Some are upset that the St. Louis Blues have ruined what potential top-end drafty status they had coming out of the Olympic break, some are pleased that the team had a level of compete that showed throughout these 25 games since Feb. 26.
Whatever side you’re on, you’re going to have an opinion on, but one thing is certain, the Blues are one of those teams that wished that the regular season didn’t end for them on Thursday. That’s because they finished with a season-high tying fourth straight win, closing out 2025-26 with a 5-3 win against the playoff-bound Utah Mammoth at Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Thursday.
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The Blues, who closed the season 37-33-12, matched a season-high winning streak done two other times and closed their season winning 17 of 25 games (17-5-3) after the Winter Olympic break, including finishing 10-2-2 in their past 14 road games (4-0-1 to close the season).
In the end, they fell four point shy of reaching the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the second straight season, instead missing out of the second season now for three of the past four years, and there will come a time which we can go into the logistics of why they didn’t reach the tournament again this year, but with their strong showing down the stretch, the Blues, who were once second-to-last in the overall standings and 14 points out of the second wild card in the Western Conference, will head into the NHL Draft lottery with the 11th spot. They also own the Detroit Red Wings’ pick, which is 15th. So they didn’t do themselves any favors of drafting high this year with this strong finish but there were several parts to their game that they did find, that they can hopefully take with them into the off-season and get themselves geared up for 2026-27.
On Thursday, Robert Thomas scored his second career hat trick in a span of 11 days; Dylan Holloway finished on a torrid pace with two assists; Pavel Buchnevich reached 20 goals with one on Thursday, and Logan Mailloux potted the game-winner with 2:57 to play that held off as the game-winner. Joel Hofer made 20 saves to finish the season with 24 saves.
One last time, lets look at Thursday’s game observations:
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* Among the draft shortcomings (for those that see it that way), the Blues have themselves a top line — For the detractors that feel this strong play was too little, too late, that this should have come sooner than it did and that the Blues ruined their chances of getting a lottery pick, first of all, let the draft lottery play out first. Sure, the Blues’ chances of getting the top overall pick is a slim three percent chance, and getting No. 2 is at 3.2 percent, according to tankathon.com and they have a 79.9 percent chance of drafting right where they are at No. 11, but of you look at the big picture, and Thursday night was another example: the Blues have a No. 1 line loaded with talent and one that can be dominant — barring injury — for many, many years to come.
Thomas recording a hat trick, his second in the NHL and first since April 5 in a 3-2 win against the Colorado Avalanche, was no coincidence.
With Dylan Holloway getting two assists and Jimmy Snuggerud setting Thomas up for the insurance empty-net goal with 38 seconds to play, that line closed with 95 points in 25 games since Feb. 26.
Holloway was tied for sixth in the NHL with 34 points (14 goals, 20 assists), as many points as San Jose Sharks teenage star Macklin Celebrini in two fewer games and as many as Avalanche star Nathan MacKinnon. Thomas was tied for 11th with Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Erik Karlsson and Montreal Canadiens sniper Cole Caufield with 31 points (14 goals, 17 assists), doing it in two fewer games; and Snuggerud was tied for 24th with Winnipeg Jets sniper Kyle Connor with 24 points (11 goals, 16 assists).
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That trio (Holloway, plus-26; Thomas, plus-25 and Snuggerud, plus-21) was No. 1, 2 and 4 in the NHL in that time frame.
Look at Holloway’s elite assist on Thomas’ first goal at 8:14 of the second period that tied the game at 2-2 and tell me that wasn’t elite playmaking skill:
And Blues coach Jim Montgomery has always described Holloway, when he’s on top of his game, as someone hunting pucks, and he did so here, with Thomas starting it off, that ended with Thomas finishing for a 3-2 lead at 11:07 of the second:
I can remember how good the line of Jaden Schwartz-Brayden Schenn-Vladimir Tarasenko was in the 2019 Stanley Cup-winning season. This trio is running away with the elite playmaking skills. This is a bonafide top line, and the Blues found it, and they should under no circumstances keep it together when 2026-27 starts.
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Blues fans have been craving for top-end skill for years, and they finally have it.
Despite missing 18 games with his right leg injury, Thomas ended a point per game player (64 points in 64 games), and Holloway (51 points in 59 games) and Snuggerud (51 points in 70 games), each who missed time with a high ankle sprain and wrist surgery, respectively, finished with 50-plus points.
So instead of being upset that the Blues fell to 11th in the draft odds, be glad and optimistic they have a talented top-end line that can be generational for years to come.
Oh, and can we finally stop talking about all this Thomas getting traded once and for all?
* Buch reaches 20 — I’ve been as hard on Buchnevich as anyone covering this team. And of you look at the numbers from earlier in the season, it’s justifiable.
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But he finished the season on a three-game goal streak, including putting the Blues on the board first at 1-0 just 3:45 into the game:
Eleven of his 20 goals were scoring since the beginning of February (26 games) and he finished fourth on the team in points with 48 in 81 games played.
* Mailloux’s goal a beauty — Mailloux took plenty of grief this season, despite being a rookie, for the many shortcomings of his early Blues tenure after being acquired from the Canadiens on July 1, 2025 for Zack Bolduc.
But his fifth goal, which was an absolute beauty of a backhand with 2:57 to play, turned out to be the game-winner:
Mailloux, who at one point this season was a minus-20, finished as a minus-10 with 13 points (five goals, eight assists) in 67 games, played 20 of 24 games with 20-plus minutes of ice time each game.
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Her grew so much from the start of the season that’s enabled him to play important minutes playing alongside Philip Broberg on the team’s top line.
He finished a plus-3 in 22:24 of ice time in the game.
* Colt 800 — In a season that almost saw him get traded at the deadline to the Buffalo Sabres, Colton Parayko finished his 11th season with the Blues playing in his 800th game on Thursday, leaving him third on the franchise all-time list and just three off tying Barret Jackman (803), with Bernie Federko (927) as the top player in that category.
Parayko, who played 17:58 for the game with seven shot attempts and two takeaways, was a mentor down the stretch and played with Theo Lindstein before the Blues assigned the young Swede to help in Springfield’s playoff push.
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“It’s pretty special obviously to be able to do it here in St. Louis,” Parayko said of reaching 800 games. “It’s a special team, special organization. There’s been so many great players and great coaches that came before me that I’ve gotten to play with. I’ll take that and keep passing down all throughout and hope to keep that going.”
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