Blues forward Oskar Sundqvist has been given a week-to-week designation with a lower-body injury ahead of their season opener on Thursday, general manager Doug Armstrong told reporters (including Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic). The club doesn’t expect his absence to last much longer than the first check-in point, though, and has only ruled him out for their first three games, per Lou Korac of NHL.com.
Sundqvist didn’t land on injured reserve when the Blues submitted their opening night roster yesterday, so he’s technically eligible to return at any time. With just $625K in cap space to start the season, the Blues wouldn’t have enough space to make a corresponding recall if they moved Sundqvist to IR, so there wasn’t any point in doing so.
The 31-year-old sustained the injury during a practice session on Sunday, Korac wrote for The Hockey News. It appeared to be a right leg issue after falling during a battle drill along the boards, and he required help off the ice. Fortunately, his absence won’t be as extensive as initially feared. Injuries are a commonality for Sundqvist, who’s only cracked the 70-game mark twice in his 10-year NHL career. He has missed 18 games over the last two seasons, primarily due to an ACL injury he suffered late in the 2023-24 season that carried into the beginning of the 2024-25 season.
Sundqvist is in the third season of his second stint in St. Louis. He initially landed back with the Blues on a one-year, league minimum deal in free agency in 2023, but he signed a two-year, $3MM extension in March 2024. He’s entering the final year of that deal, which carries a cap hit of $1.5MM, and could be an unrestricted free agent again next summer.
A career-long bottom-six checking piece, Sundqvist usually produces in the 20-to-30-point range. That held true last year, managing a 6-14–20 scoring line with a -6 rating in 67 appearances. He’s versatile enough to bounce between the wing and center but spent a good amount of time down the middle in 2024-25, winning 45.5% of his 572 faceoffs. He’s expected to continue to see time at center upon his return, potentially in a fourth-line role after St. Louis’ offseason additions of Nick Bjugstad and Pius Suter bumped him down the depth chart.