Canadiens In The Market For First-Line Winger
The Canadiens have begun to softly position themselves in the market for a right-winger to complement Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki on the top line ahead of the trade deadline, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period said on Daily Faceoff’s “The Sheet with Jeff Marek” podcast last Friday. Pagnotta speculatively tied them to the Blues’ Jordan Kyrou, who the Habs were more firmly linked to last offseason, but didn’t have any other specific targets to offer.
For the past several seasons, the second-line center slot has been viewed as both a long-term and short-term position of need for Montreal as it transitioned from rebuilder to playoff contender. As Pagnotta mentioned, Oliver Kapanen‘s emergence this season has largely quieted that noise. The 22-year-old rookie is beginning to flourish between fellow youngsters Ivan Demidov and Juraj Slafkovsky, on pace for 26 goals and 45 points. They’ll want more scoring out of him long-term, but it’s a promising first step for a second-round pick still at the midway point of his development curve.
Slafkovsky had spent his first couple of seasons up with Caufield and Suzuki. Moving him down the depth chart to give Montreal a formidable secondary scoring line hasn’t affected his production much and has been a net positive for the club this season, but they’ve yet to find a stable solution to replace him on the top unit.
Since Slafkovsky’s early-season “demotion,” it’s largely been an alternating mix of Zachary Bolduc and Alexandre Texier riding shotgun on the right side. Together, they’ve averaged under half a point per game this season. They haven’t been a huge drag on the line’s possession impacts – in fact, they’ve controlled 61.6% of expected goals when Texier’s the third man – but it’s not the type of production they need from a top-line winger if they have serious aspirations of cutting through a crowded Eastern Conference field in the playoffs.
If Kyrou is amenable to a move, it could be a fit. He’s hit the 70-point mark three times in the last five years. A down year in 2025-26 means his $8.125MM cap hit through 2030-31 might be tough to swallow at first glance, and he has to waive his no-trade clause to facilitate it. There’s also the question of how the Habs would facilitate such a deal with just $1.5MM in projected cap space on deadline day. Moving out pending UFA Patrik Laine and his bloated $8.7MM cap hit is the clear path forward, but whether St. Louis would be open to taking it back in the deal or if they’d have to shed him in a separate transaction remains to be seen.
Montreal was tied to the Flames’ Blake Coleman last month. He would be a slightly longer-term solution as he’s signed through 2026-27. A respected all-around versatile winger, his offensive ceiling isn’t as tantalizing as other options, though. He’s only hit 50 points once in his career. Giving him premier minutes would obviously give him a better shot at being productive, though, and it would allow the Habs to throw out a more formidable bottom-six group as a result.
Of course, there’s also the option of not making any move at all. They still have some tantalizing names on the come-up, like 2025 second-rounder Alexander Zharovsky, a 6’1″ right winger who’s broken out for 36 points in 44 KHL games this season with a couple of weeks still to go before his 19th birthday. The hold-pat outcome is something Pagnotta relays general manager Kent Hughes remains comfortable with as the Habs carry a comfortable seven-point cushion on a playoff spot.
Who Could The Penguins Target Before The Trade Deadline?
The Penguins appeared to fall back to earth in December after a strong start had them in playoff contention. A ten-game stretch dropped Pittsburgh to the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings. However, since the Christmas break, the Penguins have been on a tear, going 14-3-3 and climbing to second place in the Metropolitan Division.
No one expected Pittsburgh to be in this spot, but that’s where they are, and it is likely changing general manager Kyle Dubas’ long-term plans. Pittsburgh was expecting to sell at the trade deadline, but now there is talk of potential additions, as Josh Yohe writes in The Athletic.
But what exactly would the Penguins add? The truth is that Dubas probably isn’t looking for short-term answers and isn’t going to give up previous picks and prospects for rentals.
He might send out a late-round pick for a player or two, but his big moves, if he makes them, will not be short-sighted. So, given that he is armed with a ton of cap space and a plethora of draft picks in the subsequent three drafts, who could Dubas target?
