St. Louis Blues Activate Jaden Schwartz from IR
The St. Louis Blues will hope that the return of Jaden Schwartz can help stop their painful scoring drought.
After Tuesday’s painful 2-1 shootout loss to the last-place Winnipeg Jets, the offensively-challenged St. Louis Blues didn’t have too many possible remedies left in the bag of tricks that didn’t include a trade. They’ll exhaust one of those few remaining options on Friday, though, as forward Jaden Schwartz has been activated from injured reserve and is expected to return for Friday’s road contest against the Florida Panthers.
The 23-year-old Schwartz has played in just seven games this season, and he’s been sidelined for the last 49 due to the fact that he suffered a fractured ankle in practice on October 23 and was forced to undergo emergency surgery. He had four assists but no goals prior to his injury.
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If healthy, however, Schwartz has the power to make a pronounced impact on the Blues’ lineup. First of all, he’s capable of playing all three forward positions, which exponentially increases the flexibility that Ken Hitchcock has in assembling a lineup each night. In addition to his tremendous ability to be defensively responsible and surprisingly physical for his size, Schwartz has obvious playmaking ability.
Over 75 games last season, Schwartz had 63 points, finishing second on the team in goals (28) and sixth in assists (35). Perhaps he can bring renewed offensive life to a Blues team that has just 10 goals in their past seven games, and six in six if you exclude Saturday’s 4-1 beatdown over the Minnesota Wild.
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The most logical move would involve the Blues moving a left winger like Magnus Paajarvi or Scottie Upshall from the lineup, as neither has been very offensively productive as of late, despite the solid energy that they provide. However unlikely it may be considering the Blues’ affinity for him, it also might be a nice opportunity, however, to give Patrik Berglund a wakeup call considering that he has no points in his past eight games.