Blues Assign Aleksanteri Kaskimaki To AHL
The Blues have opened up a roster spot heading into tonight’s game against Chicago. The team announced that they have assigned winger Aleksanteri Kaskimaki to AHL Springfield. Matt Luff took his place in the lineup.
The 21-year-old received his first recall of the season at the beginning of the month and played regularly after, getting into five games with St. Louis. However, while Kaskimaki played more than 15 minutes in his NHL debut against Boston but only surpassed the 11-minute mark once in his other four outings. Overall, he was held off the scoresheet in those appearances while recording six shots and a minus-six rating.
Kaskimaki was a third-round pick by the Blues back in 2022, going 73rd overall. He spent his full professional season with the Thunderbirds in 2024-25 where he had 11 goals and 23 assists in 63 games. So far this year, he’s scoring at a similar clip, notching four goals and three helpers in 16 appearances. He’ll have a chance to add to those numbers now that he’s back in the minors.
There was no corresponding recall so for now, St. Louis will go with one vacant spot on its roster. At this point, none of the four forwards that are currently on IR are close to a return so we’ll see if a recall comes in the coming days. From a salary cap perspective, they’re currently using LTIR even with Kaskimaki’s demotion so that won’t be a factor in whatever move comes next.
Blues’ Jimmy Snuggerud, Alexey Toropchenko Out Multiple Weeks
Despite winning the first two games out of their current three-game homestand, the St. Louis Blues will not come out of it unscathed. The Blues announced that rookie forward Jimmy Snuggerud suffered a left wrist injury that will require surgery, and he’ll be reevaluated in six weeks.
Additionally, the team will be without depth forward Alexey Toropchenko for the next few weeks due to a leg injury, although it is unrelated to any on-ice incident. Toropchenko apparently scalded his legs in an at-home accident. St. Louis has recalled Aleksanteri Kaskimaki from the AHL’s Springfield Thunderbirds to fill in the void.
Losing Snuggerud at any point is a significant blow to the Blues’ offensive core. Still, considering that other high-scoring winger Jake Neighbours only recently returned after missing nearly a month of action, it will be difficult for St. Louis to find any traction.
Though it likely wasn’t enough to earn him a top-three spot in Calder Trophy voting, the University of Minnesota alumnus had gotten off to a quality start to his first full season in the NHL. Snuggerud, 21, has scored five goals and 11 points in 26 games, though he had gone scoreless in his last seven. Still, St. Louis needs all the help they can get in the offensive zone.
Additionally, Snuggerud has shown a level of poise on the defensive side of the puck that is atypical for young wingers. He’s started 52.7% of his shifts in the defensive zone this season, and is first on the team with a 93.2% on-ice save percentage at even strength.
In all fairness, Toropchenko’s absence won’t be as significant as Snuggerud’s. The 26-year-old Russian has only one goal and two points in 17 games this season, though he has been a physical presence in the team’s bottom six, racking up 38 hits.
Meanwhile, Kaskimaki will have the opportunity to make his NHL debut only two years into his professional career in North America. He was drafted with the 73rd overall pick of the 2022 NHL Draft and spent two years post-draft with the Finnish Liiga’s HIFK, scoring 14 goals and 26 points in 93 games.
Joining the Thunderbirds last season, Kaskimaki finished his rookie campaign with 11 goals and 34 points in 63 games with a -6 rating. His average output has decreased somewhat to begin the 2025-26 season, though he has plenty of time to recover. Through his first 16 games with Springfield this year, Kaskimaki has scored four goals and seven points with a -5 rating.
Morning Notes: Blues, Fedorov, Ciernik
Aside from 2023 10th overall pick Dalibor Dvorsky, forwards Aleksanteri Kaskimäki and Dylan Peterson have the best chance among the Blues’ young AHL-bound prospects of seeing NHL ice at some point this season, Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic relays.
Both are coming off their first full minor-league season with Springfield, although Kaskimäki is the younger one. The 21-year-old Finnish pivot was a third-rounder in 2022 and adjusted well to North American ice in his first season stateside, tying for fifth on the team in scoring with an 11-23–34 line in 63 games.
