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West Notes: Krug, Olofsson, Eller

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St. Louis Blues defenseman Torey Krug is set to return to the lineup against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday, head coach Craig Berube told reporters today. It ends a brief absence stemming from a lower-body injury.

It’s been a bumpy road for Krug in 2022-23, who’s missed significant portions of the season. This is the fifth separate occasion he’s missed time with a lower-body injury, including a 13-game-long absence through December and January. Krug’s ice time has dipped below 20 minutes this season, and his -28 rating is tied for the worst on the team. He’ll return to his usual spot alongside Justin Faulk.

  • After being sent down yesterday, the Dallas Stars have brought forward Fredrik Olofsson back up from the minors. The 26-year-old has been a frequent call-up as of late, and he’s recorded a goal and three assists in 15 games with Dallas on top of 14 points in 37 games with AHL Texas. Olofsson will draw back into the lineup tomorrow against the Vegas Golden Knights as Luke Glendening and Joel Kiviranta remain sidelined with injuries.
  • The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun covered the Washington Capitals’ trade deadline plans in his latest piece and listed pending unrestricted free agent center Lars Eller as a potential fit for the Colorado Avalanche. Eller’s offense has taken a step back this season, recording just seven goals and 16 points in 58 games, but he’d be good depth insurance for an Avalanche team that’s thin at center. As Colorado begins to string wins together ahead of the trade deadline, they hope some depth additions combined with healthy stars propel them back into the “contending” category of teams.

 

St. Louis Blues Activate Brandon Saad

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Reinforcements have arrived for the struggling St.Louis Blues as the team announced forwards Brandon Saad and Pavel Buchnevich will return to the lineup for Thursday’s game against the Vancouver Canucks. After trading away long-time forwards Vladimir Tarasenko and Ryan O’Reilly, the Blues are struggling to play motivated hockey.

At the very least, Saad and Buchnevich should inject some hard work and leadership into this team. Head coach Craig Berube said just as much when speaking to reporters today:

Having Buchy and Saad back, we’re a much better team for sure. The veterans have to lead by example—from a work standpoint, compete standpoint, playing the right way.

The Blues are mired in a three-game losing streak that has dropped them to sixth place in the Central Division, five points behind the Nashville Predators and only six ahead of the Arizona Coyotes. While it’s been clear for weeks that this wouldn’t be the Blues’ year, seeing them plummet down the standings is not something anyone expected.

Getting Buchnevich back makes them a much more dangerous team, as the 27-year-old winger’s 43 points still lead the club on a per-game basis. In the second season of a four-year, $23.2MM contract signed in 2021, Buchnevich is one of the pieces that will cause general manager Doug Armstrong to be more aggressive than some other sellers this summer, adding more talent to the group instead of going through a rebuilding process.

Saad is also still an effective player, even if his offensive totals have never quite reached the potential many saw in him as a youngster in Chicago. The veteran forward has 15 goals and 22 points this season through 46 games.

Ivan Barbashev Not Expected To Be Scratched Ahead Of Deadline

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  • According to Andy Strickland of Bally Sports Midwest, one player that won’t be scratched to protect his value is Ivan Barbashev. The St. Louis Blues have already made several moves to collect assets, and Barbashev remains one of the last big chips they have to dangle at the deadline. Now 27, Barbashev has ten goals and 28 points in 57 games this season, a disappointing sequel to his breakout campaign a year ago. Still, he is an interesting piece at the deadline, given his physicality and versatility given he can play all three forward positions.

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.

Brandon Saad, Pavel Buchnevich Nearing Return

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The St. Louis Blues have subtracted some big names from their roster in recent weeks, including first-line winger Vladimir Tarasenko and team captain Ryan O’Reilly. While pending unrestricted free agent Ivan Barbashev could be next on his way out, the Blues are also lined up to get some players back into their lineup as well. Blues head coach Craig Berube told the media (including NHL.com’s Lou Korac) that both Brandon Saad and Pavel Buchnevich are likely to return in time for tomorrow’s game against the Vancouver Canucks.

While the playoffs aren’t really in the picture for the Blues any longer, getting both Saad and Buchnevich back should help the team play competitive hockey down the stretch. Buchnevich is arguably the Blues’ best player, with 43 points in 42 games alongside great two-way play. While Saad isn’t as impactful as Buchnevich, he has 15 goals to his name this season and contributes on special teams. Getting them back up and running again will be a major help to Berube as he looks to spark something in what remains of this disappointing Blues season.

Torey Krug Leaves Game With Injury

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  • The St. Louis Blues announced that defenseman Torey Krug left tonight’s game against the Carolina Hurricanes with a lower-body injury. It’s another stroke of bad luck for Krug, who has dealt with lingering injury issues recently. Krug’s performance this season has mirrored the Blues as a whole: inconsistent and largely disappointing. The veteran defenseman, who is on a $6.5MM AAV contract through 2027, has scored just 22 points in 40 games, a decline from last season when he scored 43 points in 64 games. Hopefully, this injury is not connected to what Krug has been dealing with in recent weeks and this absence was just a precautionary measure.