Some people might see a player like Blues forward Jordan Kyrou as a fit, but Pittsburgh’s GM has a type. For the past two years, it’s been clear he’s targeting high-ceiling, (mostly) young players who have fallen on hard times, need an opportunity to showcase their skills, and come at a discount.
Egor Chinakhov, Arturs Silovs, Philip Tomasino, Cody Glass, and Stuart Skinner were part of a couple of trades Dubas made to acquire young talent with a ton of upside. Most of those moves have worked out, with Tomasino being the exception.
Then there is the free agency market, where Dubas’s work is very impressive. Justin Brazeau, Parker Wotherspoon, Ryan Shea, and Anthony Mantha were all brought in for a song. Now, they are all contributing significant minutes in key roles for Pittsburgh, and the team is reaping the benefits.
Kyrou could be considered a fit, but given the price tag and the money he is owed, it doesn’t feel like a Dubas target heading into the trade deadline. He has been burned by significant acquisitions before, both in Pittsburgh and Toronto, so he could be tepid when it comes to big-game hunting, especially if he is eyeing the Penguins’ long-term prospects. But like Kyrou, there are many players who have fallen on hard times and are available, with the upside Dubas might be looking for.
What about a Shane Wright in Seattle? Would Dubas be willing to move some of his picks and prospects to acquire the former fourth-overall pick in 2022, or even go so far as to move a player from the Penguins’ current roster?
Wright looked like he’d found his NHL footing last season, but an uneven start to this year has him on shaky ground. Seattle is putting out feelers to gauge the market for the 22-year-old.
Pittsburgh needs young, high-end talent to add to its young core of Benjamin Kindel, Sergey Murashov, Harrison Brunicke, and Rutger McGroarty. Could Wright be a fit? There is nothing to suggest Pittsburgh has interest, but given Dubas’ track record, it’s hard to ignore that there could be a fit there.
What about another top pick, Alexis Lafrenière, who is reportedly not a significant part of the New York Rangers’ retool? The former first overall pick in 2020 looked to have turned the corner two years ago, when he tallied 28 goals and 29 assists in 82 games.
However, last season was a setback offensively, and this season has been an even steeper drop. His assist numbers remain stable, but the finishing just hasn’t been there. He has a two percent drop in his shooting rate and isn’t generating the same shot volume as in 2023-24.
It’s hard to believe the Rangers would trade with the Penguins given the bad blood between the two sides, but they’ve done business before, as recently as 2024, when Pittsburgh sent forward Reilly Smith to New York for two draft picks. This would be different, though, as Lafrenière is in the first year of a seven-year, $52.15MM contract. And make no mistake, that contract could be a barrier to the Rangers moving him, although with a rising cap, it could be worth taking on, given Lafrenière’s potential.
At 24 years of age, Lafrenière has yet to live up to the billing that made him a first-overall pick. He was touted as an offensive wizard, drawing comparisons to another former first-overall pick, Sidney Crosby.
Now, in his sixth NHL season, it doesn’t appear he will morph into an offensive wizard anytime soon, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t value to be had. Lafrenière could be a good long-term option to play on the wing with Kindel in Pittsburgh’s top six.
Lafrenière is a smart player. Like Kindel, he has a high hockey IQ and is an excellent passer who handles the puck well. There could be a match there if the Penguins are looking for younger players who have underperformed.
Given Dubas’s previous connection in Toronto, it’s hard to believe he wouldn’t be interested in right winger Nicholas Robertson, a pending RFA next summer who has been on the trade block for what feels like forever.
Robertson wanted out of Toronto 18 months ago and never got his wish. However, the Maple Leafs have moved him up the lineup this season, with varying results, thanks to the injuries the team has dealt with. Would Toronto move him now? It’s hard to say, but for the right price, anything is possible.
It’s not certain that Robertson would be a fit in Pittsburgh, as he likely wouldn’t be in their top nine. The Penguins’ fourth line of Blake Lizotte, Noel Acciari and Connor Dewar has been highly effective this year, meaning there might not be a place for Robertson with the Penguins. Things could change in the summer, when the Penguins have more slots open up due to departures, but for now, it seems unlikely that they would acquire the 24-year-old forward.
