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Blues Reassign Matthew Kessel

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The Blues reassigned defenseman Matthew Kessel to AHL Springfield on Monday, per a team announcement. They now have no extra defensemen on the active roster and a pair of open spots.

After being recalled Friday, Kessel only spent a few days on the active roster. He dressed for that night’s game in place of the ill Colton Parayko against the Avalanche but posted a minus-two rating and one shot on goal in 15:26 of ice time. He didn’t play in last night’s 2-1 win over Utah thanks to Parayko’s return, and with a three-game homestand carrying the Blues through to the 4 Nations Face-Off break, the need for an extra defenseman isn’t pressing.

Kessel becomes waiver-eligible after he plays two more NHL games, so, understandably, St. Louis will attempt to stretch that out as long as possible. Regardless of whether he plays again in 2024-25, he’ll need waivers to head to the minors at the beginning of 2025-26 if he doesn’t make the team.

The 24-year-old righty has suited up 27 times for the Blues this year, including 11 straight games in October and November. He routinely logged limited minutes when dressed and was sent to Springfield in December, shortly before St. Louis moved to acquire Cam Fowler from the Ducks.

Dating back to his debut for the team in the 2022-23 season, the 2020 fifth-rounder has one goal and nine assists for 10 points in 68 NHL games with a minus-four rating. He’s averaged 15:16 per game with a 48.0 CF% but has only averaged 13:05 per game in 2024-25, albeit with improved possession metrics.

The Phoenix native is amid an offensive emergence on minor-league assignments this season. While touted as a physical defensive specialist, he has 11 points in 17 games for Springfield after recording just eight in 36 AHL games last season.

Blues’ Robert Thomas, Colton Parayko Expected To Play Despite Illness

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5:00 PM: The Blues have announced that Thomas and Parayko are both expected to play through their illness on Sunday. Kessel and Walker will step out of the lineup in their place.

4:00 PM: The St. Louis Blues could be without two pillars of the lineup when they visit the Utah Hockey Club on Sunday. Top centerman Robert Thomas and top defenseman Colton Parayko are both questionable for the matchup due to illness NHL.com’s Lou Korac reports. Parayko also missed St. Louis’ Friday loss to the Colorado Avalanche, while Thomas left the team’s Sunday practice early.

St. Louis turned toward depth defenseman Matthew Kessel to fill in for Parayko on Friday. He was paired with Parayko’s typical partner, Cam Fowler, and recorded no scoring and a -2 in the outing. The Blues aren’t carrying any other extra defenders, meaning Kessel will step up once again should Parayko miss another matchup.

How to fill in for Thomas will be a much harder question. He has served as the team’s top-line center for the entirety of the season. The team struggled significantly when Thomas missed 12 games between October and November, posting a 4-7-1 record and getting outscored 3.75-to-2.33 on average. The Blues turned towards their litany of depth forwards to fill in for Thomas’ vacancy, with each of Alexandre Texier, Radek Faksa, and Nathan Walker earning routine ice time in his absence.

This time around, Oskar Sundqvist seems like the depth option that’d get the nod, with Faksa and Walker already playing routinely. Sundqvist has been a routine healthy scratch under Jim Montgomery’s reign, and has just three points in 10 games in January and nine points in 38 games this season. He’s fallen to the role of de facto extra forward for the Blues, but Thomas’ absence could force him back into the lineup. That circumstance would likely elevate Brayden Schenn to the Blues’ top line and slot Sundqvist in between Jake Neighbours and Zachary Bolduc on the third line.

Blues Extend Corey Schueneman, Recall Matthew Kessel

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The Blues signed defenseman Corey Schueneman to a two-way contract extension Friday that will pay him $775K in the NHL and $425K in the AHL next season, according to a team announcement. St. Louis also recalled defenseman Matthew Kessel from AHL Springfield, bringing their active roster count to 22.

Schueneman, 29, landed with the Blues on a two-way deal last summer after not being re-upped by the Avalanche. His extension marks a $25K minor-league pay raise for the 2025-26 campaign.

St. Louis waived Schueneman at the end of training camp and he cleared without incident. He’s been recalled from Springfield once, spending the latter half of November on the NHL roster while Philip Broberg and Pierre-Olivier Joseph were on the shelf with injuries. He skated in four out of seven games during his call-up, recording four shots on goal, seven blocks, and one hit while averaging 14:03 of ice time per game. The 6’0″ lefty controlled play well in his limited minutes, posting a 56.2 CF% at even strength.