Latest On Timo Meier

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As we’ve discussed for weeks, the St. Louis Blues aren’t really looking at a rebuild. The team has committed too much to the young core already in place, and was just using an opportunistic approach at the deadline. This isn’t their year, and instead of committing more money to expiring veteran contracts, they flipped them to grab some extra assets.

St. Louis may not end up using those draft picks to select young players though. Instead, they could leverage them to land some NHL help to load up for next year. Today, Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff reported as much, noting that the Blues have now emerged as a player in the Timo Meier sweepstakes. Meier has plenty of interested parties, though some—like the Toronto Maple Leafs and New York Rangers—have already made substantial additions and may have fallen out of the race.

The Blues have essentially weakened the market for Meier by making those trades, and now could use the extra picks acquired by dealing Ryan O’Reilly, Vladimir Tarasenko, Noel Acciari, and Niko Mikkola to land the big winger themselves. The New Jersey Devils and Carolina Hurricanes remain in the mix, along with other teams that could benefit from Meier’s top-end talent.

It’s most interesting because the Blues don’t have a ton of wiggle room for next season, when the extensions for Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou kick in. The $10MM qualifying offer Meier is owed would still be difficult to swallow for a team that already has $70.8MM committed to 14 players. Perhaps a long-term extension at a lower AAV would work, but if St. Louis did acquire Meier, they might end up shipping some other pieces out the door before next season starts.

With every new team interested, the Sharks have more due diligence to do, slowing down any potential movement. We’re now ten days away from the deadline and San Jose still holds the biggest chip on the market.

St. Louis Blues Activate Marco Scandella, Scott Perunovich

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The St. Louis Blues are getting two defensemen healthy for the first time this season. As announced by the team, Marco Scandella and Scott Perunovich have been activated from injured reserve, while Jake Neighbours replaces them as he lands on IR with an upper-body injury.

Scandella could make his season debut Tuesday against the Carolina Hurricanes. The 32-year-old is in the third season of a four-year, $13.1MM contract but hasn’t played since undergoing hip surgery last September.

Perunovich remains one of the organization’s best prospects despite missing significant time over the past three seasons with various injuries. A talented offensive defender, Perunovich underwent surgery to repair a fractured left shoulder last October after he sustained the injury in a preseason game.

The 45th overall selection in the 2018 draft, Perunovich has been assigned to the AHL’s Springfield Thunderbirds as he continues to adjust to game action. He’s already recorded one assist in two games on a conditioning stint.

Neighbours officially lands on injured reserve after head coach Craig Berube told reporters yesterday he’d be out long-term. Per the team, Neighbours will be reevaluated in five weeks, meaning he could return with a handful of games left in the season.

It’s been an especially long road to recovery for Scandella, who’d been skating for nearly three months before returning to full health. As he enters the twilight of his NHL career, Scandella is coming off a 14-point effort in 70 games last season.

Perunovich could see NHL action near the tail end of the campaign to prime him for a full-time role in 2023-24. However, with so little professional experience under his belt over the past few seasons, some consistency in his ice time (and routine) at the AHL level could prove beneficial.

Jake Neighbours Likely Out Long-Term

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According to St. Louis Blues head coach Craig Berube, young forward Jake Neighbours is likely out for “a while” after leaving today’s game against the Ottawa Senators with an upper-body injury. The news is a harsh blow to Neighbours and the Blues, who were looking to see the young forward take a step down the stretch this season.

The exact nature or return timeline for Neighbours’ injury is unknown at this time. However, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Matthew DeFranks’ report that Neighbours was wearing a sling postgame suggests a shoulder or arm injury of some kind. After playing just 37 seconds, he left the game, and the Blues lost 7-2.

For Neighbours, this injury comes at a particularly unfortunate time. The 20-year-old left wing was hoping to see increased ice time down the stretch, as the Ryan O’Reilly and Vladimir Tarasenko trades have left spots open in St. Louis’ top six. Neighbours lined up on the second line today alongside Brayden Schenn and Sammy Blais.

For the Blues, Neighbours’ injury adds to an already-depleted forward core. With Brandon Saad on injured reserve and Ivan Barbashev expected to be traded before the deadline, Neighbours was one of the few NHL-ready young players in the organization who could benefit from potential top-six ice time. Without Neighbours, the Blues will instead increase the roles of depth forwards such as Blais, Josh Leivo, Logan Brown, and Nathan Walker, most of whom have averaged under 10 minutes of ice time per game.

It figures to be a miserable ride to the finish line for the Blues, who have fallen beneath .500 and are 3-7-0 in their last 10 games.

Latest On Ivan Barbashev

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  • The St. Louis Blues have already parted with Ryan O’Reilly, Vladimir Tarasenko, Niko Mikkola, and Noel Acciari this deadline season, and versatile two-way forward Ivan Barbashev could be next. While the 27-year-old pending unrestricted free agent’s scoring numbers have declined from where they were last season (when he scored 26 goals and 60 points) Barbashev remains on pace for more than forty points of offense. He’s a widely-respected two-way contributor as well, and The Athletic’s Fluto Shinzawa writes that the Bruins are expected to have some interest in acquiring Barbashev, noting the familiarity between the player and Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery, a former assistant coach in St. Louis. (subscription link) While the Bruins have a roster without many glaring issues, adding another strong forward to their mix would make them all the more formidable of an opponent.

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