At the beginning of the season, the Penguins were widely regarded as having the worst left-side defensive unit in the league. No one could have predicted the emergence of Shea and Wotherspoon, who have become solid defensive options, while Brett Kulak was still playing in Edmonton with the Oilers.
At the time, Penguins fans were discussing the possibility of acquiring Anaheim Ducks defenseman Pavel Mintyukov, the 10th overall pick in 2022. Reports from Elliotte Friedman at the time indicated that Mintyukov wasn’t happy with his playing time, and Penguins fans rightly saw him as a potential solution to their defensive woes. But now, with the Penguins’ current depth, it’s hard to say whether it would be a move for Pittsburgh to make. Dubas always likes to stockpile NHL defensemen and has at least a dozen of them right now, but would he put together a 22-year-old defenseman who would be a heck of a buy-low option?
Make no mistake, Mintyukov can play and would be a great long-term option for the Penguins alongside Brunicke on the back end. This season, Mintyukov has six goals and eight assists in 48 games, buoyed by a career-high shooting percentage of 12%. Pittsburgh is being cautious about how it spends its future assets and may not want to roll the dice if the price gets too high. But if Anaheim is looking to move on from Mintyukov, the Penguins could likely put together a competitive offer for the pending UFA.
Assessing The Blues’ Direction
The Blues are in a strange spot. They’re 31st in the league with a record of 20-26-9 and a goal differential of -54, tied for the worst in the NHL.
They’re very close to having the best odds to win the draft lottery, and while they aren’t technically out of the playoff hunt, they’re 10 points back of the Kings for the final Wild Card spot, and Los Angeles has games in hand. The Blues are likely finished for this season, and despite that, they haven’t fully committed to a rebuild, though they’re clearly not close to contending at the moment.
They have some good young players and a mix of veterans, some on bad contracts and others they probably want to trade, especially as the playoffs grow further away with each game.
St. Louis’ roster construction has been disjointed over the last few years with a mixed bag of moves. They’re far from alone in that regard. But what has been missing is a clear direction on how to sell to Blues fans, who are hoping for some signal that the team has a plan.
Entering the season, it looked as though the Blues were hoping to compete for a playoff spot, as they did last season. Those hopes have been dashed by inconsistent play and the struggles of core players Jordan Kyrou, Robert Thomas, Colton Parayko and Jordan Binnington. You either sell winning or you sell hope, and this season the Blues haven’t been able to sell either. That will need to change in short order, and a clear direction needs to be established.
Of the players listed above, Thomas is the only one who hasn’t been constantly linked to trade rumours this season, but that has changed as of late. Kyrou, Parayko and Binnington have all been fodder for trade board segments across the hockey media and have been joined by teammates Brayden Schenn and Justin Faulk.
In a perfect world, St. Louis would have a clear choice about who to move and who to keep. Still, some of the team’s previous moves have left them in a precarious spot, with their only real option being to retool rather than bottom out. They aren’t anywhere close to being a contender and already have several talented players and a very skilled coach in place.
Therein lies a big problem for the Blues. How do you tell Jim Montgomery that the team plans to sell off its veterans and go with younger players who are still finding their way in the NHL? It probably wouldn’t be popular with the veteran head coach.
The alternative is to continue pushing an aging roster into the playoffs and finishing in the middle of the standings, outside the postseason. Montgomery doesn’t need to look far to find a coach who was stuck in that spot for several seasons: Mike Sullivan, formerly of the Penguins.
Sullivan’s final three seasons with the team saw him try to will an aging lineup over the finish line, only to fall just outside the cut when it came to playoff time. Interestingly enough, Sullivan left the Penguins last summer to pursue a better opportunity with the Rangers, only to end up in the same position he had been in with Pittsburgh.
At the end of the day, for general manager Doug Armstrong, his job isn’t to please his coach; it’s to put together the best roster for the team he can and put the players in a position to win. Adding to an old, slow roster does nothing to accomplish that, and the Blues can’t make that the direction they go.
