It seems like Jimmy Snuggerud can’t stop impressing Blues coaches through the first three days of training camp.
His latest chance came during Saturday morning’s scrimmage — the first of the fall — when he was among the standouts that caught Jim Montomgery’s attention. Snuggerud was on the puck constantly, carrying it through the neutral zone, trying to find teammates and using his shot when he could.
Montgomery said Snuggerud “caught my eye quite a bit.”
“He’s bigger, he’s faster, he’s stronger,” Montgomery said. “He’s got the skill to go with it. His motor, he just seems like he’s on top of pucks, and he’s getting pucks back. Things seem to be happening.”
Snuggerud is expected to be a contributor in the Blues’ top six this season, potentially even playing on the top line with Robert Thomas and Pavel Buchnevich. Throughout camp, Snuggerud has been on Thomas’ right wing.
Snuggerud joined the Blues in the spring after his three-year collegiate career at Minnesota, and played 14 games for St. Louis — seven in the regular season and seven in the playoffs. The 2022 first-round pick totaled three goals and five assists.
“He just seems to be very calm,” Montgomery said. “I talked to him the first day he arrived here last year, I thought he’d be nervous. He didn’t seem nervous. He’s just getting information in, processing it, seems to go out and execute it at a high level. I was worried personally that he came to the NHL, we gave him a lot, how’s he going to work in the summer? He went and put on 12 pounds. Probably only ends up eight or nine pounds heavier (during the season), but that’s a big difference.”
Michael Buchinger (white team) scored the only goal of the scrimmage when his point shot deflected off and broke the stick of Oskar Sundqvist (blue team).
Newcomers Pius Suter and Nick Bjugstad drew praise from Montgomery for “especially in the defensive end, doing good stuff.” He noted that Dylan Peterson and Jakub Stancl performed well among the non-NHL players.
Then there was Mathieu Joseph, whose shot block caused the white bench to erupt with stick taps and cheers. Joseph is trying to both win a spot on the roster, and push his way into some ice time in the bottom six.
“Guys are already starting to sacrifice playing to the Blues identity that we think is a blue-collar work ethic,” Montgomery said. “I’m glad you brought him up, because I thought he was really good out there, too, today.”
Some of the players on the ice for Saturday’s scrimmage will play Sunday in Columbus.
Mailloux gets a look
Defenseman Logan Mailloux was one of the Blues that traveled to Dallas to play the preseason opener against the Stars, and he received a look running the top power play for a day. During morning skate, Mailloux piloted the unit with Dylan Holloway in the right circle, Justin Carbonneau in the left, Dalibor Dvorsky at the bumper and Aleksanteri Kaskimaki at the net-front.
Mailloux is an offensive defenseman by nature, and ran the power play with Laval in the AHL the last two seasons, when he had five goals and 25 assists combined.
“I’d say I’m definitely more of a shooter, but when you’re on the power play, you’ve got an extra guy, so there’s going to be a guy open most of the time,” Mailloux said. “It’s just about finding those holes and finding the gaps between the PK. I think I definitely like to use my shot.”
In St. Louis, he could be the third option to run a power play behind veterans like Cam Fowler and Justin Faulk. Philip Broberg could also do the job, and he was in charge of the second unit on Saturday night.
But for both Montgomery and Mailloux, the focus is more on his overall game.
“I’m not really focused on that right now, to be honest,” Mailloux said. “Just focused on getting here and making an impact, whatever way that is. Not too worried about that.”
Montgomery: “We’ve got to get him up and running, we’ve got him playing in our system so we can give him feedback. Start doing video with him so the things we like ‘Hey, this is what we like what you’re doing. Here’s areas that we want to do this in our structure.’”
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Matthew DeFranks | Post-Dispatch
Hockey reporter
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