Leo Lööf Signing With Liiga Club Ilves

A St. Louis Blues prospect is taking his talents back to Scandinavia.

As first reported by Mike Meyer of STL Sports Central, defenseman Leo Loof is signing a two-year contract with Ilves in Finland for the 2026-27 season. According to the club’s press release, the 24-year-old defenseman will return to his former club, where he previously spent two seasons before his journey to North America.

Loof finished his 2025-26 season in the AHL, scoring six points in 47 regular-season games played with Springfield. He did not dress during their Calder Cup playoff run, which ended via an 8-1 Game 5 loss to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. The former third-round pick in 2020 spent three seasons under the St. Louis Blues organization on a three-year entry-level contract signed back in 2023 that paid him $2.6MM ($867,500 AAV). The 6-foot-1, 201-pound Swede did not see an NHL debut, playing all three of those ELC seasons with the Thunderbirds for a total of 168 AHL games.

Leading into the 2020 NHL Draft, Loof was profiled as a tough player in his own end, who was efficient in his poise and ability to make strong reads on a play and deliver heavy hits. His accolades before coming across the pond included Bronze Medals with Ilves and the Swedish World Juniors team. He also won a Hlinka Gretzky Cup Bronze in 2020 and was considered the J18 Best U18 Defenseman while scoring the most points (12) by a defenseman in the J18 Allsvenskan in 2018-19.

The former 88th overall pick was in a logjam in comparison to other left-handed defensemen in the Blues system. St. Louis already extended Philip Broberg through 2032 at $48MM ($8MM AAV), Cam Fowler through 2030 at $18.3MM ($6.1MM AAV), as well as Tyler Tucker, who has a year left at $925,000. Among his counterparts in the pool, ELCs were signed by Lukas Fischer, at age 19, in late March, and Colin Ralph put ink to paper out of Michigan State in early April. Already in the AHL, Theo Lindstein and Michael Buchinger both played more games than Loof this past season.

If that wasn’t enough, St. Louis has three selections in the 2026 NHL Draft that have some prominent left-handed defenseman who would rank high among their prospect pool if selected with either the guaranteed 11th or 15th overall picks (Colorado’s standing to be determined).