If there is anything we’ve learned in the last half-decade, it is that teams can remain competitive and retool on the fly by surrounding older talent with fresh legs and young energy, brought in by calling up skilled, speedy prospects. The Washington Capitals proved it last season; the Penguins are showing the same thing this year; and the Blues have to look at that model and see how best to apply it to their own roster construction.
The Blues have some pieces in Philip Broberg, Dylan Holloway, Jimmy Snuggerud, Jake Neighbours, and Dalibor Dvorsky. Now they need to figure out which veterans to keep around to guide them and which to let go to acquire more young talent to insulate the core.
It makes sense to move Binnington, given that Joel Hofer is waiting in the wings and probably deserves the bulk of the ice time. The issue for St. Louis is that they missed the best time to trade the 32-year-old: last March, before the trade deadline, or this past summer.
This year, Binnington’s game has fallen off a cliff, and he is dead last in the NHL with -24.4 goals saved above expected in 31 games (per MoneyPuck). Add to that the fact that he is counting $6MM against the salary cap and has a 14-team no-trade clause (per PuckPedia), and you have a player who is close to impossible to move.
Moving Faulk would also be a step in the right direction, as the 33-year-old makes $6.5MM this year and next and is having a reasonable offensive season with 11 goals and 13 assists in 52 games, while cleaning up the turnover issue that plagued him last year. The Blues are reportedly looking to strike while the iron is hot and are asking for a premium package to move the right-shot defenseman. If the Blues can move Faulk and get a return even remotely close to their ask, it would be good business and could set them on a path to retool sooner than later.
Outside of those two, Schenn, Thomas, and Parayko remain options to be moved, and it’s hard to say whether the Blues want to turn their roster over completely. The Penguins tried to move Rickard Rakell, Bryan Rust, and Erik Karlsson last year but couldn’t find anyone willing to meet their asking price. Perhaps the Blues will chart a similar course and try to move those three veterans if they get the right price. If not, they’ll wait to see how their own roster shakes out over the next six to 12 months. In any event, St. Louis has to show direction sooner rather than later if it hopes to position the team for improvement in the near future.
Injury Updates: Maple Leafs, Greenway, Blues, Hedman, Ristolainen
The Maple Leafs have placed defenseman Dakota Joshua and defenseman Chris Tanev on LTIR, PuckPedia reports (Twitter link). Joshua is dealing with a lacerated kidney that has kept him out for the last month and while he has started light skating, he’s not expected to return until after the Olympic break. Tanev, meanwhile, has missed the last month with a groin issue. There’s no timeline for his return but he has already missed the required 10 games and 24 days so if he returns – something that is in the air with him reportedly uncertain about surgery – so he’s eligible to be activated at any time.
Other injury news from around the NHL:
- Sabres winger Jordan Greenway has been limited this season after undergoing two sports hernia surgeries over the last 13 months. He doesn’t play in back-to-backs and practice time has been limited. Bill Hoppe of the Olean Times Herald mentions that the veteran is expected to meet with doctors on Thursday to determine if what he’s dealing with in terms of discomfort is something that can be fixed or if it’s something he just has to keep playing through. If any sort of procedure is needed, now would be a good time with the three-week break coming up which would limit the amount of time Greenway would miss.
- The Blues announced (Twitter link) that wingers Jordan Kyrou (upper body) and Jake Neighbours (lower body) are listed as day-to-day after undergoing further evaluations on their respective injuries. Head coach Jim Montgomery was unsure if either player would be available for Thursday’s game against Florida. Both Kyrou and Neighbours left Tuesday’s loss to Dallas but it appears it’s the best-case scenario for both of them.
- Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman took part in practice today for the first time since being sidelined with an elbow injury nearly seven weeks ago, relays Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times. The 35-year-old has missed 33 of the last 36 games and has a dozen assists in 18 games this season while averaging just over 21 minutes per game. Hedman has long been targeting a return that would allow him to play in the Olympics and it appears he’s on track to do so. Notably, head coach Jon Cooper didn’t rule out the possibility of the captain returning for Sunday’s Stadium Series game.
