Jake Neighbours and Alexey Toropchenko agree to contract extensions

The last week has been especially busy at the negotiation table for the St. Louis Blues. On October 22nd, the team agreed to a two-year $7.5 million extension for star right wing Jake Neighbours. Then, earlier today, right wing Alexey Toropchenko signed a one-year extension worth $1.7 million. The two fresh contracts mean that Neighbours will stay in St. Louis through the end of the 2027/28 season, while Toropchenko will remain in St. Louis until the end of the 2025/26 campaign.

With these newest re-signings, recently acquired defenseman Pierre-Oliver Joseph, fellow defenseman Scott Perunovich, and backup goaltender Joel Hofer will be the Blues' remaining unrestricted free agents at the end of 2024/25. Whether or not those players will re-sign or be shipped elsewhere by next June remains to be seen.

As for right now, Neighbours could be a good substitute for the injured Robert Thomas, whose injured reserve placement last Wednesday for a fractured ankle could be potentially damaging in the longer term for the Blues' playoff hopes. Thomas, St. Louis' first-time All-Star right wing, is currently scheduled for re-evaluation in six weeks, around December fourth. However, that date could be tentative depending on how much total recovery time is needed for the 25-year-old Toronto native.

Neighbours is one of the Blues' brightest young stars, playing in his fourth NHL season, currently sitting at four goals and one assist in nine games this season. 2023/24 saw the 22-year-old Calgary native log a career-high 27 goals and 11 assists for 38 points in 77 games, way more playing time than he'd ever gotten in his previous two seasons up until that point.

Toropchenko also had a good 2023/24 season, with 14 goals and seven assists for 21 points, playing in all 82 regular season games, making him just one of seven Blues players to do that last season. Toropchenko was selected in the fourth round of the 2017 NHL Draft, and was in the second year of a two-year, $2.5 million contract he signed last July and was scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent after this season. Neighbours, on the other hand, had the same potential, hitting the free agency market next summer alongside Toropchenko.

St. Louis currently has a 5-4-0 record across nine games this season, sitting at fourth in the Central Division behind the Wild, Stars, and the slightly cooled-off Winnipeg Jets, who started this season undefeated with an impressive 8-0-0 record. Their next contest sees them finish things north of the US border in Ottawa against the Senators after victories over the Maple Leafs last Thursday by a 5-1 score and a 5-2 defeat to the Montreal Canadiens on October 26th.

St. Louis has won three of their last five games so far this season, with their next home contest against Toronto on Saturday, November second, after a Halloween night contest against the Philadelphia Flyers.