The season for a struggling St. Louis Blues team has gone from bad to worse: Jordan Kyrou, one of their top forwards, left yesterday's game with an injury and is likely to miss at least today's game. With Jimmy Snuggerud, Alexey Toropchenko, and Nathan Walker already on injured reserve and missing significant time, the Blues can't very well afford to lose Kyrou, too.
If Kyrou does miss significant time, though, who can step up into his role? It's a down year for Kyrou, sure, but perennial 30-plus goal scorers don't grow on trees, and the Blues don't exactly have a one-to-one replacement available on the roster or in their farm system.
The most obvious answer is the captain, Brayden Schenn, moving into the top six on the wing of either Robert Thomas or Dalibor Dvorsky. Schenn is having a down season, with only four goals, six assists, and 10 points through 29 games--a far cry from his better years. However, due to age, that may just be the player he is now. On an already weak Blues roster, Schenn does at least have the experience to hang in a top-six role, even if it's not ideal.
Another option is offseason addition Pius Suter. Suter has seven goals, seven assists, and 14 points in 27 games with the Blues, and has bounced all over the lineup and played various positions the whole season. Of the players currently projected to be in the Blues' bottom six, he's the one who has experience playing up the lineup; last year, he was the first-line center for the Vancouver Canucks when Elias Pettersson went down with an injury. Having Suter play second-line wing should be light work by comparison.
We still don't know exactly how severe Kyrou's injury is, nor how much time he could miss. The Blues don't have a clear replacement for Kyrou's production and skill, but one of Suter or Schenn could handle Kyrou's minutes in the short term.