The Michigan native plays a shutdown game first and foremost but has always produced a decent chunk of offense at the minor-league level, including 12 points in 35 games with Springfield this year. He has 102 points in 279 career AHL games – good for 0.37 per game – since his professional debut on a minor-league deal in the Flames system in 2019.

Schueneman now has 35 games of NHL experience, the other 31 of which came with the Canadiens in the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons. He had two goals and five assists with a minus-four rating there.

By staying in the Blues organization for another year, Schueneman lands some stability after switching clubs in the 2023 and 2024 offseasons with his intermediary stop in Colorado that didn’t result in any NHL time. He’s a low-risk candidate for a waiver claim and should remain in the system as a decent injury replacement option. He’ll be an unrestricted free agent in 2026.

The 24-year-old Kessel gets the call from the minors for the first time since mid-December. He’ll likely serve as an extra defender during the Blues’ upcoming two-game road swing through Colorado and Utah. The Phoenix native began the season on the Blues’ roster but struggled with three assists and a minus-one rating in 26 games before being assigned to Springfield. The 6’3″ righty has been on fire since his demotion, posting 11 points, 19 PIMs, and a plus-three rating in 17 AHL appearances.

Blues Place Brandon Saad On Unconditional Waivers

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Jan. 30: Saad is on unconditional waivers today and will have his contract terminated assuming he clears Friday, Friedman confirms.

Jan. 29, 1:56 p.m.: The Blues and Saad are now heading toward a mutual contract termination, Friedman adds. The move will make him an unrestricted free agent, so he’ll be able to sign with any team down the stretch with new contract terms. However, he’ll be walking away from north of $5MM of cash he was still owed on his deal with St. Louis.

Jan. 29, 1:05 p.m.: Saad and Sylvegård cleared waivers Wednesday, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports. Saad heads to the AHL for the first time in over a decade, while Sylvegård has had his contract terminated and is free to return to Europe.

Jan. 28: Blues general manager Doug Armstrong announced Tuesday that they’re placing veteran winger Brandon Saad on waivers, per Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic. St. Louis also placed winger Marcus Sylvegård on unconditional waivers for the purposes of contract termination, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports.

Saad is in the fourth season of a five-year, $22.5MM contract he signed with the Blues as an unrestricted free agent in 2021. The deal carries a $4.5MM cap hit, but he’s only owed $4.375MM in salary this season and $3.625MM in 2025-26.

Saad, who has struggled to the tune of seven goals, nine assists, and 16 points in 43 games this season, was a speculative trade candidate before the deadline but carries a full no-trade clause until July 1. Placing him on waivers will allow interested clubs to acquire him even if he would have otherwise blocked a trade. Notably, the Blues can’t retain any salary on Saad if he’s claimed off waivers rather than traded.

Armstrong told reporters, including Lou Korac of NHL.com, that Saad will report to and play for AHL Springfield if he goes unclaimed tomorrow. David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reports that Saad had told the Blues he was willing to waive his NTC, but no trade materialized. They won’t be making a corresponding recall after Saad is removed from the roster, Armstrong added (via Matthew DeFranks of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch).

While things haven’t panned out for the 32-year-old Saad in St. Louis this season, he was a decent secondary scorer as recently as last season, when he turned in 26 goals and stayed healthy for all 82 games. It was Saad’s second-best goal-scoring season of his 14-year NHL career. However, his overall offense has continuously dropped off from his days of routinely producing around 50 points per season for the Blackhawks and Blue Jackets early on.

In Saad’s defense, a good portion of his struggles can be attributed to a significant dropoff in shooting percentage. He’s clicking at just 9.3%, the second-lowest rate of his career and down nearly 50% from last year’s 18.1% success rate. He’s due for regression, especially considering his 36 individual high-danger chances at 5-on-5 are tied for third on the Blues, per Natural Stat Trick.

A second-round pick by Chicago in 2011, Saad reached the NHL one year later and won championships with the Hawks in both 2013 and 2015. A salary cap crunch forced Chicago to trade him to the Blue Jackets for a package centered around Artem Anisimov following the second of those Cups, but the Blackhawks re-acquired him from Columbus two years later – unfortunately giving up superstar winger Artemi Panarin in the process.

But on the wrong side of 30 and with another year left on his deal, Saad finding a new home on waivers seems unlikely – especially if the Blues were previously willing to retain salary to facilitate a trade. Most teams interested in adding a veteran piece instead of subtracting likely won’t have the cap space for Saad at his full impact.

