Logan Brown Could Be Non-Tender Candidate
When St. Louis picked up Logan Brown in 2021, the hope was that a change of scenery could help get the 2016 first-round pick going. However, he has managed just six goals in 69 games since the swap and has been a frequent healthy scratch. Accordingly, Matthew DeFranks of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch wonders if the Blues will even bother tendering the 25-year-old a qualifying offer this summer. He’s arbitration-eligible and while his offensive numbers aren’t great, he could still ask for a bit more than the minimum in a hearing which might be more than they can realistically afford with a likely tight salary cap situation coming in 2023-24.
Blues Reassign Tucker, Zherenko
- The St. Louis Blues reassigned defenseman Tyler Tucker and goalie Vadim Zherenko to their affiliate, the Springfield Thunderbirds. Tucker has played 26 games in the NHL this season and has 21 points in 39 AHL games, last playing for Springfield on April 8th. Zherenko, 22, has a .918 save percentage through 18 games for Springfield this season and was a 2019 seventh-round pick. The Thunderbirds have their playoff spot locked up but with three games remaining can still earn a higher seed.
St. Louis Blues Make Changes To Coaching Staff
St. Louis Blues assistant coaches Craig MacTavish and Mike Van Ryn will not be returning to the team for the 2023-24 season, the Blues said in a release Friday. Head coach Craig Berube‘s position has not been affected.
Assistant coach Steve Ott and goaltending coach David Alexander will remain on the team’s coaching staff, along with video coach Darryl Seward and video coordinator Elliott Mondou.
MacTavish had joined the Blues coaching staff for the 2022-23 season. Before that, he had finished a 17-year playing career with the Blues in 1997 before going on to become an assistant coach with the New York Rangers and head coach of the Edmonton Oilers between 2000 and 2009.
Van Ryn, on the other hand, had spent five seasons as an assistant coach with the Blues after the team hired him in May 2018. He played for the Blues for the first three of his eight seasons as a defenseman in the NHL. He then coached for eight years between the OHL and AHL before joining the Blues ahead of their Stanley Cup-winning season in 2018-19.
The Blues finished their disappointing 2022-23 season with a record of 37-38-7 and 81 points, missing the playoffs for the second time since 2012.
It remains to be seen who will fill the vacant positions left by MacTavish and Van Ryn. With the team looking to retool quickly in the offseason after selling off major assets at the trade deadline, the coaching staff will play a crucial role in ensuring the Blues can be competitive next season.
St. Louis Blues Recall Vadim Zherenko
The St. Louis Blues have recalled Vadim Zherenko under emergency conditions, sending Joel Hofer back to the Springfield Thunderbirds. The young netminder will serve as the backup for Jordan Binnington in tonight’s finale.
Zherenko, 22, is in his first season of North American pro hockey, after being selected 208th overall in 2019. He posted an impressive .918 save percentage in 24 appearances with the Thunderbirds, forming an excellent tandem with Hofer and taking the club to the Calder Cup playoffs.
With seeding still on the line for Springfield, and a big back-to-back-to-back situation coming this weekend to finish their season, Hofer will prepare for tomorrow’s AHL contest.
That’s to the benefit of Zherenko, who will get another day of NHL pay while he sits on the bench. This is the second call-up of his career after a short stint on the roster earlier this month. The young netminder will have to wait to make his debut, but it already looks like he has a rather promising future—especially for a seventh-round pick.
St. Louis Blues Recall Three Players
The St. Louis Blues are down to their final two games of the season, and will not be making the playoffs this year. They don’t play again until Wednesday and close out their season with games on consecutive nights against the Dallas Stars. According to Lou Korac of NHL.com, it appears they will be adding some reinforcements to the lineup to give a trio of prospects a taste of NHL action before the season comes to a close. The Blues have announced Joel Hofer, Tyler Tucker and Hugh McGing have all been called up from the Springfield Thunderbirds.
- Hofer is a 22-year-old goaltender who was drafted in the fourth round of the 2018 NHL Draft. He has had a solid season with the Thunderbirds, posting a 2.57 GAA to go with a .918 SV% and a 25-15-5 record in 45 contests. He has also played five NHL games this season where he put up a 2.79 GAA and a .915 SV%, showing some promise in limited duty. The Blues need to find a solution in goal with Jordan Binnington signed long term but struggling and Thomas Greiss a pending unrestricted free agent this summer. Hofer has played well enough this season to show he could be the goaltender of the future in St. Louis.
- Tucker was a seventh-round pick of the Blues in 2018 and has split this season between St. Louis and Springfield. The 6-foot-1 and 204 pound defenseman has put up three goals and 21 points in 39 AHL games while playing a steady defensive game as well. He has been called up already this season, compiling 24 NHL games and scoring one goal and four points. The 23 year old will look to show he can compete for a roster spot next season, even though the Blues have seven NHL defenders signed through 2023-24.
- McGing was a fifth-round pick in the 2018 NHL Draft and is yet to make his NHL debut. The 24-year-old forward is in his third AHL season and has scored 15 goals and 35 points in 68 games for the Thunderbirds. He may get a chance to play in his first NHL game with the Blues playing out the string later this week.
