St. Louis Blues Lose Petteri Lindbohm To Swiss League

The St. Louis Blues have needed defensive depth the last couple seasons. They will be short one man in 2018-19 as they just lost one to Europe.

The strange and semi-tragic saga that surrounded Petteri Lindbohm and the St. Louis Blues has come to an end, at least for now. Linbohm is on his way to Switzerland and not just for the chocolate.

Lindbohm turned down the Blues qualifying offer. As a restricted free agent, he was basically going to have to accept the Blues offer, hope another team might put a bid in (which almost never happens anymore) or do what he did and go to Europe.

Lindbohm signed a deal with Lausanne HC in the Swiss National League. Linbohm is making the switch in the hopes of revitalizing his career.

It seemed as though Lindbohm was destined to play in the NHL. He was drafted by the Blues in 2012, but stayed at home and kept playing in the Finnish league.

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The Blues brought him over for the 2014-15 season. He ended up splitting time between the Chicago Wolves in the AHL and playing 23 games for St. Louis due to some injuries.

While he was not an offensive player, he was one of the few defenders not afraid to unleash a slap shot from the blue line. Combine that with averaging around a hit and block per game and the Blues saw a potential top-six defender.

Then, life got in the way. Lindbohm had a series of bad luck incidents. First, Coloton Parayko and Joel Edmundson came out of nowhere and claimed two roster spots that many had assumed might be taken by Lindbohm in 2015-16. Lindbohm only managed to get into 10 NHL games that season.

He did not register another NHL point. Even though the blocks and hits were still there, it was not enough to warrant more playing time.

Then, things got worse in 2017-18. A shoulder injury kept him sidelined for the entire season, so Linbohm had not played hockey in over a calendar year.

It was a sobering tale of how sports can go. He seemed on the cusp of being a regular third-pairing defenseman and then went down to no NHL time.

So, it is understandable why he’s going to Europe to attempt turning things around. We can argue about the quality of European leagues against the AHL, but the reality is that Linbohm will likely get paid more and play more there.

From the Blues perspective, as most of the articles discussing this issue have pointed out, it’s not a gigantic loss. They have higher ceilings in guys like Jordan Schmaltz, Vince Dunn and Jake Walman. You can also usually find a decent defender on the market, if pressed for it.

It is more the depth issue and a slight twinge of sadness for the man himself. The Blues proved in 2017-18 that they are not quite as deep defensively as we would like to believe. Walman was not yet ready and Schmaltz is hit or miss at the moment.

Lindbohm was not flashy and not the prototype for today’s defenders. He was steady, though, and a solid contributor. He has NHL experience too and that can be vital if you get injuries near playoff time.

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Hopefully he can make a comeback, either with the Blues or someone else. St. Louis will control his rights, should he return to the NHL. I hope he does well for his sake and, if nothing else, so the Blues could get a return should they want to trade his rights.

We all hope the prospects are as good as we want to believe. We knew how good Lindbohm was, though, and though he was not star material, he was good enough for what his role would have been.

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