Blues Sign Mathias Laferriere To One-Year, Two-Way Extension
The St. Louis Blues have signed depth forward Mathias Laferriere to a one-year, two-way contract extension. The deal will carry a league-minimum $775K cap hit. Laferriere was set to become a restricted free agent on July 1st, following the end of his three-year entry-level contract signed in 2019.
Laferriere took a bit of a lateral step this season, posting seven goals and 25 points in 68 games with the AHL’s Springfield Thunderbirds. His scoring came one point shy of his career-high posted in 18 fewer games last season. It’s been a slow start to the 23-year-old’s pro career, totaling just 60 points across his first 174 games in the AHL. Laferriere originally joined the Blues through the sixth round of the 2018 NHL Draft, amidst a QMJHL career that stretched across 238 games. He proceeded his draft selection with a career-high 28 goals and 74 points in 68 games with the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles, though it’d mark his only time breaking the 50-point mark across his five seasons in the league.
Despite the measly regular season scoring, Laferriere showed an impressive ability to show up when it mattered during his juniors career – posting 19 points across the last 20 playoff games of his CHL career. The intangibles that earned him those postseason points are now earning him a serviceable role with the Springfield Thunderbirds. But on a one-year deal, his focus next season will be much more on maintaining that role than it will be rivaling the Blues lineup. Still, an NHL contract will make him eligible for a call-up should St. Louis need the depth. That will put him in competition with players like Zachary Bolduc, Zach Dean, Dalibor Dvorsky, and Juraj Pekarcik for St. Louis’ fringe lineup roles.
How Will The Blues Manage Their No-Trade Clauses?
Even before the 2023-24 NHL season, the St. Louis Blues held slim hopes of cracking one of the top three spots in the NHL’s Central Division. The team was only a year removed from finishing 37-38-11, falling to sixth place in the division, and trading off the likes of Vladimir Tarasenko and Ryan O’Reilly during that year’s trade deadline season.
Aside from moving out veteran rentals, the General Manager of the organization, Doug Armstrong, became adamant about shaking up the team’s defensive core last summer. In one of the biggest trades to not happen, the Blues had a deal in place to send struggling defenseman Torey Krug and his bloated contract to the Philadelphia Flyers. As things would turn out, Krug ultimately used the no-trade protection given to him in his current deal to block his inclusion in the trade, leading to a much smaller deal of Kevin Hayes being acquired for a sixth-round draft selection.
While largely bringing back the same defensive core into the 2023-24 season, the Blues performed much better but would end up on the outside looking in. As the best team to not make it into the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs, St. Louis finished fifth in the Central Division with a 43-33-6 record. Although Jordan Binnington put together a solid year, the Blues’ downfall would again be their defensive core and lackluster play.
Heading into the summer, St. Louis will once again be looking to shake up their defensive core, which will require superb innovation from Armstrong. Krug, Justin Faulk, Colton Parayko, and Nick Leddy have full no-trade clauses built into their contracts until next summer, meaning Armstrong will need their full cooperation for any trade moving them out of the organization. However, even if Armstrong could convince one of the players to waive their protection, the return value would likely be subpar at best.
If one is not moved this offseason, the quartet will account for just under 27% of the Blues’ total cap space next season. Armstrong could look to move one in a classic hockey trade to address other organizational needs, or strictly go the route of a cost-saving technique. Leddy should represent the most likely to move out of the four given that his contract will end after the 2025-26 NHL season with a manageable $4MM AAV for the remaining years.
Approaching his 15th season in the NHL, Leddy just turned 33 years old and has continued to be a reliable puck-mover from the back end. Throughout the regular season, Leddy played in all 82 games for St. Louis and scored three goals while putting up 25 assists, 23 of which were at even strength. If Armstrong can convince the Eden Prairie, MN native to waive his no-trade protection this offseason, moving out Leddy would allow the Blues to save valuable cap space and open a spot for Scott Perunovich in the top four of the defensive core.
Blues Round Out AHL Coaching Staff
- The AHL’s Springfield Thunderbirds (affiliate of the Blues) announced that they’ve hired long-time NHL blueliner Jaroslav Modry and AHL veteran Chad Wiseman as their new assistant coaches. Modry spent the last three seasons coaching in his native Czechia while Wiseman had been coaching with OHL Guelph since 2018-19. They join NHL veteran Steve Konowalchuk on a new-look coaching staff.