Peterson, two years Kaskimäki’s senior as a 2020 third-rounder, was in his first pro season altogether after four years at Boston University. The 6’4″ center/winger is more of a checking piece than a scorer – evidenced by his 82 PIMs – but still managed 13 tallies in 52 appearances for the Thunderbirds.
Rutherford posits they’ll have the upper hand over some potentially higher-ceiling scoring options like 2023 No. 25 pick Otto Stenberg, who only arrived in Springfield midway through last season. The organization would like to give him some more runway in the minors before considering him for a call-up.
More from around the hockey world:
- More than 20 years after his last game for the team, the Red Wings announced today they’ll be retiring Sergei Fedorov‘s No. 91 before their game on Jan. 12 against the Hurricanes. Fedorov, perhaps the most high-profile member of Detroit’s ‘Russian Five,’ sits fourth in franchise history in points per game (1.05), and his cumulative +276 rating is the best of any Red Wings forward. He was a defining member of Detroit’s 1997, 1998, and 2002 championship teams and also won a pair of Selke Trophies and a Hart, twice cracking the 100-point threshold in the process.
- Flyers prospect Alex Čiernik is hoping to continue to re-energize his development after getting past some injury troubles, he told Jackie Spiegel of the Philadelphia Inquirer. The 2023 fourth-rounder signed on with Pelicans in Finland’s Liiga for the upcoming season – his first in a top-flight European pro league – and will be coached by former Flyers forward and development coach Sami Kapanen. He scored 23 points in 46 games last season for Nybrö Vikings IF in Sweden’s second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan after missing most of his post-draft season due to multiple head injuries.
Young Prospects Will Give Blues A New Look In 2025-26
St. Louis Blues fans went through a true roller-coaster this season. The team was coming off a disappointing 2023-24 campaign – marked by disappointing scoring from much of the roster, a second consecutive playoff absence, and the handoff of coaching duties from Stanley Cup winner Craig Berube to rookie NHL coach Drew Bannister. That turnover made it clear that the Blues were in quick need of a retool and a productive offseason.
But general manager Doug Armstrong didn’t lead a flashy charge over the summer. The Blues were relatively quiet through June and July, save for the risqué first-round draft pick of injured defenseman Adam Jiříček and low-cost acquisitions of Radek Faksa and Mathieu Joseph. It was an uninspiring offseason, until Armstrong shocked the hockey world by signing top Edmonton Oilers youngsters Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg to offer-sheets in August. The deals, shockingly, went through – making the Blues the first club to pull off a successful offer sheet since the Carolina Hurricanes landed Jesperi Kotkaniemi in 2021. The last successful offer sheet before Carolina was in 2007.
Broberg and Holloway made an instant impact on the Blues lineup. Alongside a shock hire of Jim Montgomery, the Blues were able to use their new additions to will out a run to the postseason, against early-season odds. But a first round exit draws attention back to the roster make up. With little offseason cap space to work with – just over $7MM after Torey Krug goes on long-term injured reserve – and only two pending free agents, it seems the Blues are already set to roll out the same group that lost hold this year.
But that’s where their prospect pool begins to sneak in. The Blues have a rare lineup of top y
oung players ready to carve out an everyday role. Winger Jimmy Snuggerud has seemed to already do such, after netting eight points in his first 14 career games this Spring. While he occupies a strong role in the middle-six, centerman Dalibor Dvorsky will enter a winnable competition against Brayden Schenn and Oskar Sundqvist for a role in the team’s center depth. Dvorsky ranked third on the AHL’s Springfield Thunderbirds with 45 points in 61 games this season, and showed the heft and grit needed to play at an NHL level in his first two career games, even despite recording no scoring.
It seems wise to bet that Dvorsky will find his way into routine NHL minutes next season. He could be supported by upcoming forwards like Aleksanteri Kaskimaki and Otto Stenberg, who both flashed strong play in their first AHL season. Theo Lindstein could be a much-needed injection of youth on defense, after spending all season in a daily lineup role in Sweden’s SHL. He recorded just 14 points in 61 games on the year, but reminded the hockey world of his prowess with four points in seven games at the World Junior Championship. St. Louis even has a strong next-man-up in net, after goaltender Colten Ellis managed a dazzling 22-14-3 record and .922 save percentage in 42 AHL games. It was a continuation of Ellis’ strong play in the minors, after he posted a .924 in 16 games of the 2023-24 season.
