Blues Announce Traverse City Tournament Roster

It’s hot and the end of August. The talk on St. Louis sports airwaves and chatter on-line still revolves around Prince Albert, Commander LaRussa and the Cardinales. Fear not, cooler air and sports conversation is on the way. If the informal practices out at the Mills weren’t enough of a signal, today the Blues announced their Traverse City Tournament roster.

In short form here is the crew heading to Michigan.

Forwards
Jay Barriball
Cody Beach
Stefan Della Rovere
Stephen MacAulay
Phil McRae
Anthony Nigro
Chase Polacek
Ty Rattie
Andy Sackrison
Tyler Shattock
Ryan Tesink
Yannick Veilluex
Maxime Villemaire

Defensemen
Brock Beukeboom
Joel Edmundson
Cade Fairchild
Martin Lefebvre
Brett Ponich
David Shields
Nicolas Therrien

Goalies
Jake Allen
Jordan Binnington

*For the long list of demographic details, checkout the Blues official Traverse City Tournament page.

Highlighting the lineup is top goaltending prospect Jake Allen, forward Phil McRae and top 2011 draft pick Ty Rattie. The front office and coaching staff will surely be tracking how Allen handles “being the man of the house” as well as how well McRae steps up and leads the club (…if he is able to sieze the opportunity at all).

Rattie is not NHL ready yet, but the tourney provides an opportunity to see just how close he may be. The competition for ice time will be stiff with many returnees for the Blues contingent. He can move up the depth chart by performing well against his peers and those with more experience from AHL tours of duty.

While there are the obvious names to keep track of don’t sleep on another 2011 selection, Ryan Tesink. The small but slick attacker is poised to take a big step with Saint John of the QMJHL and Traverse City could easily be the catalyst.

Significant attention will likely be paid to a pair of defensemen coming off injury and heading to the Peoria Rivermen for the 2011-12 season. Both Brett Ponich and Cade Fairchild missed prolonged stretches of their final pre-professional campaigns. Expect Brock Beukeboom to be a topic of discussion as well. If not by the organization, at least by fans since he was the major return in the Eric Brewer trade.

As far as the tournament itself goes the Blues are in the Gretzky Division along with the Dallas Stars, New York Rangers and Carolina Hurricanes prospect squads. The Howe Division features the Detroit Red Wings, Buffalo Sabres, Columbus Blue Jackets and Minnesota Wild. The teams compete in a three game round robin intra-divisonal tournament with the division winners taking on each other in the championship.

The sked deets:
Saturday, Sept. 10 @ 7 p.m. – vs. NY Rangers

Sunday, Sept. 11 @ 3 p.m. – vs. Carolina

Tuesday, Sept. 13 @ 3 p.m. – vs. Dallas

Wednesday, Sept. 14 @ 7 p.m. – Championship Game

For those who want to see the games… plan a road trip now. The games will be carried by MSG, but only the Ranger games and I’d venture to guess most in St. Louis don’t get MSG. The NHL Network hasn’t broadcasted the tourney in two years, don’t hold your breath.

Hang on folks, St. Louis Bluuuuues hockey is comin’.