The St. Louis Blues have made a couple of roster moves today, starting with the loan of Nikita Alexandrov to the AHL’s Springfield Thunderbirds. Room on the NHL roster was needed for Logan Brown, who has been activated from injured reserve.
The Blues are expected to get Torey Krug back relatively soon, as head coach Craig Berube told Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the injured defenseman is getting close to a return. The same goes for several other injured Blues players, meaning roster space is going to be hard to find.
Alexandrov, 22, has played in 16 games for the Blues this season, scoring four points. The second-round pick from 2019 has been strong for the Thunderbirds, scoring 11 goals in 22 games, and should eventually find himself back in the NHL.
Brown, 24, hasn’t played since December, and even when he does get into the lineup it’s only for a few shifts. In his nine appearances, he’s averaging just over nine minutes of ice time and has generated just five shots on goal. The dreams of the 6’6″ center becoming an impact player at the NHL level may be gone, but after watching Tage Thompson excel in Buffalo, Blues fans may want to give him a few more cracks.
Matthew DeFranks of the Post-Dispatch tweets that Brown was practicing as an extra today, but given that Vladimir Tarasenko isn’t expected to play tomorrow, those lines might be reconstructed.