What does the Blues’ prospects’ performance at Traverse City tell us about the future?

The Baby Blues beat the Baby Blackhawks yesterday 4-2 at the Traverse City tournament, coming from a 2-0 deficit to rattle off four straight goals. A couple Blues draft picks, Nikita Alexandrov, and Klim Kostin tied the game up at two; a couple invitees, River Rymsha and Kevin Hancock, netted the other two.

The other two games? Frittered away leads. The Blues suffered a 6-2 defeat to the Toronto Maple Leafs in their opening game Friday night, then turned around to blow a 1-0 lead over the Red Wings en route to a 7-3 loss.

Today, the Blues played the Rangers for fifth place overall in the tournament and lost. A less than auspicious showing by the youth less than a week before training camp opens means... well, what does it mean, exactly?

The Columbus Blue Jackets have won three of the last five tournaments, and they won the most recent one. Last year’s tournament saw another flat performance by the Blues. Obviously, zero percent of this is reflected in the team that the Blues will ice on October 2nd. Does it bode ill or well for the future?

Eh.

How a prospect plays today at a tournament in Michigan may or may not be a reflection of how they will play during their regular season this year. Can it show areas of possible improvement? Sure thing. Can it predict where the Blues will sit in three or four years?

LIke I said, CBJ have won three of the last five tournaments. Draw your own conclusions.

I haven’t been able to watch any of the Traverse City tournament this year - FoxSports Go has seen through my clever rouse and it knows I’m not in St. Louis - so I can’t offer up individual evaluation of players. All I can do is look at the scoresheet and see how players performed in a very small sample size of games. When taken as part of a bigger picture, it makes me wonder if Klim Kostin will be pushing for a spot this weekend or if it’s Jordan Kyrou’s turn to step into the spot recently vacated by Pat Maroon. It makes me think that Alexandrov is going to be a fun player to keep my eye on for the near future. Maybe the captain, AHL defenseman Mitch Reinke, can hang around until the last pre-season game, at least

It gives me a starting point for individual players to keep tabs on. As an overall reflection of the product? Well, there’s a reason that the Blues’ new jersey reveal and the public camp sessions have shoved TC coverage out of their website’s top slots.

It’s fun. If you’ve been able to watch it, congrats - I’m jealous. If you haven’t, camp starts this weekend and pre-season hockey starts on the 16th. To me, that’s far more valuable of a resource for evaluation than a prospects tournament could be.