Blues RFA Mikhail Abramov Signs In KHL
Blues pending restricted free agent center Mikhail Abramov has signed a one-year deal with Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod of Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League, per a league announcement. Torpedo acquired Abramov’s KHL signing rights last week in a trade with CSKA Moskva, dealing the rights to Flames pending RFA defender Nikita Okhotyuk the other way.
If they choose, the Blues can still retain Abramov’s signing rights if they issue him a qualifying offer by the June 30 deadline. It’s unclear if they plan to do so, but it is clear that he won’t be re-signing with the club this summer.
Abramov, 23, was a fourth-round pick of the Maple Leafs in 2019. The Russian center spent parts of two seasons playing for their AHL affiliate, the Toronto Marlies, before his signing rights were dealt to St. Louis as part of the return for Ryan O’Reilly in February 2023.
He’s suited up for the Blues’ primary affiliate, the Springfield Thunderbirds, ever since. Abramov has put up fine middle-six production in the minors since the deal, compiling 19 goals and 44 points in 80 games in a Springfield uniform, but has yet to earn an NHL call-up.
Now five years removed from his draft, he’s opting to return home – at least for the time being. Abramov hasn’t played there since suiting up in low-level juniors with CSKA in 2017-18, coming over to North America entering his draft year to play with the Victoriaville Tigres of the QMJHL.
Torpedo is coached by Hall of Fame center Igor Larionov and boasts two of the top five 2024 draft-eligible Russians in hulking defenseman Anton Silayev and winger Nikita Artamonov. They’re both contracted with Torpedo through the next two seasons.
Free Agent Focus: St. Louis Blues
Free agency is now just a month away and teams are looking ahead to when it opens. There will be several impact players set to hit the open market in July while many teams have key restricted free agents to re-sign as well. We continue our look around the NHL with an overview of the free agent situation for the Blues.
Key Unrestricted Free Agents
F Kasperi Kapanen – The Blues took a flyer on Kasperi Kapanen when they claimed him off waivers from the Pittsburgh Penguins ahead of the 2023 Trade Deadline. He’s since muddled around the team’s middle-six, posting a combined 36 points in 96 games in St. Louis. His role has varied throughout those games, playing as much as 16 minutes or as little as eight minutes any night. That flexibility helped the Blues fill up their bottom-six, though he may now need to cede minutes to the NHL hopefuls like Zachary Bolduc, Zach Dean, and Dalibor Dvosrky. Kapenen hasn’t been necessarily bad for the Blues – and that could be enough to sign him to a cheap deal – but he could just as easily find his way back to the open market, as the Blues look to prioritize younger talents.
F Adam Gaudette – Gaudette may be St. Louis’ most interesting pending-free agent, after leading
the AHL’s Springfield Thunderbirds in scoring with a commanding 44 goals and 71 points in 67 games this season. It was a tremendous encore to his breakout year last season, when Gaudette posted a combined 51 points in 65 games between the Toronto Marlies and Thunderbirds. The last two seasons were the first two full AHL seasons of Gaudette’s career, after serving an NHL role from 2017 to 2022. And he’s made good work of the easier competition, not only scoring more but showing much more drive and creativity in his offense. Gaudette established himself as a top prospect during his years at Northeastern University, far exceeding his fifth-round draft selection after posting 142 points across 116 games with the school. But that hot scoring didn’t translate into the NHL, and Gaudette instead spent the first five years of his career battling for ice time on various teams’ bottom-six. He’s seemingly rediscovered his offense in the minor leagues – though he did go without a point in two NHL games this year. He represents a high-upside minor leaguer, who shouldn’t cost too much; unless he pushes to test the open market.
D Marco Scandella – Marco Scandella gradually lost his role with the Blues this season, ultimately falling to the fringe of the lineup in favor of players like Tyler Tucker and Matthew Kessel. He’s posted just 10 points across his last 85 games with the Blues, dating back to the start of last season, and has only managed to play in 50 or more games in two of his four seasons in St. Louis. Scandella won’t command much money on a new deal, especially at the age of 34, but he seems to be getting pushed out of the Blues’ lineup by younger and more promising talent. He may headline the free agents most likely to leave the Blues this summer.
