The St. Louis Blues have officially brought back a familiar face while they deal with several injuries, signing Scottie Upshall to a one-year, $800K contract, according to Fox Sports Andy Strickland. Upshall had been in Vancouver Canucks’ camp on a professional tryout, but will return to the Blues to help give them some forward depth. The team is dealing with injuries to Robby Fabbri, Patrik Berglund, Alex Steen and Zach Sanford up front.
Upshall never did quite live up to his sixth-overall draft position, but has nevertheless put together an excellent career. With 696 games under his belt, Upshall has been one of the more consistent bottom-six wingers around the league, providing some physicality and secondary scoring touch. A career-high of 37 points makes his addition far from enough to replace the lost offense from Fabbri, but his experience might be able to help what is suddenly looking like a very young roster. Upshall has always been lauded for his leadership qualities and work ethic.
The Blues will be relying on players like Ivan Barbashev and even perhaps Klim Kostin, but will at least have some more NHL experience on the roster with Upshall. He’ll likely serve as a sort of 13th forward, moving in and out of the lineup whenever needed. Still, he did register 10 goals last year and was one of their key penalty killers. For less than $1MM, it poses almost no risk.
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