ST. LOUIS — It’s been a while since we checked in with the St. Louis Blues’ power rankings.
This isn’t your typical ranking of records, stats and projections. If you’ve missed the series in the past, it’s a vibe check of the organization.
Honestly, part of the reason this is the first edition of the 2025-26 season is that we like to keep the energy positive, and with a 6-8-4 start in the first 18 games, there hasn’t been a lot of that to write about. But we found a few highlights, and ranked them Nos. 1-10.
1. Dalibor Dvorsky is delivering
When Dalibor Dvorsky was called up to the NHL in October, you had to wonder, “How would he look?” Confident? Still raw?
In eight games, the rookie center has been outstanding. He’s averaging more than 13 minutes per game and has two goals — both on the power play — and he’s winning more than 50 percent of his faceoffs.
“He’s a very mature player for 20 years old,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. “He’s doing a lot of good things. He just continues to impress us with how he’s playing. He’s playing really good hockey for us.”
Dvorsky has been reliable enough that Montgomery has made him the No. 2 center and pushed captain Brayden Schenn to the wing. That can only happen when a young player is taking care of the small details.
“I really like where he’s been in support positions,” Montgomery said. “Whether it’s D-zone or the O-zone, his brain allows him to be in really good spots. His speed, the pace of play has been very noticeable this year.”
The first of many. #stlblues pic.twitter.com/sa32yt343v
— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) November 4, 2025
2. DJ Neighbours
Montgomery is always looking for ways to get the most out of the Blues, and Jake Neighbours is always looking for ways to be part of the team. Those two elements converged this week when the coach asked the fourth-year forward, who’s out with a leg injury, to be the DJ for practice.
“It’s not to keep the mood light — we need more energy,” Montgomery said. “That’s why we brought the music. I wanted us to be talking louder than the music, so we’re demanding pucks. It wasn’t just to get guys to put smiles on their faces.”
The assignment put a smile on Neighbours’ face.
“DJ Neighbours, he can play at my house any time,” Montgomery joked with reporters. “He had some AC/DC in there. He was spot on. I think he has an old soul. I really like his style of music.”
Neighbours is tied with Jordan Kyrou for the team lead with six goals, despite missing the last nine games. He skated with the team for the first time Friday but isn’t expected to be re-evaluated until the end of the month.
3. ‘Do I look nervous?’
We all remember an interview in 2019 with Blues goalie Jordan Binnington. He was asked by former St. Louis Post-Dispatch beat writer Jim Thomas whether he was getting nervous in some of these big games.
“Do I look nervous?” Binnington famously responded.
Well, fast-forward six years, and Cristine Prosperi Binnington, the goalie’s wife, was interviewed by FanDuel Sports Network’s Andy Strickland during a game, a 3-2 win over the Calgary Flames on Tuesday.
Strickland asked Cristine whether she was nervous watching her husband in the net, and she quipped: “Do I look nervous?”
I asked Andy whether they scripted that out, and he insisted no — Cristine was quick on her feet, just like Jordan.
guess it runs in the family. pic.twitter.com/fbTKhukhi8
— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) November 12, 2025
4. Logan Mailloux scores in Springfield
In nine games with the Blues this season, defenseman Logan Mailloux had no points and was a minus-12, leading to his assignment to AHL Springfield last week.
“Right now, he’s lost his confidence a little bit,” Montgomery said of Mailloux after the move and before he played his first game with the Thunderbirds. “This is an opportunity for him to go down, play a lot of minutes, get his game in order, come back up here and help us.”
In his first game with the Thunderbirds, Mailloux played in the second pair on defense and ran the point on the No. 1 power-play unit. In his second game, he got on the scoreboard for the first time this season with a goal.
“There’s four guys ahead of him (Colton Parayko, Philip Broberg, Justin Faulk, Cam Fowler) that are going to log the most important minutes here,” Montgomery said. “He’s got to be able to take the minutes he gets there and bring that confidence and assimilate it into the role that he’s going to have here.”
WHAT A PASS, WHAT A GOAL
Welcome to the 413, Logan Mailloux!!! pic.twitter.com/Hvu6kAdUbX
— Springfield Thunderbirds (@ThunderbirdsAHL) November 15, 2025
5. Justin Carbonneau has a goal per game
Blues prospect Justin Carbonneau was the No. 19 overall pick in last summer’s NHL draft and was impressive in his first training camp. He was re-assigned to his junior hockey team, Blainville-Boisbriand Armada, where he’s racking up the offense.
