The NHL previous season of 2025-26 will be opened at the end of September. Although there is no confirmation about who will be invited to the St. Louis Blues’Training camp, some prospects are guaranteed a place based on last year’s camp. There is a look at which players have the best chance to impress when the blues return to the ice.
Colts Ellis is close to an NHL –
The blues are set with their goalkeeper, but Colts Ellis is an option on the third string if one of their goalkeepers, Jordan Binnington or Joel Hofer, is injured. Ellis is an underestimated net on the Blues’ American Hockey League (AHL), Springfield Thunderbirds.
With three seasons AHL hockey under his belt, Ellis experienced the pressure of playing at a professional level. Last season he had a record of 22-24-5, a .922 savings percentage (SV%), a 2.63 goals against average (GAA) and three shutouts. He turns 25 in October, which means that he is still young enough to earn a taste of NHL hockey and still has room to develop.
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Ellis, however, struggled a lot in his first two professional seasons and bounced between the AHL and Echl. However, it was all worthwhile, because after the 2024-25 season he got the green light to be the starting goalkeeper of the Thunderbirds in the AHL play-offs and ended with a 1-2-0 record, a .933 SV%, and a 2,32 gaa, who was 11th in the 2025 Calder.
This is not Ellis’s first training camp. He received an invitation in 2023 and 2024, although he had more starting season, ending with a 1-1-0 record, a .949 SV%and a 1.52 GAA. After signing a Two years of extensionAn average annual salary (AAV) of $ 775,000, he has a short window to show the blues in which he is worth investing.
Adam Jiricek is close to an NHL –
The 16th general pick of the blues in the NHL concept of 2024, Adam Jiricek, played his first season in the Ontario Hockey League with the Brantford Bulldogs in 2024-25 and ended with 12 points in 27 games. However, He fought against a knee injury That kept him outside in November, four games after his return from another major knee injury to the World Junior Championship 2024.
With a history of injuries, Jiricek will find it challenging to thrive in the Blues training camp. He was sidelined most of last season, but returned to the Bulldogs in December 2024, after the second knee injury, and ended the campaign without a problem, which showed that he was able to train his knee and strengthen to play the season.
Jiricek was invited to training camp last season, but did not play any matches during the 2024 preseason. He will be invited again, but the blues will have to be very careful about how they play him. He has enough positives to make a big impression during the preseason if he can stay healthy.
Jiricek is a right -handed shot, but among the four right -handed defenders in the schedule of Blues, Colton Parayko is the only one who can make plays and conclude offensive threats in his zone, which Jiricek can do. If he has a good training camp, he would expect to be a call for injuries.
Ellis and Jiricek on a good path
Ellis and Jiricek are both in a good position to get more eyes on them. Ellis already has enough experience to impress blues head coach Jim Montgomery and the Front Office. To make the schedule, however, he must consistently play to his level, and he will most likely make sufficient impression to be considered an injury call-up.
For Jiricek” Things can take longer because he is 19 years old and is still too inexperienced to make the NHL schedule. Defender Nick Leddy, however Apart from the blues In July and claimed by the San Jose Sharks while the team slowly starts with their older defenders to make room for young players, which means that the blues at least prepare for Jiricek to be called up in the near future. Although he needs more time to develop, a few good pre -season matches could see him promoted to the Thunderbirds.
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