The Blues signed Sylvegård, 25, as an undrafted free agent from Sweden’s Växjö Lakers last offseason. He’s done well on assignment to Springfield, ranking fifth on the team with 21 points (10 G, 11 A) in 35 games, but has yet to receive an NHL recall. Evidently, both parties are satisfied with breaking ties early and allowing him to return to Europe. He’ll become an unrestricted free agent upon termination.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Islanders Acquire Scott Perunovich From Blues

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The Islanders acquired defenseman Scott Perunovich from the Blues on Monday in exchange for a conditional 2026 fifth-round pick, both clubs announced.

Perunovich, 26, slots into the Islanders’ blue line after righty Ryan Pulock landed on injured reserve this morning. His acquisition signals the latter is expected to miss significant time, so he and recent free-agent signing Tony DeAngelo now slot in to relieve the void left by Pulock and Noah Dobson, who’s week-to-week with a right leg injury.

While the 5’10” puck mover is a left shot, he has experience playing on his offside. New York will rely on that experience and presumably utilize him on the right, giving them another offensive option in addition to the historically one-dimensional DeAngelo.

A 2018 second-round pick, Perunovich was once one of the most highly-regarded defense prospects in the game. But after winning the Hobey Baker Award with 40 points in 34 games for Minnesota-Duluth in 2019-20, he missed his entire rookie campaign with St. Louis after undergoing left shoulder surgery. Wrist surgery limited him to 19 games with the Blues the following year, and yet another shoulder injury cut into his 2022-23 campaign. Throughout those three seasons, injuries limited Perunovich to just 58 games with the Blues and AHL Springfield.

While wholly healthy for the first time since college in 2024-25, Perunovich hasn’t found much playing time. He’s been a healthy scratch for about half the season, including the last nine games, and has only averaged 14:37 per game when in the lineup. He has six points and nine shots on goal in 24 games, adding 21 blocks and nine hits. The acquisition of Philip Broberg via offer sheet this summer as a young puck-moving lefty largely made Perunovich a redundancy heading into the campaign, so seeing him on the move is not entirely surprising.

He’s far from being the two-way presence Pulock is for the Isles, but he more accurately fills the void left by depth defender Mike Reilly, who remains on LTIR after undergoing heart surgery. He has 29 points in his 97 career NHL appearances but will be in line for a bump in minutes on Long Island, which both sides hope will boost his production.

Perunovich signed a one-year, $1.15MM extension with the Blues last June to avoid hitting restricted free agency. He’ll be an RFA again at season’s end and is arbitration-eligible.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Viktor Lodin Could Return To The NHL Next Season

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Viktor Lodin’s first stint in North America came and went with little fanfare.  However, now that he’s having a strong season back home in Sweden, a return could be back on the radar.  Aftonbladet’s Tomas Ros and Hans Abrahamsson report (subscription link) that there are multiple NHL teams (including the Blues and Red Wings) believed to be scouting the forward and that Lodin could look to take another crack at the NHL next season.

The 25-year-old was a fourth-round pick by Ottawa back in 2019, going 94th overall.  After spending the first season of his entry-level deal with SHL Timra, Lodin came to North America late in the year, getting into one appearance with the big club and ten more with AHL Belleville where he impressed with eight points.  That seemed to position himself to push for an NHL roster spot for 2022-23.

That didn’t happen, however.  Lodin was limited to just 28 games with Belleville that year and while he held his own with 15 points in those outings, the Senators elected to walk away at the end of the season, non-tendering him instead of issuing a qualifying offer.

Lodin returned to Sweden last season, spending the year with IK Oskarshamn where he fared well with 11 goals and 20 assists in 40 games.  However, that team was relegated for this season so Lodin moved on to Farjestad for this year and his production has improved.  Through 31 outings in 2024-25, he has 12 goals and 21 assists, good for a tie for second in SHL scoring.

Because Lodin already had his entry-level contract, there are no more restrictions on what type of deal he can sign.  With the year he’s having, it’s possible that he could command a strong two-way deal or even a one-way pact which makes him someone to keep an eye on when the international transfer window opens up in the spring.  If Lodin doesn’t get an offer to his liking, he can fall back on the security of his current deal with Farjestad, one that runs through the 2028-29 season.

Blues Reassign Otto Stenberg To AHL

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1/11: St. Louis has officially assigned Stenberg to the AHL.

1/10: The Blues will likely have center prospect Otto Stenberg finish his 2024-25 season in North America after starting the year on loan to the Swedish Hockey League’s Malmö Redhawks, Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic reports. Malmö confirmed that Stenberg won’t be returning to the club this season after representing the Swedes at the 2025 World Junior Championship.