Carbonneau has been a goal-per-game player with 18 goals in 18 games, and he has five assists for 23 points.
“Everything is going well — good start!” Carbonneau texted The Athletic. “Looking forward to stepping up!”
Oui, Justin Carbonneau peut marquer de toutes les façons. 😎
Quel tir, et quel but pour la vedette de @ArmadaBLB !#stlblues | @StLouisBlues pic.twitter.com/q7ShAVREN2
— LHJMQ (@LHJMQ) November 14, 2025
6. Philip Broberg making an ‘impact’
The Blues had the second-to-worst goals-against average in the NHL going into Friday’s game against Philadelphia (3.76), with 47 goals for and 64 against.
Yet, Broberg had been on the ice for 13 five-on-five goals for and 12 against, making him the only defenseman to be a plus. He had also been on the ice for 148 shots for and 140 against, making him the only defenseman to be a plus in that category, too. His expected goal share was also a team-best 55.35 percent.
Meanwhile, he has one goal and five assists for six points.
“He’s our biggest impact player on our team right now — at both ends of the ice,” Montgomery said. “He’s using his strengths from within the structure that we want to play with — to support offense, to kill plays defensively. He has the confidence to do stuff with the puck right now that not a lot of our players have the confidence to do offensively.”
7. Hunter Skinner’s NHL debut
In February 2023, the Blues made a trade with the New York Rangers. They sent Vladimir Tarasenko and Niko Mikkola to the Rangers for a 2023 first-round pick (Theo Lindstein), Sammy Blais and defenseman Hunter Skinner.
After 147 games with AHL Springfield, Skinner made his NHL debut Friday against Philadelphia.
“If this is not the greatest day in his life, it’s in his top three,” Montgomery said. “Bright lights, big city. St. Louis Blues against the Philadelphia Flyers, legendary teams.”
“It’s a dream come true,” Skinner said.
Skinner had 10:45 of ice time, four hits and was a plus-1 in his first game in the league.
Welcome to the @NHL, Hunter Skinner! 👏#stlblues pic.twitter.com/n01gJjq4q4
— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) November 15, 2025
8. Power play climbing
The Blues went into Friday’s game ranked No. 9 in the NHL on the power play, and it’s been even better than that of late.
From Oct. 30 through Tuesday’s game against Calgary, the Blues were 5-for-16 on the man-advantage (31.3 percent). Of those five goals, Dvorsky led the way with two, followed by Pius Suter, Jimmy Snuggerud and Dylan Holloway with one each.
The Blues didn’t score on the power play Friday against Philadelphia, but the unit has at least one goal in nine of the team’s 18 games this season.
🚨 ⬜️ ⬜️
⬜️ 🚨 ⬜️
⬜️ ⬜️ 🚨
TIC-TAC-TOE-GOAL pic.twitter.com/BMOmwRezkM
— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) November 9, 2025
9. Healthy scratches are healthy
On Friday, the Blues made forward Nick Bjugstad and defenseman Tyler Tucker a healthy scratch. He was the ninth player to be scratched this season, including Kyrou, Mailloux, Oskar Sundqvist, Mathieu Joseph, Alexandre Texier, Matthew Kessel and Nathan Walker.
In most of these cases, the player has responded well when they returned, which is the environment Montgomery is trying to create.
“It’s a privilege to get to wear the Blues uniform,” he said. “It’s a privilege to play games in this league.”
10. Kiss cam reaction
We’ll end with a story that unfolded on the video screen at Enterprise Center during the Blues’ game against the Seattle Kraken. The familiar “kiss cam” was making its way around the seats and found Cory Campbell and Ashley Ellis.
It wasn’t the first time that there’s been a marriage proposal on the kiss cam. But the reaction it produced from the young couple behind them, Xander Smith and Lillie Coleman, who are both 18 years old and have been dating for three years, was priceless.
“I looked at the screen and I was waiting for us to be on it,” Smith said. “Then I looked down and the guy said, ‘How about this and got on his knee and proposed to the girl?’ Lillie and I were just blown out of our mind — just shocked.”
Kiss Cam goes to the next level. pic.twitter.com/1Z7bSuOVWf
— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) November 9, 2025
Smith and Coleman were scrolling Facebook when they saw the Blues’ post on social media, which was followed by friends sending screenshots. Some have suggested that Smith propose to Coleman the same way.
“We’ll see,” he said, laughing.
Campbell and Ellis have reached out, saying they’d love to invite Smith and Coleman to their wedding and recreate the picture.