- The Flyers announced (Twitter link) that defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen left tonight’s game against Columbus due to a lower-body injury. He played 1:01 over two shifts before exiting. The 31-year-old missed more than two months to start the season due to a triceps injury, then missed six more this month to an upper-body issue, one that he just returned from on Monday. Ristolainen has been limited to just three assists and 25 blocks in 15 games when he has been in the lineup. Notably, he’s set to play for Finland in the Olympics so if this injury is set to keep him out for more than a couple of weeks, that could cause him to miss the event.
The NHL Is Ripe For A Big Change Of Scenery Trade
The classic change-of-scenery move was once standard in the NHL. Still, with the emergence of the salary cap, analytics, and entire departments dedicated to player projections, the number of big-name change-of-scenery trades has declined.
These deals were often made in hopes of inspiring two struggling players to return to their career averages or better. The most recent example of this kind of deal is the goalie trade between the Penguins and Oilers earlier this year, which involved Tristan Jarry and Stuart Skinner.
Another recent example came at last year’s trade deadline, when the Sabres sent Dylan Cozens and a draft pick to the Senators for Josh Norris and Jacob Bernard-Docker. This season, there are multiple change-of-scenery trade candidates, with the biggest names being forward Elias Pettersson of the Canucks and Andrei Svechnikov of the Hurricanes.
Don’t get it wrong. There are still plenty of change-of-scenery trades in the NHL involving fringe and depth players, and some don’t work out, but some do in a big way. Egor Chinakhov of the Penguins is a glaring example of a change-of-scenery move that has worked out thus far, as he is playing with more confidence and fire than he has in years.
In addition to the Chinakhov and Skinner moves, the Penguins have made several low-end versions of these trades this season, most recently this week’s deal with the Avalanche, which sent forward Valtteri Puustinen to the Avalanche in exchange for defenseman Ilya Solovyov. The trade barely made waves around the NHL, but it does provide an example of two players who need fresh starts being swapped by teams in the hope of reigniting their play.
Outside of the aforementioned Pettersson and Svechnikov, who are some other big-name players who could use a change of scenery? The big name has to be defenseman Dougie Hamilton of the Devils, who was a healthy scratch last week and hasn’t produced nearly the way you would hope from a $9MM offensive defenseman.
Hamilton has dealt with a couple of injury-riddled seasons and has just five goals and 12 assists in 46 games this year. While Hamilton’s play hasn’t been great this season, that hasn’t stopped the Devils from upping his usage from 19:51 a game last year to 21:33 this season.
Hamilton is still a good player and would be a likely candidate to bounce back in a new environment. But would any team want to take a gamble like that on a 32-year-old making $9MM annually over the next two and a half years?
There is interest, and why wouldn’t there be? Hamilton is a talented player who could very well thrive on a new team, but the Devils aren’t going to just give him a way or retain half his salary in exchange for peanuts. The best course of action for New Jersey might be to try to find a hockey deal for another player in need of a change.
Pivoting to the Western Conference, the Blues look to be going nowhere fast and have a few players who could use a fresh start, including forward Jordan Kyrou and defenseman Colton Parayko. Kyrou is probably the most intriguing name on this list, a 27-year-old with a healthy track record of success.
His decline this season (11 goals and 13 assists in 42 games) isn’t overly complicated. His shooting percentage has dropped almost a full six points from last year, and with it, so has his goal-scoring production. Kyrou has another five years on his contract after this season at an AAV of $8.13MM, and he could be a bargain depending on how motivated St. Louis is to shake things up.
The Blues are in no rush, though, and might hold firm on their asking price if they don’t get reasonable offers. From Kyrou’s perspective, this year has been one to forget offensively. However, many of his underlying numbers remain strong, and he should still be productive for the majority of his contract. The Blues have been a bad team this year, and without much support, Kyrou hasn’t been as effective as he was in years past, when he was a consistent 70-point threat.
