Blues select Neighbours with first-round pick

Brenden Morrow. Matthew Tkachuk. Milan Lucic.
Those are just a few of the NHL players that Blues' first-round draft pick Jake Neighbours was compared to during the NHL Draft on Tuesday night.

Blues GM Doug Armstrong says his scouts believe he could be a lot like Morrow. NBC Sports Network made the Lucic comparison. And Neighbours himself says he tries to emulate his game after Matthew Tkachuk.
"I love the way he's always invested in scrums and being physical and being that presence out there," Neighbours said of Tkachuk. "He does it all for them and that's something I try to emulate."

In the end, it won't actually matter much which of those players Neighbours best compares to. If he ends up playing like any of them, it will be a steal for the St. Louis Blues, who took Neighbours with the 26th overall pick on Tuesday night.
The 18-year-old left winger has spent the last three seasons with the Edmonton Oil Kings of the Western Hockey League. Last season, he posted 23 goals and 47 assists (70 points) in 64 games.
"It's insane," Neighbours said of being selected by the Blues. "Kind of throughout the summer, I had lots of talks with the Blues and they had good things to say about me and I had nothing but great things to say about them. I thought I interviewed pretty well. Coming into the draft, you had no idea who it was going to be. To be drafted to a recent Stanley Cup winning team, an amazing organization with a lot of great players on it, I'm very, very excited and I'm very honored."

"We spent a lot of time watching (him)," Armstrong said. "He's a left winger. He plays 'Blues style hockey.' Very competitive, can play up and down your lineup. Goes to the hard areas of the ice very willingly, he's someone that I think can complement very good players. Someone that is just, I think, going to fit in with his character and his work ethic into our group moving forward."
According to Dobber Prospects, Neighbours is a "deceptively fast skater who likes to get in on the forecheck. He plays with an edge and knows how to operate in any role offensively."
Neighbours says he is committed to doing whatever it takes to make the Blues roster as soon as possible.
"A hundred percent. I think right off the bat, I'm obviously going to push for a roster spot. I'm always going to do that," he said. "Obviously I know the NHL is a jump for sure and it's a process. This is one step in it and we've just got to continue from here. I'm ready for whatever amount of work I need to put in or however long this is going to take because at the end of the day, to pull over that Blues jersey will be insane and to play an NHL game with them would be absolutely crazy. I'm ready for whatever it takes."