Traverse City: Blues 8, Rangers 4

TRAVERSE CITY - Jordan Kyrou saved his best performance in Traverse City for last.
The 2016 second-round pick scored a hat trick and added an assist to help the Blues wrap up the NHL Prospect Tournament on a good note with an 8-4 win against the New York Rangers on Tuesday afternoon.
"He's a dynamic player," Blues Director of Player Personnel Tim Taylor told stlouisblues.com after the game. "He had two great goals, a real good shot, it comes off the stick, flies off of it. He's a guy that if you give any room at all, he's going to make you pay. He came as advertised today."

Kyrou led all Blues prospects in scoring in the four-game tournament, recording six points (five goals, one assist).
Defenseman Jake Walman added a goal and an assist in Tuesday's win and finished second on the team in scoring with five points (two goals, three assists).
Robert Thomas, who will get a good look in training camp, added another goal Tuesday and finished third with two goals and two assists.
"He's a solid player. He makes everyone around him better," Taylor said of Thomas. "He does all the little things, so it was a real good tournament for him in that aspect… with the ankle injury (from the Memorial Cup tournament), it was really good to get four games under his belt and be ready for training camp."

Alexey Toropchenko, a fourth-round pick of the Blues in 2017, netted his first goal of the tournament in Tuesday's win against the Rangers. The goal was a reward, Taylor says, from the effort Toropchenko put in throughout the entire tournament.
"He was really good every game. He fought hard, he played hard. He took a big step from last year," Taylor said. "He scored a goal today and probably deserved a couple more. He really worked hard and really impressed us with his strength on the puck."
After starting with back-to-back losses, the Blues earned points in their final two games in Traverse City, finishing with a 1-2-1 record.
"Some guys have good tournaments, some guys have bad ones, but it's really no indication of how they're going to be at the next level," Taylor said. "What we'd like to see is a little improvement over every year a guy (plays in this tournament).
"Obviously the first couple games we were disappointed in our group, but they came back the next two games and played hard."