The NHL playoffs are well underway, and the St. Louis Blues aren’t competing. They finished the season 37-33-12 with 86 standings points, and fifth in a stacked Central Division. A lot of things went wrong, from poor goaltending to a lack of scoring from the top of the lineup, but the defense group also carries its fair share of the blame–and Cam Fowler turned in a pretty awful season.
This isn’t just about points, either. Fowler put up an adequate four goals and 26 assists for 30 points–down from last year’s torrid pace but not awful. However, his minus-11 goal differential was a huge step back from last year’s plus-19 after he was traded to the Blues. Per Natural Stat Trick, his expected Goals For percentage (xGF%) dropped from 52.75 last year to 48.45 xGF%. That’s still much better than his last few years in Anaheim (the Ducks were really, truly awful), but not what you need from a your de facto top-pair defenseman.
That’s the larger problem with Fowler, too: he’s 34 years old, and the Blues signed him to a three-year contract extension that carries $6.1-million AAV cap hit and has full no-trade protections through two-thirds of the term. The front office got duped by Fowler’s outstanding start in St. Louis, and signed him to an extension that looked bad the day it was inked. At his age, Fowler’s play is far more likely to regress further than it is to bounce back next season.
If this season was a sign of things to come for Fowler, then the Blues are in trouble. Granted, the emergence of Philip Broberg and improvements in Logan Mailloux’s game could push Fowler down the lineup; less ice time for Fowler means he can get easier matchups and play to his strengths. As the Blues enter their retool (or rebuild), however, Fowler’s down 2025-26 could be a warning sign that this is just the player he is now.
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