Another Blues player who could use a new look is Parayko, who has been a mess this season after a good year last year. Parayko has never been an analytics darling, but some of his underlying numbers are ugly this season. Now, in fairness to the 32-year-old, he is being asked to shoulder a very heavy defensive load on a bad team that is going nowhere. It can’t be easy for the veteran to go in night after night knowing he’ll spend most of the game working in his own zone, but that is his reality in St. Louis. A fresh start in a less stressful role could be precisely what Parayko needs at this stage of his career, but he won’t come cheap, as St. Louis likely still views him as a premium asset.
Moving back east, the Devils paid a premium three years ago to acquire Timo Meier from the San Jose Sharks and hoped he would become a force in their top six as they entered their window of contention. Meier quickly signed a pricey extension with the Devils worth $8.8MM annually (on an eight-year deal), and it looked as though it was an excellent match for both sides.
Since joining New Jersey, Meier hasn’t been the same offensive contributor he was in San Jose, and some of his underlying numbers have taken a hit as well. Offensively, he is still a 50+ point player, but that likely isn’t what the Devils had hoped for when they made the moves to bring him in long-term. Meier just ended a six-game pointless drought the other night and has been dealing with personal matters on the side, taking a leave of absence last month to attend to a family health matter.
It’s hard to say whether he would welcome a move or not, but it probably wouldn’t be the worst thing for the 29-year-old or the team. Once again, the Devils aren’t going to give Meier away, as he remains an effective player, but given how rough the last 18 months have been for the team, it might not be the worst thing to shake up the roster by moving on from Meier, Hamilton, or perhaps both players.
Blues Activate Jordan Kyrou And Jimmy Snuggerud
The Blues will get a big boost to their lineup tonight as they take on Nashville. The team announced that wingers Jordan Kyrou and Jimmy Snuggerud are expected to play, meaning they have been taken off injured reserve.
Kyrou has missed the last nine games after sustaining a lower-body injury nearly three weeks ago. Before that, he, like many other St. Louis players, had gotten off to a quiet start offensively by his standards.
Through 28 games, the 27-year-old has eight goals and eight assists. As a result, it seems unlikely that he’ll come close to the offensive output of the past few seasons; he has recorded between 67 and 75 points over each of the last four seasons. Kyrou was healthy scratched at one point but should now get a fresh start on their second line.
As for Snuggerud, he underwent wrist surgery earlier this month and was expected to miss six weeks. It turns out that he’s well ahead of schedule as he’ll wind up missing less than four weeks overall.
After making his NHL debut down the stretch last season (and taking a regular turn in the playoffs), the 21-year-old’s first full professional campaign has been a little quiet. He has played in 26 games so far this season, picking up five goals and six assists while logging over 15 minutes per night of playing time. While that won’t have him in the Calder Trophy mix, that’s still a decent contribution from a rookie. He’s expected to slot in on the third line against the Preds.
St. Louis had a pair of open roster spots heading into the holiday break. Accordingly, Kyrou and Snuggerud were added into those slots, meaning no further roster moves were needed.
Blues Sign Robby Fabbri To Two-Way Deal
The Blues are bringing back forward Robby Fabbri on a two-way deal, according to a team announcement. He’ll earn prorated salaries of $775K in the NHL and $300K in the AHL for the remainder of the season. He will remain on the NHL roster for now. Winger Jordan Kyrou, who’s day-to-day with a lower-body injury, has landed on injured reserve in the corresponding move – although David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reports he’s been downgraded to week-to-week.
Fabbri, 29, has gone unsigned since the Ducks elected to let him walk to unrestricted free agency last summer. He landed with the Penguins for training camp on a professional tryout but was released without landing a major or minor-league deal. He kept skating through the first two months of the season until finally landing a tryout with the Panthers’ AHL affiliate, the Charlotte Checkers, at the beginning of December. He’s now been released from that deal to get the next NHL opportunity he desired.
