate enough to look like a vindication: St. Louis finished 44-30-8 for 96 points, went 12-2-1 through March, and clinched a playoff place on 15 April 2025 with a 6-1 win over Utah, their first postseason appearance since 2021-22.

The first round drew Winnipeg, that season's Presidents' Trophy winners. The Blues took it to seven games and lost 4-3 in double overtime at Canada Life Centre on 4 May 2025. It remains the high-water mark of the current era.

The follow-up did not hold. The 2025-26 team finished 37-33-12 for 86 points, fifth in the Central Division and ninth in the Western Conference, and was eliminated on 11 April 2026 when Los Angeles beat Edmonton. They scored 231 goals and conceded 258. The power play ranked 26th in the league at 17.6 per cent, the penalty kill 25th at 76.7 per cent. Thomas led the scoring with 25 goals and 64 points but missed time injured, as did Jimmy Snuggerud, who finished joint second on the team with 51.

Dismantling the champions, quietly and then all at once

The trade deadline of 6 March 2026 was the point at which the rebuild stopped being deniable: Justin Faulk went to Detroit and captain Brayden Schenn to the New York Islanders, leaving the captaincy vacant for the rest of the season. Jonathan Drouin also left.

The bigger move came in the summer. On 23 June 2026 the Blues traded Jordan Kyrou — 28, five years left at an $8.125 million average annual value, holding a full no-trade clause he had to waive — to Washington for Connor McMichael, prospect Milton Gastrin and the 16th pick in that year's draft. The return left St. Louis with four first-round picks. They also sent two first-rounders to Anaheim for Mason McTavish, took Brandon Carlo from Toronto, and signed Ross Johnston and Dillon Dube.

The front office changed shape at the same time. Doug Armstrong, the longest-serving general manager in club history at 16 seasons, moved solely to president of hockey operations, and Alexander Steen — 42, a Blues forward for 12 seasons and a participant in all 26 playoff games of the 2019 run — was introduced on 30 June 2026 as the 12th general manager in franchise history, taking over on 1 July. On 2 September 2026 Thomas was named the 25th captain, with Colton Parayko, Philip Broberg, Jake Neighbours and Dylan Holloway as his alternates.

Where they stand in October 2026

The 2026-27 season is the first played over 84 games rather than 82, with two extra divisional fixtures added for every club. St. Louis opened on 2 October at Dallas and won 4-0, Joel Hofer stopping all 25 shots for his ninth NHL shutout in his first opening-night start. McTavish scored on his debut inside two minutes, Dalibor Dvorsky added the second, and Snuggerud and Pius Suter finished it into an empty net. Montgomery said afterwards that Hofer has matured into a potential top-ten goaltender in the league.

The next night at Colorado, with Binnington starting, they lost 6-1. That is the season so far: 1-1-0, a goal difference of minus one, and a third road game at Chicago on 6 October before the home opener against San Jose on 8 October. Alexey Toropchenko picked up an upper-body injury in Dallas and was described as more than day-to-day. Logan Mailloux and Tyler Tucker, who had right knee surgery on 30 September, began the season on injured reserve.

The goaltending split between Hofer, 26, and Binnington, 33, is the season's live question — Hofer went 24-13-5 with a 2.61 goals-against average last year, Binnington 13-20-7 at 3.33. Local writers rate the squad as a wild-card contender at best, and one Blues site argued before the opener that a slow start would put Montgomery's job at risk by Thanksgiving, with a new general manager likely wanting his own appointment. Twenty-seven-year-old Thomas, meanwhile, is being talked about locally as a candidate for a 90-point season.

The building and the calendar

Enterprise Center, at 1401 Clark Avenue, is city-owned and has been through recent renovation work, including a beer garden on the first level with a stage for live performances. The rafters carry championship banners and retired numbers; Hall of Fame Plaza outside holds bronze statues of Hull, MacInnis and Federko. Reviewers consistently mark the bowl's closeness to the ice as its main asset and the cost of a night out as its weakest, with beer running roughly $10 to $14.

The home schedule is weighted towards accessible start times: 22 weekend home dates, with 16 of 19 weekend games starting at 6pm local or earlier. Carolina, who beat Vegas in six games in June 2026 for their first Cup since 2006, visit on 24 October. A six-game homestand runs from 27 November to 8 December, the New York Rangers come in on 27 December, and the regular season closes at home to Utah on 10 April 2027.