The St. Louis Blues could have pulled off a major heist this season. The Blues plucked Jonatan Berggren off waivers from the Detroit Red Wings earlier this week. And in his first couple of games in St. Louis, Berggren seems to have proven his old club wrong.
Berggren scored the Blues’ lone goal in their 2-1 overtime loss to the New York Rangers on Thursday night at the Enterprise Center. The tally was a bright spot in an otherwise disappointing outcome for the Blues.
It wasn’t that St. Louis played a bad game; it was just that one of those nights. But the Blues hung in there. Thanks to Berggren’s fantastic goal, the team managed to pull out a point.
Here’s a look at the goal, as shown on the Blues’ official X account:
Jonatan Berggren's first goal as a Blue made us all like "OMG!" #stlblues pic.twitter.com/Cuzr2XUtUt
— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) December 19, 2025
The replay showed Berggren sniping the shot on a tight angle. The puck beat Igor Shestekin on the short side, right above his left shoulder. It was a goal-scorer’s goal, and one both Berggren and the Blues were overjoyed to get.
The expression on Berggren’s face said it all. It was a tremendous accomplishment to get the monkey off his back in his second game with his new team.
But you can’t really blame the Red Wings for passing on Berggren. He hadn’t really lived up to the hype in Detroit. He was the 33rd overall pick in the 2018 NHL Draft. That spot essentially made him a potential first-round selection.
However, Berggren managed just 31 goals in 169 games with the Red Wings. It wasn’t bad, but other forwards leapfrogged him on the Red Wings’ depth chart. His two goals and six points in 15 games with the Wings this season made Berggren expendable.
The Red Wings had no other alternative. They wanted to send him down to the AHL, but had to risk waivers. The risk came to fruition, with the Blues plucking the 25-year-old.
Now, it seems that Berggren may have found a home alongside Pius Suter and Dalibor Dvorsky. While it may be too premature to anoint Berggren as the next big star for the Blues, there’s a pretty good chance the Red Wings jumped the gun.
Detroit’s loss is St. Louis’ gain now. A strong rest of the season for Berggren should bode well for the Uppsala native and the Blues.