Here’s every NHL team’s player to watch break out this year

St. Louis Blues: Robby Fabbri

This is a make-it-don’t-break-it season for skilled winger Robby Fabbri. The Blues’ first-rounder from 2014 has been broken a lot in his short NHL career, tearing an ACL in his left knee near the end of his sophomore season and then reinjuring the same knee in training camp for the following season, which sat him down for the duration.

This all means he’s been out since February 2017 but was cleared for offseason training after recovering from a second knee surgery last November and, after signing a one-year extension, is looking to break out and not down in 2018-19.

Fabbri is going to get ample opportunity with the Blues, who look very different from his playing days after shuffling the deck in a big way in the offseason, bringing in Ryan O’Reilly, Tyler Bozak, hometown boy Patrick Maroon and returning former Blue David Perron, while bidding bye-bye to Patrik Berglund, Vladimir Sobotka and Kyle Brodziak, among others.

Fabbri is penciled in on the third line with Bozak and captain Alex Steen, who will get the speedy winger the puck and overall give him good looks. And as if he doesn’t have enough motivation, highly regarded winger Ivan Barbashev is right behind Fabbri in the depth chart, so if there’s the slightest slip, the Blues won’t hesitate to make the switch.