Stenberg, 19, was the second of three first-round picks that St. Louis made in the 2023 draft. Going 25th overall after Dalibor Dvorský (10th) and fellow Swede Theo Lindstein (29th), the offensively-inclined pivot was expected to go higher coming into the year but fell to the late first after a stagnant offensive showing in Sweden’s top junior league.

Since his draft day, Stenberg has barely touched junior competition aside from back-to-back showings at the WJC. He’s played primarily in the SHL with Frölunda and Malmö, but as per usual with youngsters in Europe, he hasn’t climbed high enough up the depth chart to see his point totals pop.

In 25 games with Malmö this year, Stenberg had three goals and three assists for six points with a minus-seven rating, second-worst on the team. The Blues signed him to his entry-level contract in May, and since he was a first-round pick, he could have been sent to the AHL to begin the season without his Swedish team’s permission, but they opted to keep him at home regardless.

Now, after Stenberg posted eight points in seven games en route to a bronze-game loss to the Czechs, he’ll be coming stateside after all. He’ll link up with fellow 2023 first-rounder Dvorský, who leads Springfield in goals with 11 in 27 games as the pair come back from their WJC loans.

The move opens the door to a potential NHL recall for Stenberg down the stretch, although he’ll likely get a long leash in the AHL before that’s something the Blues consider.

Faksa Could Return Thursday

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  • Blues center Radek Faksa is nearing a return to the lineup and could be an option to suit up on Thursday, relays Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic (Twitter link). The soon-to-be 31-year-old is dealing with a lower-body injury and has played just once in the last four weeks.  In his first season with St. Louis, Faksa hasn’t been a big offensive contributor thus far, carrying that over from his time in Dallas.  He has two goals and five assists through his first 30 outings and if the Blues wind up selling before the March 7th trade deadline, he could be on the move with several teams undoubtedly looking to add center depth in the coming weeks.

Texier Returns To Lineup, Faksa Still Out With Lower-Body Injury

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Lou Korac of The Hockey News reported earlier that forward Alexandre Texier would be a game-time decision for the St. Louis Blues this afternoon. Additionally, Korac shared that bottom-six forward Radek Faksa would miss his third straight game with a lower-body injury.

Texier has been battling an illness and missed St. Louis’ recent game against the Nashville Predators on Friday. He’s apparently all set to go as the Blues organization later confirmed that they’ve welcomed Texier back to the active roster for this afternoon’s game. He’ll join Pavel Buchnevich and Robert Thomas on the team’s first line and look to build upon his two-goal, five-point effort this season.

Despite being absent for nearly 10 days, Faksa isn’t expected to miss much longer. His lower-body injury was suffered in the Blues’ overtime loss to the Florida Panthers on December 20th but the team never placed him on the injured reserve. Faksa has added two goals and seven points in 30 games to the St. Louis roster this year.

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Blues Recall Tyler Tucker

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The Blues announced Thursday morning that they’ve recalled defenseman Tyler Tucker from AHL Springfield. He takes Pierre-Olivier Joseph’s spot on the active roster after the fellow left-shot was traded to the Penguins last night for future considerations.

It’s Tucker’s first recall of the season after he landed on waivers in early October. The 24-year-old was the odd man out in a battle for depth spots that included Joseph, Matthew Kessel and Scott Perunovich. The pending Group VI unrestricted free agent is now in his fourth season as an alternate captain for Springfield and is on pace for a career-best season offensively, posting 10 points in 19 games with 39 PIMs and a +6 rating.

Tucker, a seventh-round pick out of the Ontario Hockey League’s Barrie Colts in 2018, has 52 NHL appearances with the Blues in the past two seasons. The 6’2″, 205-lb checker has two goals and four assists with a -8 rating while averaging a light workload at 13:33 per game. Tucker also leads Blues defensemen in hits per 60 minutes (9.71) since the beginning of the 2022-23 season.

Unfortunately, his physicality hasn’t translated into an effective defensive presence, at least at even strength. Despite Tucker starting 54.4% of his shifts in the offensive zone, St. Louis has only controlled 45.5% of shot attempts and 45.3% of expected goals with him on the ice.

Tucker will likely stick around on the Blues’ roster as a No. 7 option until Nick Leddy is ready to return from the lower-body injury that’s kept him out for over two months. He can remain on the active roster for up to 30 non-consecutive days or appear in 10 games until he requires waivers again to head back to Springfield.

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