The numbers from Logan Mailloux’s first nine games as a St. Louis Blue were difficult to look at. Zero points. A minus-12 rating, second worst on the team behind only former long-time Blue, Brayden Schenn. Twelve and a half minutes of ice time per night, the kind of deployment that signals a coaching staff isn’t yet sure what it has. For a 22-year-old defenseman brought in to help anchor a rebuild, it was an ugly beginning.
Fast forward and something has changed after the Olympic break.
Over his last 12 games, Mailloux has a plus-4 rating, 24 shots on goal, two goals, and five points with four of them at coming at even strength. He’s averaging 22:24 of ice time, second among Blues defensemen only to Philip Broberg’s 25:41. The underlying numbers have flipped. The deployment has expanded. The coaching staff, it appears, now has a clearer picture of not just who he is as a player, but an increased level of trust in the young defenseman.
The point totals have been the headline, but the ice time tells the deeper story. Blues Head Coach Jim Montgomery doesn’t hand out 22-minute nights without a reason. That Mailloux has earned that kind of usage by stepping into minutes just before and now after being vacated by Justin Faulk’s trade deadline departure. It speaks to a player who has made real adjustments. Whether it was comfort with the system, chemistry with his defensive partners, or simply the accumulated weight of NHL experience beginning to settle in, the results have been hard to ignore.
What makes the turnaround meaningful isn’t just the statistical recovery, but the timing. The Blues are in the middle of a roster construction that demands Mailloux become a genuine contributor on the right side. With Colton Parayko carrying his no-trade clause into next season and Faulk now in Detroit, the right-side depth chart beyond Parayko is thin. Mailloux isn’t just filling a role, he’s still auditioning for one that matters for the next several years.
The early struggles weren’t entirely surprising for a player making his first real push at NHL minutes. The league adjusts, and young defensemen often absorb punishment early before finding their footing. The minus-12 was alarming, but it was also a product of defensive zone exposure that improved as the season progressed. The 12 minutes of ice time in those first nine games showed a staff managing a young player carefully. The 22-plus minutes since, however, has presented something different.
Alexander Steen takes over as general manager this summer with a to-do list that includes decisions at nearly every position group. The goaltending hierarchy, pending UFAs, and forward depth will all demand attention. But a right-side defensive core with Parayko and a credibly ascending Mailloux would give Steen one fewer problem to solve, and in a rebuild still sorting itself out, that matters.
Nine games of struggle followed by twelve games of real, measurable progress doesn’t make Mailloux a finished product. But it does make him one of the more interesting questions the Blues carry into the offseason.