Martin Frk Linked To Swiss League
Martin Frk has consistently been one of the top-scoring threats in the AHL for the better part of the last decade. However, it appears that there’s a chance he’ll be heading elsewhere for next season as Blick’s Stephan Roth reports that the winger could be joining EV Zug in the Swiss NLA for 2023-24. No agreement has been finalized at this time.
The 29-year-old signed a one-year, two-way deal with the Blues last summer, a contract that guaranteed him $560K in total salary which is quite high for an AHL player. However, St. Louis has yet to bring Frk up this season. Instead, he has spent the full campaign with AHL Springfield, notching 30 goals and 34 assists in 64 games, good for tenth in the league in scoring.
Barring a recall in the final week, Frk’s streak of six straight years of seeing NHL action will come to an end. He has 124 appearances at the top level with decent numbers of 20 goals and 21 assists but hasn’t been able to lock down a full-time role. With his role now seemingly set as a high-end minor league scorer, the time might be right for Frk to try something new and see how things fare for him overseas.
St. Louis Blues Assign Dmitri Samorukov, Vadim Zherenko To AHL
The St. Louis Blues have assigned defenseman Dmitri Samorukov and goaltender Vadim Zherenko to their AHL affiliate, the Springfield Thunderbirds, the team announced Sunday.
With the Blues out of action until next Wednesday and only two games left on their regular-season schedule, the transaction is purely a paper one to save the Blues some actual dollars. Springfield has three games left this season, but all come after the Blues wrap up their regular season on April 13.
Samorukov, 23, was acquired by the Blues from the Edmonton Oilers in exchange for Klim Kostin in October 2022. In his two-game stint with the Blues this month, his first games with the team since the trade, he registered a minor penalty and a -1 rating. This season, the Volgograd, Russia, product has posted 20 points (four goals, 16 assists) and 26 penalty minutes in 66 games for the Thunderbirds.
Zherenko, 22, saw the first recall of his NHL career this month when St. Louis added him on an emergency basis due to Thomas Greiss‘ season-ending injury. The 208th overall selection in the 2019 NHL Draft, Zherenko has played in 24 games for the Thunderbirds during his first season in North America, posting a 10-8-3 record along with a 2.96 goals-against average and a .918 save percentage. He didn’t appear in a game on his recall, though, as Jordan Binnington has made four straight starts since Greiss played his last game of the year on April 1.
Sending down Zherenko leaves the Blues without a second goalie on their NHL roster. With no organizational action through St. Louis’ next game, expect the Blues to recall Zherenko (and possibly Samorukov, pending the health of Robert Bortuzzo) again next Wednesday for their final two games of the season.
Robert Bortuzzo Away From Team Until Sunday
- Lou Korac of NHL.com reports that St. Louis Blues defenseman Robert Bortuzzo is currently away from the team. Korac mentions Bortuzzo had a family matter to attend to in Toronto and will be back with the Blues on Sunday. Bortuzzo has also missed the team’s last five games while dealing with an upper-body injury but as Korac notes, he has not been ruled out of a pair of games next week against the Dallas Stars that will bring the Blues season to a close.
Thomas Greiss Out For The Rest Of The Season
The St. Louis Blues have announced that goaltender Thomas Greiss will be out for the remainder of the season with a lower body injury. Greiss played in 21 games for the Blues and will finish the season with a 7-10-0 record to go with a .895 save percentage and a 3.64 GAA. He underwent a procedure this past Monday and it was being speculated that it would sideline him until the end of the year.
Greiss was signed in the offseason as a backup to Jordan Binnington and struggled in his first season with the Blues. It was his 14th season in the NHL and his second season in a row where he put up a save percentage under .900.
Greiss had a tremendous five year run with the New York Islanders from 2015-2020 which saw him win 101 games and put-up a save percentage of .915. However, by the time Greiss signed in St. Louis late last summer there was talk that he nearly retired due to a lack of interest in his services.
Now given his struggles the past two seasons it seems possible that the 37-year-old could hang up his skates after this season. It’ll be interesting to see what Greiss does, there remains a possibility that he could still find work as a backup, given how thin the free agent goaltending market will be this summer.
Robert Thomas Back Skating With St. Louis Blues
Some good news for the St. Louis Blues as they enter the final week of the regular season. Lou Korac of NHL.com is reporting that Robert Thomas is back skating today at the team’s optional skate. Thomas has missed the last five games with an upper body injury but took a step towards returning as he did some drills with Blues assistant coach Steve Ott this morning.
Thomas had started to heat up just before his injury with three points in the two games prior to getting hurt. Before that he had been on a cold streak going pointless in four straight. Thomas has been streaky this year putting up points in bunches and then going cold for a handful of games. Despite this, he still has 19 goals and 63 points in 70 games this year.
The Blues have just three games left in the regular season, so it is not yet known whether Thomas will return before the Blues play game 82. St. Louis is already officially eliminated from the playoffs so there is little rush to bringing him back too soon, especially with his eight year $65MM dollar extension kicking in next season.
St. Louis will be an interesting team to watch this offseason. The team has been visibly frustrated with the play of goaltender Jordan Binnington, their defense is old and could use an injection of youth, and they’ve got a solid group of forwards led by Thomas and Jordan Kyrou. They aren’t that far removed from their 2019 Stanley Cup and will likely be looking to push for the playoffs again in 2023-24.