Editor’s note: This is the eighth of 10 installments analyzing questions facing the Blues entering the 2024-25 season.
3. Can Jordan Kyrou get off to a better start this fall?
If the noise is quieter around Jordan Kyrou this season, that may be OK with him.
The 2023-24 season was tumultuous for Kyrou, who still managed to finish the season with a team-leading 31 goals, the second straight season he’s done that. There was the mid-December incident when Kyrou was booed at home by Blues fans following former coach Craig Berube’s dismissal. In February, Kyrou was benched in the third period by new coach Drew Bannister. Of course, Kyrou also had to deal with the new expectations now that his eight-year contract worth $8.125 million a year kicked in.
On the ice, a scorching finish to the season helped hide another slow start in the goal-scoring department.
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In the final 13 games of the season, as the Blues were trying to push for a playoff spot, Kyrou had 10 goals and seven assists. At five on five, Kyrou was the best goal-scorer in the NHL, with 2.32 goals per hour during that span. That was just ahead of 49-goal scorer Artemi Panarin (2.28), Hart Trophy winner Nathan MacKinnon (2.14), 69-goal scorer Auston Matthews (2.01) and 57-goal scorer Sam Reinhart (2.00).
He was key in a win in Ottawa. The next game, he had a hat trick in Minnesota during a comeback win. Three of his seven three-point nights came in the final 13 games.
Kyrou finished the season the way the Blues wanted him to. Now, they’d like him to continue that when the season opens on Oct. 8 in Seattle. The past two seasons, Kyrou has gotten off to slow starts before heating up later in the season.
Last year, he didn’t score his second goal of the season until Game 10. In the first 24 games, he had just four goals. When Berube was fired, Kyrou had just five goals in 28 games. In 2022, he had three goals in 11 games before nearing the 40-goal mark for the season.
In his career, Kyrou has a 13.2% shooting percentage, and if he replicated that clip in the first 24 games last year, he would have scored about seven more goals.
So it’s safe to say that the past two Octobers didn’t go the way Kyrou and the Blues would have hoped.
When it comes to this year, it’s unknown right now who Kyrou will play with. Perhaps he is riding shotgun with familiar friend Robert Thomas. Or maybe the Blues would like to pair potential center Pavel Buchnevich with Kyrou. But Kyrou should see similar minutes to the 18:20 per game he averaged a season ago, and he’ll be on the top power-play unit that found its way in the second half of the season.
In the larger scheme of things, Kyrou’s start and production are key to the Blues’ success this year.
While the splashy offer sheets and depth trades and signings garnered much of the attention surrounding the Blues’ summer, much of their season will still be decided on just how good Kyrou, Thomas and Buchnevich can be at the top of their forward group.