ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA - MARCH 11: Ryan O'Reilly #90 of the St. Louis Blues looks on during the second period of a game against the Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center on March 11, 2020 in Anaheim, California. (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)

The St. Louis Blues still hope to find a way to keep their current captain. If they cannot, they have their next captain on the forward lines.

The St. Louis Blues have a roster built to win championships as presently constituted in the spring of 2020. It is no wonder that fans would like things to remain as they are.

That was exactly what the Blues front office attempted to do. With the exception of Pat Maroon, who was squeezed out by salary cap concerns, the Blues brought all the main players back from their 2018-19 Stanley Cup.

A global pandemic through a gigantic wrench into those plans. Now, there are no guarantees that the Blues will get to defend their championship in what actually would have been a true defense by the same team.

Going into 2020-21, regardless of whether the 2019-20 season is finished or not, the Blues have roster questions. The biggest one remaining is whether or not their current captain, Alex Pietrangelo comes back.

That boils down to many factors. How much money does he want? How many years does he want?

Is Pietrangelo willing to leave money on the table to stay with a winner and the only team he has ever known? Does he say he’s broken the Blues curse and go elsewhere for a new challenge?

These are all questions he and the team has to answer. Fortunately, the Blues actually already have a captain on their team, if Petro decides to pursue other options.

That man is Ryan O’Reilly. While there are other guys that have a longer tenure with the team, O’Reilly has shown that he can lead both on and off the ice.

He is not just a voice in the locker room, he gets things done on the ice. Since an injury shortened 2012-13 season, O’Reilly has failed to hit 20 goals only twice, once being this season – that assumes he would not score eight goals in the team’s remaining 11 games, should those be played.

He also had 50-plus points in each of those seasons. While there were rumors that he was a success killer, he put those to bed when the Blues finally took off in the second half of 2018-19.

O’Reilly leads by example. His first season in St. Louis was filled with stories about him being the first and last guy to the rink.

It was not just for his benefit either. He would stay around and help young guys, like Robert Thomas, practice their faceoffs or help take shots on goaltenders to get them some extra work.

While he admitted he did not feel comfortable in the Blues locker room until the playoffs began, you would not know it. He might not have been getting in everyone’s face if they made a mistake, but he was doing everything he could, even feeling like an outsider, to get the best out of his teammates.

On the ice, beyond just his points, he made everyone he played with better. It did not matter if it was Brayden Schenn, Jaden Schwartz, David Perron or Zach Sanford, if someone was in a funk, they got better when they were playing with O’Reilly.

Now that he has himself fully immersed in the city and the team, he would be the perfect man to lead it, if it comes to that.

That is not saying the Blues should let Pietrangelo walk simply because they have another player that could wear the C. If St. Louis can strike a deal that makes sense for both parties, there is no reason not to keep Pietrangelo and have him keep the C.

However, there are enough signs pointing to that being difficult to explore the option, at the very least.

The Blues could go in other directions. You could give Vladimir Tarasenko the captaincy simply because he has the most scoring talent and other teams have done that.

You could also put the C on Colton Parayko. Parayko might not yet have peaked as a player, but he has ascended to being one of the best defenders in the league and one of the best players on the Blues. You could easily see him with the letter on his chest.

However, the Blues have O’Reilly locked up for a good amount of time. There has also been talk of him possibly being captain before.

O’Reilly would be perfect as the Blues captain if the current one ends up leaving town. The leadership would have no drop off whatsoever and that can be a big key.

Pietrangelo has been a good captain, but you could tell he struggled as captain in his first year. There was not the same leadership that season as there was in the ones that followed.

There would not be any dip in leadership if O’Reilly was given that spot. We should all want Pietrangelo to stay, at the right price and term for the team, but if he does not, give O’Ry the C.