Other pending UFAs: F Sammy Blais, F Will Bitten (Group 6), F Matthew Peca, F Jakub Vrana
Key Restricted Free Agents
F Nikita Alexandrov – Alexandrov has been an important utility player for the Blues over the last two seasons, stepping in when needed but also content to spend time in the press box or AHL. The 23-year-old centerman posted just two points in 23 NHL games this year – a small step down from his eight points in 28 games last year. Alexandrov has added 45 points in 48 AHL games over the last two seasons, showing his scoring upside, despite his role on St. Louis’ fourth line usually pitting him in the defensive end. The structure of St. Louis’ offense likely won’t change much this summer, with the team possessing both limited free agents and the money to re-sign their choices among them. That should limit Alexandrov to a minor role – and its associated cheap contract – against next season, though a new deal would represent a chance to play his way out of St. Louis’ press box.
D Scott Perunovich – If there were any one play that St. Louis had to re-sign this summer, it’d be
Perunovich, who played through the first mostly-healthy season of his career this year. And after years of anticipation, Perunovich’s mostly-healthy year mostly lived up to expectations. He posted 17 points in 54 games, on an 82-game pace of a modest 26 points, while making noticeable strides in his ability to keep up with and beat NHL talents. Perunovich now boasts 27 assists across 77 career NHL games, including the postseason, and should be hungry for a bigger role – and his first NHL goal – as he approaches next season. Solidifying the 25-year-old in the daily lineup will be an important step for a Blues team carrying five NHL defenseman aged 30 or older.
G Colten Ellis – The emergence of Joel Hofer as a legitimate NHL talent – made evident by his 15 wins and .913 save percentage in 30 games this season – has given St. Louis a stability at goaltending that they haven’t had since the days of prime Brian Elliott and Jake Allen. But they can’t be quick to forget the depth chart. Colten Ellis was drafted in the top 100 of the 2019 NHL Draft, one year after the Blues selected Hofer. He’s fallen down St. Louis’ ranks a bit since then, with Malcolm Subban and Vadim Zherenko the de facto tandem for the AHL’s Springfield Thunderbirds. Ellis curbed that this season, earning his way into an AHL role with 12 wins and a .923 in 21 ECHL games. And he stood tall in his AHL minutes, posting seven wins and a Springfield-leading .924 save percentage.
Other pending RFAs: F Mikhail Abramov, F Mathias Laferriere, F Keean Washkurak, D Hunter Skinner
Projected Cap Space
The Blues aren’t entering the summer wealthy by any means – but their projected $15.64MM in cap space should be more than enough for them to bring back any and all of the pending free agents they’d like to keep. The team seems prepared to part with at least a few options, if only to make room for the nine entry-level contracts they’ve signed since March. Those signees include prospects like Juraj Pekarcik, Simon Robertsson, Otto Stenberg, and Aleksanteri Kaskimaki – each options to rival top ice time with the Thunderbirds and maybe even an NHL call-up. The Blues fell just six points back from the postseason this year, though their roster didn’t seem to tilt the needle in any one direction. An influx of young talent – and potentially one or two lucrative free agents – could be the perfect pieces to move St. Louis’ roster forward.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. Contract information courtesy of CapFriendly.
Blues Sign Jakub Stancl To Entry-Level Deal
The Blues have been busy in recent days signing some of their prospects, inking Aleksanteri Kaskimaki and Juraj Pekarcik to contracts. They added to that list today, announcing that they’ve signed forward Jakub Stancl to a three-year, entry-level deal. Financial terms were not disclosed.
The 19-year-old was a fourth-round pick last June, going 106th overall following a good season in Sweden’s junior system. This year, Stancl played in 28 games with Vaxjo’s under-20 team, notching seven goals and seven assists. He also got into seven SHL contests, scoring once. Stancl was more impactful offensively at the World Juniors, however. He recorded four goals and two assists in seven games for Czechia.
St. Louis will have some options with Stancl next season. Since he wasn’t drafted out of the CHL, they can assign him to AHL Springfield if they want to get him acclimated to play in North America. They could opt to send him to major junior where WHL Kelowna holds his rights. Alternatively, they can elect to send him back overseas and keep him in Vaxjo’s system for another year. As long as he doesn’t play in ten NHL games in 2024-25, his contract will actually slide and will still have three years left on it heading into the 2025-26 campaign.
