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The Blues haven’t had to deal with a transition in goal since winning the Stanley Cup in 2019, but there are plenty of other teams to draw experiences from in the past seven years.

As St. Louis installs Joel Hofer as its No. 1 goaltender for the fall, there are questions about Jordan Binnington’s future with the Blues. Binnington has spent his entire career within the Blues organization, since he was a third-round pick in 2011, becoming the franchise’s all-time games played and wins leader, both in the regular season and in the playoffs.

He’s a statue.

He’s got to be. In the coming years, Jordan Binnington’s likeness should be sculpted into a statue in front of Enterprise Center — perhaps him making the . The great goalie led the Blues to the 2019 Stanley Cup championship and is now the franchise leader in wins.

Welcome to the first edition of Ask DeFranks.

This is our new format for taking reader questions, replacing the chats we used to do. The hope is that this format can provide more in-depth, better researched, and, if needed, better reported answers to questions that are submitted.

Steve Ott is exactly where he believes he should be right now.

And this week, that means hanging out in Charlotte as his Springfield (Massachusetts) Thunderbirds prepare for a best-of-three first-round series in the AHL's Calder Cup playoffs. Ott has led a turnaround for the Thunderbirds since he took over behind the bench in mid-January, going 19-13-2-0 to guide Springfield into the playoffs.

In the shadow of another torrid finish to the season from Robert Thomas, Blues general manager Doug Armstrong wanted one thing to be very clear: He values the Blues’ best player quite a bit.

Thomas found his name in trade rumors at the deadline and enters the offseason after closing his season with 31 points in 22 post-Olympic games.

A year later, with the Blues out of the playoffs, Brayden Schenn’s words feel almost like a warning. ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ weren’t originally meant that way. But after the team's play this season, those words just hit differently.

“We feel like we have built something back up in our locker room where guys are going out there and playing hard for one another, playing hard for the organization, the city, the fans, a little bit of everything,� Schenn said during last year’s end-of- season exit interviews with media. “That’s what ultimately wins you hockey games.�

He’s amazing! He’s maddening! He’s Jordan Kyrou, the lightning-fast lightning rod!

I don’t think Blues fans have been this angry about a hockey player since Bob Probert.