Mason McTavish
McTavish is the Blues' second-line center and second power-play option, and the early evidence says he was a strong pickup. The one open question is whether he gets promoted to the top line.
Role
Daily Faceoff's Blues line page (fetched Oct 26, updated Oct 25 from the Oct 24 game) has him at center between Connor McMichael and Jonatan Berggren on line 2. The top line is Holloway, Thomas and Snuggerud. The same page puts him on the second power-play unit with Buchnevich, McMichael, Berggren and Cam Fowler. The first unit lists Neighbours, Thomas, Holloway, Snuggerud and Broberg. His name is not on either penalty-kill unit. A game preview dated Oct 22 on Inside the Rink and The Morning Puck's lines both show the same second line. I found no reliable ice-time figure for this season. The only numbers are a Lineups.com snippet showing 20.6 minutes, which is undated and stale by its own age tag, and a Morning Puck snippet I could not tie to a game. Neighbours, Dvorsky and Buchnevich skate on the third line.
A Yahoo Sports piece from about 12 days ago says McTavish scored 94 seconds into his Blues debut and had two goals and two assists through five games. It reports a 58% Corsi and 63.4% on-ice expected goals share with him on the ice. It credits quick chemistry with fellow newcomer McMichael and says he answers the club's depth-scoring problem. Fan Recap argued his start could force a lineup decision, with a first line of Snuggerud, Thomas and McTavish floated. Bleed in Blue wrote in June that he can still grow, since he is 23 and has been a 40 to 50 point player. Last season he had 10 points in 11 games, with 31 shots on goal and 16 hits.
The role is capped for now. He is behind Thomas at center and on the second power-play unit, and no penalty-kill time shows on Daily Faceoff. Last season's line is only 11 games, 1 power-play point and 174 total minutes, so it says little about a full workload. The second line's production depends on McMichael and Berggren. Early on, the Blues' top line was slow and the club was ranked 21st in a Daily Faceoff power ranking dated today, which is a risk to team scoring. I did not find an injury report, so health is unreported rather than confirmed clean.
Where analysts split
The disagreement is whether he stays at second-line center or moves up to the top line. One Fan Recap piece pushes the move, with Snuggerud kept on the first line and McTavish added, but it concedes the Blues could leave the lines alone, and then the second center would need to be filled. Bleed in Blue, writing in June, had him on the first line with Holloway and Snuggerud. The Hockey News (via Dobber, Sept 12) projected him as second-line center. I found no current report that the staff plans to change it. That Fan Recap piece is from the early weeks (it calls a game against San Jose the fourth of 84), so it is older than the Oct 25 line page, which still shows him on line 2.
Research confidence: reported. Outlooks are grounded in web search over current reporting and refreshed through the season.
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