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Nikita Alexandrov

St. Louis Blues Reassign Matthew Highmore

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Feb 23: A disappointing week later and Highmore has been returned to the AHL. The 26-year-old forward played in two games, both losses, and registered two shots on net.

Feb 18: After moving forwards Ryan O’Reilly and Noel Acciari to Toronto last night, the Blues had a pair of open roster spots to fill.  They’ve now decided who will get them as they announced the recalls of Nikita Alexandrov and Matthew Highmore from AHL Springfield.

Alexandrov is up with St. Louis for the fourth time this season.  He got into 18 games during the first three opportunities, picking up three goals and two assists, pretty good production for someone who was basically limited to exclusive fourth line duty as he’s averaging just 8:46 per game.  The 22-year-old has been much more productive with the Thunderbirds, chipping in with a dozen goals and ten helpers in 28 AHL contests.  He’s in the second season of a three-year, entry-level deal carrying a cap hit of just under $817K.

As for Highmore, he’s in his first season with St. Louis after signing a one-year, two-way deal for the NHL minimum with them last summer.  The 26-year-old hasn’t seen any NHL action in 2022-23 but has 137 appearances over parts of four seasons with Chicago and Vancouver prior to this year.  Highmore has done quite well with Springfield this season, picking up 46 points in 47 games to lead the team in scoring.  He’ll be eligible for unrestricted free agency this summer.

Meanwhile, the Blues have also assigned Adam Gaudette to Springfield.  He was one of the players they picked up in the deal from Toronto and while he’s a bit more experienced than Highmore with 218 career appearances, he’ll stay in the minors for the time being.

St. Louis Blues Reassign Nikita Alexandrov, Jake Neighbours

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The St. Louis Blues are into the break and won’t play again until February 11. That’s true at least for most of the roster. Nikita Alexandrov and Jake Neighbours are on their way to the Springfield Thunderbirds to keep playing over the next few days.

Springfield has three games this week – important opportunities for development that the team won’t overlook. Alexandrov has already spent most of his season in the minor leagues, registering 12 goals and 20 points in 23 games. During his 18 games at the NHL level, the 22-year-old rookie has five points.

Neighbours, 20, has played 27 games with St. Louis this season and has eight points. That’s not exactly the production he’s used to, after dominating the WHL for the last three years. In the AHL he’s been much more comfortable, with seven goals and 14 points in 19 games, but it looks like the NHL is where he’ll stay for most of this year.

The 2020 first-round pick has a bright future in St. Louis, and if the Blues end up moving out some pieces at the deadline there will be more offensive minutes available for players like him to step up.

St. Louis Blues Recall Nikita Alexandrov; Reassign Tyler Tucker

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After activating Robert Bortuzzo yesterday, the St. Louis Blues ended up with eight healthy defensemen on the roster. That was never going to last long, and today they’ve solved the problem by sending Tyler Tucker to the AHL. Nikita Alexandrov has been recalled in his place.

Tucker, 22, has played in 12 games for the Blues this season, showing he’s much more than the average seventh-round pick. The young defenseman has just one point but rarely looks overmatched, and should likely play a role on the team in the future.

For now, though, he’ll rejoin the Springfield Thunderbirds where he has 13 points in 25 games.

Alexandrov, 22, continues his yo-yo season, coming back up after just a few days. The young forward has four points in 16 games so far and should also get a bigger look down the stretch, especially if the Blues end up selling at the deadline. The 2019 second-round pick has 12 goals and 20 points in 23 games with the Thunderbirds.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

St. Louis Blues Reassign Nikita Alexandrov

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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.

Central Notes: Toews, Coyotes, Robertsson, Alexandrov

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Ever since the Blackhawks started their rebuild, there has been plenty of trade speculation surrounding their two long-term veterans including captain Jonathan Toews.  He acknowledged to NBC Sports Chicago’s Charlie Roumeliotis that he hasn’t sat down with GM Kyle Davidson to discuss if he’ll be willing to waive his trade protection and leave the only franchise he has played for over a 15-year NHL career.  He indicated that as of yet, he hasn’t decided what’s next for him:

“… There’s a part of myself that still doesn’t really want to admit the situation and also wants to continue being a Blackhawk and finish my career here. But at the same time, there’s a part of me that sees the writing on the wall and sees that this team, this organization is trying to hit the reset button and that maybe a change for everybody is not such a bad thing, and that goes for myself as well.”

While Toews isn’t the top center he once was, he’s having a decent season with 12 goals and 12 assists in 40 games while winning nearly 64% of his faceoffs.  Assuming that the Blackhawks will cover the maximum 50% of his contract ($5.25MM of a $10.5MM AAV), they’ll undoubtedly have several interested teams should Toews decide to make himself available to be traded by March 3rd’s trade deadline.

Elsewhere in the Central:

  • The future of the Coyotes’ arena deal will be better known in May with a special election being held on the 16th. Sam Kmack of the Arizona Republic breaks down each of the three ballot items that will require a majority of yes votes to move forward.  Tempe is the desired location for Arizona’s new arena and this is one of the hurdles that will need to be cleared for that project to continue.  Even if it does pass, it will still be several years before it’s up and running so the team will continue to play out of their college arena for the foreseeable future.
  • Blues prospect Simon Robertsson has had a decent season in the SHL but his time at Sweden’s top level has come to an end for the time being as Skelleftea announced that they’ve loaned the winger to Vasteras of the Allsvenskan (their second-tier league) for the remainder of the season. The 19-year-old was a third-round pick by St. Louis (71st overall) in 2021 and had five goals and two assists with Skelleftea in 16 games this season, matching his goal output from last year in a third of the games.
  • Still with St. Louis, the team announced (Twitter link) that winger Nikita Alexandrov was a late scratch from tonight’s game due to an upper-body injury.  The 22-year-old has played in 16 games for the Blues this season, picking up two goals and two assists while averaging just under nine minutes a night on the fourth line.  Nathan Walker will suit up in Alexandrov’s place.

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