For someone who had played in four NHL games and has never scored more than 13 goals in a professional season, a certain mystique has evolved around Blues forward Klim Kostin.
One of the team’s two first-round picks in the 2017 draft, being taken with the last pick in the first round, the expectations only grew this season because he was out of reach. The Blues loaned him to a team in the KHL in Russia in September when there was uncertainty about whether the NHL or AHL would play this season and the Blues didn’t want Kostin to lose a season of development.
That was all well and good until the Blues started to get hit by injuries, causing them to dip deep into their forward reserves while Kostin was playing in Europe. Add that to the standard intrigue involving young Russian players — what if he doesn’t come back? — and the Blues’ struggles and the mystery that is Klim Kostin only grew.