It’s a storybook return for Fabbri, who began his career as a first-round pick by the Blues in 2014. One year later, he had already established himself as a full-time NHLer with an 18-goal, 37-point rookie season. Unfortunately, a rash of injuries conspired to make sure those totals would stand as his career highs. The first real trouble came in his sophomore season. In February 2017, he tore his left ACL, ending his season. He showed up to training camp the following fall ready to go but blew up the same knee early in the preseason, robbing him of the entire 2017-18 season. A groin issue further delayed his return until he finally got back on the ice in November 2018, ending a year-and-a-half absence.
Those injuries pushed Fabbri down the depth chart and kept him out of a regular role for the Blues in the 2019 postseason, but he did still score once in 10 games on St. Louis’ run to the Stanley Cup. Early the following season, his first stint with the Blues came to an end when they dealt him to the Red Wings for Jacob de La Rose. His tenure in Detroit was troubled by more injuries – including another ACL surgery – but he played like a bona fide top-nine winger when healthy. He scored 66 goals and 127 points in 234 games as a Wing, good for 0.54 points per game, before they sent the final year of his contract at a $4MM cap hit to the Ducks in the 2024 offseason.
More knee problems and a hand fracture limited Fabbri to 44 games with Anaheim. The fit wasn’t as productive as it was in Detroit, and his usually high finishing rate dropped down to 12.3% – his lowest since 2018-19 – resulting in a conservative 8-8–16 scoring line in 44 games.
Fabbri did look ready to go in his brief stint with Charlotte, posting a goal and an assist in three games. He’ll now get an opportunity to get back in an NHL lineup for the first time since February as the Blues say he’ll join the team ahead of tomorrow’s game against the Predators.
Kyrou’s IR placement was an inevitability with all the injury problems the Blues are facing up front. He joins fellow forwards Jimmy Snuggerud, Alexey Toropchenko, and Nathan Walker on the injured list, while Nick Bjugstad‘s status for tomorrow is uncertain after leaving yesterday’s 5-2 loss to the Bruins with an upper-body injury.
Blues’ Jordan Kyrou Out Day-To-Day With Lower-Body Injury
12/7: Blues head coach Jim Montgomery designated Kyrou as day-to-day, and said he was “doing OK”, in an update on Sunday. It seems St. Louis has dodged the worst-case scenario, after losing a main lineup fixture early into Saturday night’s win.
12/6: The St. Louis Blues lost star winger Jordan Kyrou during Saturday night’s game against the Ottawa Senators. He went down the tunnel three minutes into the game after receiving a hit against the boards from Ottawa Senators rookie Stephen Halliday. Kyrou was favoring his left leg on his way off the ice.
Kyrou has been on a heater as of late. He has three points, a plus-two, and eight shots on net over his last four games. Those numbers have propped Kyrou up to 16 points, a minus-nine, and 69 shots on goal in 27 games this season. He ranks second on the team in scoring behind Robert Thomas‘ 17 points in 24 games. Kyrou hasn’t filled his usual stapled top-line role under head coach Jim Montgomery, but he’s snapped back to routine scoring after a four-game drought in early November.
Kyrou has been an electric scorer for the Blues dating back to the 2021-22 season. That was his breakout year in the NHL, marked by 27 goals and 75 points in 74 games. He has followed that with three consecutive 30-goal seasons and two more 70-point years. He’s up to 348 points in 443 games through eight years in the NHL. That scoring will make him an invaluable asset in any potential moves, and a hard lineup piece to replace should this injury force him out of more games.
Blues Expected To Scratch Jordan Kyrou
A tough start in St. Louis is coming to a head today. The club is making top-six winger Jordan Kyrou a healthy scratch for tonight’s game against the Sabres, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reports.
While likely a message-sending vehicle to the entire team rather than targeted at Kyrou, it’s still a perplexing decision for a club scoring 2.71 goals per game, 24th in the league. Few Blues have performed up to expectations through 14 games, Kyrou included, but he’s still tied for second on the team in scoring with four goals and eight points. He’s fourth among forwards in average ice time per game at 17:23.
