ST. LOUIS – All eyes are on the future of the St. Louis Blues after a busy start to the offseason. After a flurry of moves in the first day of NHL free agency Wednesday, the Blues just wrapped up a four-day prospect camp Thursday at the Centene Community Ice Center.
The prospect camp featured 31 players, some who joined on an invitation basis. Among that group includes five St. Louis natives: goalies Jake Barczewski and Jack Caruso and forward Garrett Dahm, T.J. Friedmann and Ryan Roth.
Of that core, one player really stands out for his knowledge of St. Louis.
Jack Caruso is a goaltender at the University of Denver and a former hockey state champion at Christian Brothers College High School. This week, he auditioned with three other goaltenders on-the-ice and fulfilled a tall order off-the-ice.
The St. Louis Blues recently asked a group of several prospects to pronounce the names of challenging suburbs and street names in the region. It proved to be a little difficult for recent first-round picks Jake Neighbors, Zachary Bolduc and Jimmy Snuggerud.
For Caruso, that was far from the case. The 23-year-old correctly pronounced Des Peres, Creve Coeur, Gravois, Laclede, Bellefontaine and Spoede, several cities or street names deriving from French origins.
Perhaps Caruso’s family ties to the organization helped him ace the quiz. His father, Mike Caruso, has served as the vice president of media and brand communications for several years. Jack now has several prospect camps under his belt after two seasons at the University of Denver. CBC also showed some love for their former goaltender on social media during the prospect camp.
Coincidentally, before the Blues shared the results of their pronunciation quiz on social media, FOX 2 compiled a list of 10 commonly-mispronounced places in Missouri and Illinois. Click here to test your luck with that challenge.