All of those options will ensure that St. Louis’ deck stays full, even amid a summer with minimal roster flexibility. Getting a full year out of the productive Snuggerud – who already looks at home as a career-Blue – or adding the gut punch of Dvorsky down the lineup chart could go a long way towards making St. Louis a foe to fear in the Western Conference. The Blues finished fifth in the Central Division in each of the last two seasons, but managed a postseason berth by the skin of their teeth this year. With additions of more young and budding talent, their chances of more confidently locking up a summer bid should only continue to rise through the next few years.
Photo courtesy of Jeff Curry-Imagn Images
Blues Recall Eight Players From AHL
The St. Louis Blues have recalled eight players from the AHL in preparation for their final preseason game against the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday. The full list of call-ups includes forwards Dalibor Dvorsky, Aleksanteri Kaskimaki, Mathias Laferriere, MacKenzie MacEachern, Hugh McGing, and Dylan Peterson; as well as defensemen Samuel Johannesson and Hunter Skinner.
That’s emphasized by the fact that none of the recalled managed any preseason scoring, despite each playing in at least one game excluding Peterson. In fact, the bunch only combined for five shots through their collective 10 games. Luckily, St. Louis’ preseason wasn’t as unproductive as the Blackhawks – who’ve so far managed just four goals in four games.
St. Louis’ bunch of recalls is led by 2023’s 10th-overall selection, Dalibor Dvorsky – a popular pick to make the Blues roster headed into training camp. His demotion to the AHL likely snubs those hopes, though Dvorsky is still carrying plenty of momentum into his first professional season in North America, after recording 45 goals and 88 points in 52 OHL games last season. The Slovak has been a top prospect throughout his teens and joined Sweden’s AIK for his age 17 and 18 seasons. Playing in the HockeyAllsvenskan – Sweden’s second-tier pro league – Dvorsky combined for 17 points in 55 games across the two seasons, enough to inspire the Blues to spend their earliest draft pick since they selected Alex Pietrangelo fourth-overall in 2008.
Pending a major breakout in Saturday’s matchup, all eight recalls can expect to head back to Springfield in due time. The Thunderbirds open their season against the Laval Rocket on October 12th, while St. Louis will kick things off in Seattle on October 8th.
Blues Sign Aleksanteri Kaskimaki To Entry-Level Deal
11:49 a.m.: Kaskimäki’s deal carries a cap hit of $870K, PuckPedia reports. It will be paid out via a base salary of $775K, a signing bonus of $95K, a potential games played bonus of $80K, and a minors salary of $82.5K each season.
The Blues announced Tuesday that they’ve signed forward Aleksanteri Kaskimäki to a three-year entry-level contract. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Kaskimäki, 20, was the 73rd overall selection in the 2022 draft by St. Louis and has spent the two years since developing in his native Finland. All of the 6-foot, 192-lb center’s professional experience has come with the Liiga’s HIFK, scoring 14 goals and 26 points in 93 games dating back to his debut in the 2021-22 campaign.
2023-24 was a solid campaign for Kaskimäki, who managed to hit the 10-goal mark in 48 games despite being limited to bottom-six minutes, receiving customarily low usage for developing prospects in European pro leagues. The Espoo native is good at using his speed to carry the puck through the neutral zone and has an accurate shot, something the Blues hope leads to good possession play and decent depth scoring in a bottom-six role down the line.
Kaskimäki was on Finland’s roster for the past two World Junior Championships. He had two goals and two assists in seven games at the 2024 event after going pointless in five games the year prior, although the Finns failed to medal in back-to-back years for the first time since 2017 and 2018.
He’s still likely a ways away from cracking an NHL roster. Since he was under contract with HIFK next season, he could very well spend 2024-25 on loan to his Finnish club. His ELC will run out after the 2026-27 campaign, and he’ll be a restricted free agent upon expiry.