It’s also hard to attribute St. Louis’ 4-8-2 record to much else other than their goaltending. Jordan Binnington and Joel Hofer have combined for one of the more disastrous starts from a goalie tandem in recent memory. Among the 43 goalies with at least five games played this season, Binnington’s .859 SV% ranks 40th, and Hofer’s .836 SV% ranks last. They’ve combined to allow 11 goals above expected, per MoneyPuck. With even average goaltending, the Blues are looking at a -10 goal differential instead of their current -21 and would be hovering around .500 instead of four games below it.
The group of skaters, as a whole, has largely held up its end of the bargain. There hasn’t been a dominant offensive force – Pius Suter‘s nine points lead the team – but they’ve put together above-average two-way play, including a 54.4% share of high-danger chances at even strength. Individual ratings like Kyrou’s -8 mark and Brayden Schenn‘s -13 are deceptively low because of the goaltending behind them. St. Louis’ de facto second line, featuring Kyrou, Schenn, and Dylan Holloway, has actually been quite adept at controlling play. Out of 54 forward line combinations with at least 60 minutes together, their 58.7 xGF% ranks 13th, per MoneyPuck. In terms of raw shot attempts, they’re still a respectable 27th at 54%.
Kyrou was frequently mentioned as a trade candidate last summer, including being linked to the Canadiens more than once. That talk largely quieted after Kyrou’s full no-trade clause kicked in on July 1. As of now, there’s been no indication that he’s been asked to waive it or that he’d be willing to do so if asked. He’s only in the third year of an eight-year, $65MM deal that carries a cap hit of $8.125MM.
While it’s been a tough stretch, Kyrou is as consistent a high-end second-line/fringe first-line piece as they come. He’s topped 30 goals for three years in a row and has finished with no less than 67 and no more than 75 points in the last four years. His early-season pace now puts him on track for 47 points over an 82-game schedule, which he won’t achieve with tonight’s scratch. While he’s finishing slightly below his career average at 12.5%, it’s a general lack of chance generation that brings his point totals down. He’s registering 21% fewer shots on goal and 12% fewer shot attempts per game than he did last year.
Canadiens Interested In Adding To Forward Group
While the Montreal Canadiens have had a busy start to the offseason and are currently over the cap, they’re still looking to add to their offensive group. According to RG’s Marco D’Amico, the Habs are exploring both free agency and trade options to add a forward.
Among those options, D’Amico reports that the Canadiens remain interested in trading for St. Louis Blues winger Jordan Kyrou — a player Montreal has previously been linked to. Playing all 82 games last season, he posted 36 goals and 70 points. It represented his third consecutive 30-goal campaign, and the 26-year-old added three goals in seven playoff games. Kyrou has five years remaining on his eight-year, $ 65MM contract, which carries a cap hit of $ 8.125 million annually. While Kyrou remains a popular name in trade discussions, any deal would have to overcome the hurdle of his no-trade clause.
Another player the Habs are keeping tabs on, per D’Amico, is NHL veteran Evgeny Kuznetsov, who is eyeing an NHL comeback. Kuznetsov, 33, appeared in 39 KHL games for SKA St. Petersburg last season and scored 37 points. He signed a four-year contract with the club last summer, but his contract was terminated in early April, presumably so he could return to North America.
As a staple for the Washington Capitals, Kuznetsov put up 568 points for the team in 723 games. He added 73 points in 97 playoff games for Washington and was nearly a point-per-game producer in the NHL as recently as the 2021-22 season (78 points in 79 games). However, his production dropped off after that, and Kuznetsov later revealed that his struggles with rheumatoid arthritis — which he says he now manages more effectively — contributed to his decline. He last played in the NHL during the 2023-24 season.
Of note, Kuznetsov served as a teammate and mentor to Ivan Demidov in Russia. Demidov signed a three-year, entry-level deal with Montreal in April, and a reunion with Kuznetsov could provide him with a familiar support system as he begins his NHL career.
No matter who the Canadiens decide to pursue, the team is currently over the salary cap by more than $5MM (according to PuckPedia). Therefore, General Manager Kent Hughes needs to trade away some contracts not only to make new additions but also to ensure the team is compliant with the salary cap.