MARYLAND HEIGHTS. Mo. -- There’s a method to what the St. Louis Blues want to do with some of their young talent – especially first-round talent – that they’ve selected in the past few years.

If those players feel they’re ready to break through and become NHL players, they are going to have to A) earn the job, and B) take a job from some else, already an established player.

So for the likes of Dalibor Dvorsky (first round, 2023, No. 10 overall), Otto Stenberg (first round, 2023, 25th overall), Theo Lindstein (first round, 2023, 29th overall), Adam Jiricek (first round, 2024, 16th overall), and Justin Carbonneau (first round, 2025, 19th overall), those players are being given opportunities with veteran, high-end players to see how they fit and fare.

“We want to give everybody the opportunity to play with NHL players, but we also want to give our NHL players and some of the younger ones especially the opportunity to make people better,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said after the first day of training camp. “It’s part of what we want to do as an organization is anytime someone comes into fold, comes into family, we’re going to try and make them better. You had a lot of two veterans with one young guy so that they could talk to them and communicate with them because they know the drills, they know how we want to play, they know our identity so that they can help the young guys you saw out there like Carbonneau and d-men as well.

“They’ve got to show that they can make plays at the NHL level and they’ve also got to show that they’re reliable, trustworthy without the puck, playing the right way, getting above pucks, reloading, knowing where your stick should be knowing where you should stop, all those little things that add to victories.”

On Thursday, Stenberg was skating with Robert Thomas and Jimmy Snuggerud; Dvorsky was with Pius Suter and Jordan Kyrou; Carbonneau was with Brayden Schenn and Dylan Holloway; Lindstein was paired with Justin Faulk, and Jiricek was paired with Philip Broberg.

And for Dvorsky, who is open to playing on the wing even though he’s a natural center, he was on Suter’s wing the first day.

“We felt that with the players we acquired in the summer that we got deep down the middle, so this is an opportunity to see the young man … he’s gifted,” Montgomery said of Dvorsky. “He scored two beautiful goals today. So offensively, he’s gifted. It’s easier to focus on what you’re good at as a winger than a center.”

Justin Carbonneau wants to make his living around the net #stlblues ... pic.twitter.com/wpvWmw7JXl

— Lou Korac (@lkorac10) September 18, 2025

Make no mistake about it. Management won’t hesitate to give one of these younger players a job out of camp – if they earn it.

“Well, we saw some of that in Minnesota,” Blues general manager Doug Armstrong said of the Tom Kurvers Prospect Showcase, getting a leg up in seeing some of these players. “It’s going to be the hockey sense, it’s going to be the competitiveness in certain areas. My expectation is for Jim to have a very good training camp. A lot of battle drills, how they can compete in that. They’re going to get exhibition games. The way we’ve organized the first few days of training camp, we have two veteran players … Carbonneau’s with a good line. All these guys are with first-round picks, these guys that should have the skill level from when they were drafted and we’ll take a look at that with that group, but there’s always someone that pops up underneath that wants to get your attention too.

“Training camp is very important for a lot of guys this year. We have six exhibition games. We usually have a few more than that, so everyone’s going to have to put their best foot forward. If you’re not here on Oct. 9th doesn’t mean you’re not going to be here on Nov. 9th. It’s easy for me to say it’s up for people to accept, but we’re in this for the long haul of continuing to get better. Contracts won’t exclude you from being in the NHL if you’re good enough.”

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