St. Louis Blues Cut 19 Players from Training Camp Roster
With just 12 days remaining until their first regular season game, the St. Louis Blues took another major step in assembling their initial roster for the 2015-16 season on Saturday afternoon, announcing the removal of 19 players from the training camp roster. Forwards Cody Beach, Pat Cannone, Jaedon Descheneau, Jacob Doty, Justin Hodgman, Danny Kristo, Zach Pochiro, Ryan Tesink, and Yannick Veilleux, defensemen Konrad Abeltshauser, Jordan Schmaltz, and Tommy Vannelli, and goaltenders Jordan Binnington and Niklas Lundstrom were assigned to the Chicago Wolves of the AHL. Meanwhile, forwards Spencer Asuchak, Evan Trupp, Eriah Hayes, and Zach O’Brien as well as defenseman Stu Bickel were released from their professional tryout contracts. For four of those players (with Bickel the lone exception), the term “released” is more of a technicality, as they have minor-league contracts with the Wolves and could be signed and added to the NHL roster if the Blues ever needed them.
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None of the demotions were surprising in the least, though the timing of Binnington’s reassignment was a bit unexpected. This move seems to signal that Pheonix Copley, who was acquired in the T.J. Oshie trade this offseason, has surpassed Bennington as the team’s third-string goalie heading into the season. While Copley is a rather highly-regarded prospect, it’s curious that the organization seems to be so apprehensive about the possibility of Binnington playing an NHL role. He never got an opportunity to play last year while Brian Elliott was injured, with Martin Brodeur instead coming into to fill the void. That was somewhat understandable considering that it was Binnington’s first full AHL season, but after a 2014-15 campaign in which he won the Wolves’ starting job and played in 45 games with a .916 save percentage and 2.35 goals-average, one would think there would be more faith in him to perform spot duty if the Blues had an injury in net. Instead, he’ll likely be battling with the 23-year-old Copley, who had a 2.17 GAA and .925 save percentage over 26 games last year for the Hershey Bears, for positioning throughout the season.
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The recently-demoted players will now head to the Wolves’ training camp, which begins on Tuesday, and battle for spots there as necessary. Several among the group–Descheneau, Tesink, Vannelli, and Lundstrom, in specific–are still candidates to either end up back in juniors or with the Blues’ ECHL affiliate, the Alaska Aces, to start the season, so they’ll have to prove their worth in Chicago over the next couple weeks.
The Blues are now left with 35 players on their training camp roster, so they’re well on their way to trimming it down to 23 by the end of the preseason. Among that group, forward Patrik Berglund will begin the year on injured reserve, and defenseman Dmitrii Sergeev will be returned to his junior team, the Kitchener Rangers, once he finishes rehabbing an injury with the Blues’ training staff. In addition, forward Jeremy Welsh (who is in the lineup tonight) and defensemen Peter Harrold and Andre Benoit were passed through waivers yesterday, so they’ll likely be reassigned in the coming days, as will Copley, the third-string netminder. Thus, there are just a few more tough decisions to make before the team settles on its opening roster.