Blues Sign Juraj Pekarcik To Entry-Level Contract
Only playing one more season in junior after his draft year, Juraj Pekarcik has signed his entry-level contract with the St. Louis Blues according to a team announcement. Believing he could play professionally last year, the Blues organization thought it was best for Pekarcik’s development to have the young forward play junior hockey for one year in North America. According to CapFriendly, the deal carries European Assignment Clause, a cap hit of $870K, and an AAV of $950K.
In his draft year, Pekarcik played in 30 games for HK Nitra of the Tipos Extraliga, tallying only three assists in total. However, outside the box score, Pekarcik showed a solid sense of hockey IQ, and a keen ability to play away from the puck.
Liking what they saw, St. Louis selected Pekarcik with the 76th overall pick of the 2023 NHL Draft and quickly loaned the young prospect to the Dubuque Fighting Saints of the United States Hockey League. Becoming one of the premier playmakers in the league, the young Slovakian finished the year with nine goals and 59 points in 43 games, leading his team in assists. Pekarcik continued his production in the 2024 Clark Cup playoffs, scoring three goals and 10 points in 11 games before the Saints were finally eliminated in the Finals by the Fargo Force.
Although the Blues could use some young depth up front, it is more than likely that Pekarcik will start next year on the team’s AHL affiliate, the Springfield Thunderbirds. Since signing on as St. Louis’ highest affiliate before the start of the 2020-21 AHL season, the Thunderbirds have been steadily declining over the last three seasons, having missed the playoffs this past year.
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.
Offseason Checklist: St. Louis Blues
The offseason has arrived for all but a handful of teams who are still taking part in the playoffs. Accordingly, it’s now time to examine what they will need to accomplish over the coming months. Next up is a look at St. Louis.
The St. Louis Blues entered a new era this season, firing Stanley Cup-winning head coach Craig Berube and replacing him with rookie head coach Drew Bannister, who the team has since signed to a two-year head coach contract. The move away from Berube has meant a move away from the rough-and-tugged, dump-and-chase style of hockey that Berube adores. That was great news for St. Louis’ skill players, with each of Robert Thomas, Jordan Kyrou, and Pavel Buchnevich seeing a significant uptick in their scoring under Bannister. But the scoring didn’t trickle down the lineup, with even the most offensive defensemen like Justin Faulk and Torey Krug being held to moot point totals. The Blues were helped along by strong goaltending down the stretch, but they’ll need to bolster their offense throughout the lineup and maintain the momentum of their top names, should they want to make their return to the postseason next season.
Play The Field At Forward
The Blues are in a rare position of not needing to re-sign many NHL talents. They have just five pending free agents on their NHL roster, while many other teams deal with 10 or more. Of St. Louis’ pending names, none should command too high of a price tag – with defenseman Scott Perunovich’s looming cap hit of a few million likely their most expensive free agent. That means the Blues will be able to dedicate most of their $15MM available cap space to the free-agent market.
The Blues are noticeably lacking a second-line center after losing Ryan O’Reilly. That role was meant to be filled by Kevin Hayes, though he needed the support of Brayden Schenn after posting a career-low 29 points in his first 79 games in St. Louis. Schenn and Hayes are both fine depth centers, and each offer valuable veteran experience, but the Blues’ top-six doesn’t bring the same punch with them involved. St. Louis needs to instead target a player who can live up to the spotlight Robert Thomas brings to the Blues top-end.
St. Louis could prioritize the stout two-way play brought by O’Reilly
through market options like Chandler Stephenson, who’s spent the last three seasons serving as the fundamental base from which the Vegas Golden Knights stars can spring from. Stephenson is a skilled and diligent centerman with Stanley Cup-winning precedent who could beautifully fill St. Louis’ second-line vacancy. The team could also look to prioritize scoring and take a run at free agents Jonathan Marchessault or Elias Lindholm – or even dip into the Martin Necas trade market. All three players looked more comfortable on the wing at points of this season, though St. Louis’ lineup flexibility should let them construct an impactful middle-six around any new addition.
