ST. LOUIS — The 2020 NHL All-Star Game in St. Louis is right around the corner.
The entire weekend promises to be another hockey celebration in a city that has shown it knows how to throw an NHL-sized party.
There will be lots of fanfare, but which Blues should actually get the honor of being a hometown all-star?
Here are the top candidates:
Alex Pietrangelo
The captain is in the midst of perhaps his most impressive season yet.
Pietrangelo already has 23 points (seven goals and 16 assists) in 34 games this season, and has carried his strong overall play from the Stanley Cup Final over into 2019-2020.
His stats have him near the top of scoring output among defensemen this season, and has the third most power play goals of any defenseman in hockey.
He's already a two time All-Star and as hometown captain, he's as much of a sure bet as any player on the Blues to play in the 2020 All-Star Game. There's also a great chance he's named the captain of the Central Division team.
Jordan Binnington
The hero of the Blues' improbable run to the Stanley Cup hasn't been quite as dominant this season as he was in the playoffs, but he's still been good enough to lead his team to the top of the Western Conference 34 games in.
Binnington is seventh in hockey in goals against average among goaltenders with at least 15 games played. Ben Bishop and Connor Hellebuyck are the only Central Division goalies ahead of him. He's tenth in save percentage.
Even though the All-Star game is technically supposed to showcase the very top performers from the first half of that season, Binnington will no doubt get a boost for what he did in the spring.
I'd bet we'll see Binnington in net for the Central Division.
David Perron
Perron has been an incredible weapon for the Blues so far this season.
He's leading the team in points, power play points, game winning goals and overtime goals. So yeah, he's been clutch, too.
Perron has never made an All-Star Game in his career, and now in his third stint in St. Louis, it's a good bet the fans will want to help him finally get there.
While the Blues' offense has been spread pretty evenly this season, Perron is one of the guys who sticks out. If he continues to stay hot, he has a tremendous chance to end up on the roster.
Brayden Schenn
He's got a shiny new contract and he's already living up to it.
Schenn is leading the Blues in overall goals and power play goals this season.
Since St. Louis likes to get lots of contributions on offense, Schenn isn't very high on the overall list of goal scorers in the NHL (he's 22nd), but nevertheless, he's leading the Blues.
Ryan O'Reilly
The bearded one has been everywhere since joining the Blues last season.
He was the team's only All-Star representative last year, won the Stanley Cup, Conn Smythe Trophy and Selke Award.
O'Reilly has seen his offense be a bit slower than normal out of the gate this year when it comes to goal scoring (he only has six goals so far), but he has 23 assists and is second on the Blues in points behind Perron.
O'Reilly has also quickly become a fan favorite, so he'd be a big hit as an ambassador for the weekend.
Those are the five players with the best shot to end up donning a 2020 all-star game jersey at the Enterprise Center in January.
Last season, the most All-Stars any team had was three. The hometown San Jose Sharks were one of the teams with three representatives, so that's probably a good expectation to have when it comes to the Blues this year.
Fans can vote right now to select the captains for each of the divisions. Click here to vote for your favorite Blues player.
