St. Louis Blues Have Difficult Roster Decisions Approaching
By Todd Panula
The St. Louis Blues know they have a couple players returning from injury soon. However, their return might cost the Blues some players.
The St. Louis Blues find themselves in an odd situation as they enter the stretch run before the holiday season. They are on the brink of getting players back to full health, but that may prove to be a double-edged sword.
For the better part of a month, the Blues have been without the services of a third of their starting 12 forwards from the beginning of the season. In the last week, the Blues have been without almost half those players given the injury to Zach Sanford compounding things.
However, Oskar Sundqvist just returned and Alex Steen is on the cusp of returning. Given that, the Blues might be put in a bind as to who stays on the NHL roster.
St. Louis lucked out with the situation of Nathan Walker, who got sent back to the AHL when Sundqvist returned. According to Tom Timmermann, since Walker played fewer than 10 games and was not in the NHL for 30 days, he did not have to clear waivers.
That was all a relief since Walker had led the San Antonio Rampage in scoring prior to his promotion. Despite playing in fewer than 10 games with every NHL team he has been with, he has managed a goal in three of four seasons.
Perhaps he would have cleared waivers, but the Blues have lost far too many players to waiver claims in recent years. Maybe Walker never makes the NHL full time, but the Blues can’t keep losing these types of depth players.
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The roster crunch won’t end with Walker either. Once Steen returns, and definitely when Sammy Blais comes back, the Blues will have serious decisions to make.
Right now, the expendable players would be Austin Poganski, Jordan Kyrou, Troy Brouwer, Jacob de la Rose or Mackenzie MacEachern.
Clearly when Steen gets back, Poganski will be sent down. He does not have to clear waivers since he is still on his rookie contract, which is two-way.
The more difficult choice will be made when Blais comes back. The Blues will have to decide about Kyrou’s future or testing the waiver wire again.
Kyrou is the easiest pick since he is also on a two-way contract. However, we have heard time and time again that the Blues wanted to leave Kyrou in the AHL until they were ready to bring him up full time.
You could argue this is a special scenario, but there were still other names that could have been brought up just for an emergency basis. The Blues have also played Kyrou on the top line, which shows they have confidence in him. Would they really send him down if he is playing well, just to avoid a tougher choice?
That depends on what they want from guys like Brouwer, de la Rose and MacEachern. All three have to clear waivers to make room and all three seem unlikely to make it through.
The Blues clearly value Brouwer’s leadership. His best playing days are behind him, but he can still chip in and enough guys remember him from 2016 that he can still fill that locker room role vacated by Steen. Teams were not hot to sign him in free agency, so maybe you sneak him through. The Blues are never that lucky and someone might grab him out of spite, since the price is so low on him.
I cannot see de la Rose getting the hook. He too would likely get claimed and the Blues just acquired him for a highly respected piece in Robby Fabbri. You don’t trade for a guy just to spin the roulette wheel of waivers.
The last option would be MacEachern. You’re not going to pick MacMac over someone like Blais, with as hot as he was prior to the injury. However, is just would not seem fair to attempt demoting him after he did everything right to earn his spot last season and hold onto it to start 2019-20. MacEachern has been pretty hot for a fourth-line player too. Nobody said pro sports were ever fair though.
Ultimately, Kyrou’s play will likely determine this choice. Also, it should be noted that Blais won’t even be reevaluated until late January at the earliest. He is skating though.
Regardless, if Kyrou is mediocre, the Blues will probably use that as their loophole and simply send him down to the AHL. If he starts looking more and more an NHL player, the way we saw flashes from Robert Thomas, then someone is likely not going to finish the year with the Blues organization. It just seems too likely that anyone not on a two-way deal would get claimed.
If it was up to me, I would try to sneak Brouwer through.
Thankfully, it is not up to me. This is somewhat of a no-win scenario for Doug Armstrong.