Revamp The Defense
St. Louis will face a similar order on defense. They have just one NHL defender under 30 currently signed – depth defenseman Tyler Tucker. That’s a precarious spot to position a blue-line, especially with evidence of age catching up to Faulk, Krug, Colton Parayko, and Nick Leddy. The Blues got a breath of fresh air with Scott Perunovich, who played in his first healthy professional season after making his NHL debut in 2021. He recorded 17 assists in 54 games – modest scoring but still the third-highest assists-per-game of any Blues defenders, behind Faulk and Krug.
Perunovich should be poised for a bigger role next season, helping to
support the decreasing play of Leddy, but St. Louis still seems absent one defiant piece on their blue-line. The free agent market is luckily full of talented defenders, with each of Shayne Gostisbehere and Dylan DeMelo likely to offer value on the open market. St. Louis could also be a fantastic landing spot for Vancouver Canucks defenseman Filip Hronek, who posted a career-high 48 points in 81 games this season. He’s due for a hefty increase from his $4.4MM cap hit this season, potentially pricing him out of what’s bound to be an eventful summer for Vancouver. Hronek would provide invaluable depth ahead of Krug and Parayko in the lineup, while also masking St. Louis’ near neglect of right-shot defensemen in the draft under Doug Armstrong’s reign.
Bringing in Hronek, or another top-end right-defenseman, would also make Parayko much more expendable. The Blues have danced around Parayko trade rumors for much of the last few seasons, though no official offer has come to fruition. Parayko, 31, is set to begin the third season of an eight-year extension signed in 2022. The deal carries an annual cap hit of $6.5MM and a full no-trade clause through its first six seasons. The pricey cap hit, trade protection, and Parayko’s history with injuries all contribute to challenging trade negotiations. His role in St. Louis’ top-four has been just as important of a variable – something that a new signee would alleviate, though the Blues may still face an uphill battle in dealing Parayko’s contract.
Embrace The Youth
St. Louis brought in a wave of talented young players in the early 2010s – welcoming Kevin Shattenkirk, Alex Pietrangelo, Vladimir Tarasenko, and Jake Allen all in the same swoop. Those additions carried the Blues through the mid-2010s, and the additions of Thomas and Kyrou in 2018 refreshed the lineup well enough to carry things now into the mid-2020s. But time is getting away from the Blues lineup, and they’re in need of yet another wave of young talent.
Luckily, Armstrong has built up one of St. Louis’ best prospect pools in recent memory. The list is headlined by forward Dalibor Dvorsky, who posted 45 goals and 88 points in 52 OHL games this season – making an incredibly loud statement in his first season in North America. The 2023 10th-overall selection should get every opportunity he can to crack the NHL lineup this summer, and will be eligible to play in the AHL next season should he not be fully ready. If they can’t get Dvorsky, St. Louis can relish in Zachary Bolduc as a second choice. Bolduc played through his official rookie season this year, posting five goals and nine points in 25 NHL games. He added 25 points in 50 AHL appearances – a slow start to his professional career, but one that was filled with exciting moments where Bolduc’s skill, strength, and shot really shined through. He’ll continue working alongside Zach Dean to vie for an everyday role on the NHL lineup.
The Blues won’t have that same enthusiasm for their defense, which is significantly more thinned out behind their aging core. Matthew Kessel showed a stout defensive ability in his rookie season this year, adding seven points in 39 NHL games, though his ability to make an impact every shift seemed a bit limited. He should headline St. Louis’ defensive prospects looking for opportunity, while Leo Loof and Theo Lindstein hope to make strong impressions at training camp.
Consistent additions of talented youth has underlined St. Louis’ success throughout this century. They’re clearly in need once again, missing any sort of X-factor outside of their top line last season. The Blues have the pieces to refresh things once again, though they’ll have to hope their top prospects can live up to the opportunity.
Mikhail Abramov Traded In The KHL
- A pair of young NHL players were traded recently in the KHL. CSKA announced that they traded the rights to Blues prospect Mikhail Abramov in exchange for Flames blueliner Nikita Okhotyuk. Abramov picked up 14 goals and 22 assists in 59 games with AHL Springfield this season and has yet to play at the NHL level. Okhotyuk, meanwhile, spent most of the season in San Jose before being acquired late in the season by Calgary; he notched nine points, 80 blocks, and 147 hits in 52 NHL games. Both players are set to become restricted free agents in July.