The St. Louis Blues took another step forward with finalizing their opening-night roster on Wednesday afternoon. Blues General Manager Alex Steen announced the reassignment of six players to the Springfield Thunderbirds, while a seventh continues his recovery from injury. With only two games remaining in the preseason, the field of competition is getting interesting.
The reassignments
Forwards Justin Carbonneau and Nikita Susuev are the two headliners of the group heading to the Blues' AHL affiliate, joined by defenseman Quinton Burns, Arseni Koromyslov, and Colin Ralph, along with goaltender Will Cranley.
Outside of Carbonneau, none of the six were ever a realistic option to crack the Blues' opening-night lineup this season. Carbonneau, the club's 2025 first-round draft choice, and the former KHLer, Koromyslov, both need reps at the AHL level before they push for NHL minutes. Felix Trudeau, who was also reassigned, has a little different of a situation. While he was also likely destined for Springfield, he will be rehabilitating an upper-body injury.
Cranley is fresh off of a strong ECHL season that earned him a sustained look and promotion to Springfield this season will serve as the AHL backup for 2026-27.
With only two preseason games remaining, both against the Chicago Blackhawks, the Blues' training camp is taking an interesting shift. The re-introduction phase is done and over with, and the prospects have all but been assigned, leaving now a bit of a hyper-competitive roster of remaining players fighting for the final spots on the NHL roster.
The real battle ahead
With the final layer of the roster crunch still remaining, players like Zach Dean, Dillon Dube, Aleksanteri Kaskimaki, Jack Finley, Dylan Peterson, Otto Stenberg, Oskar Sundqvist, and Nathan Walker are all still in camp fighting for a small handful of bottom-six spots.
Players like Dube, Sunqvsit, and Walker have a proven track record in the NHL and a case can be made to keep any one of them to help bolster the lineup. Others like Stenberg and Peterson are younger players who are still auditioning and fighting for a spot, instead of a mid-season call-up option.
On the blue line, Tyler Tucker's ongoing injury has opened a door that Adam Jiricek and Calle Rosen are both fighting for. With Burns and Koromyslov now heading for Springfield, the battle has become that much more intense. If Tucker's injury stretches for any length of time into the regular season, the Blues could reasonably turn to either Jiricek, who brings youth and higher upside, or Rosen, who brings veteran experience as the seventh defenseman. Neither has done enough to say confidently that they have earned the role, and should remain in contention for the final two games of camp.
Along with these cuts, the Blues are heading into the final stretch of the preseason. Two games against the same opponent will allow Blues Head Coach Jim Montgomery and the rest of the front office the chance to properly evaluate the roster and determine, with what could be the most fair test, who should be kept on and off the roster.
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