St. Louis Blues Place Defenseman Brad Hunt on Waivers

The Blues will create some salary cap room by moving Brad Hunt off the NHL roster.

With their defensive corps apparently back to full strength, the St. Louis Blues placed defenseman Brad Hunt on waivers Monday. Hunt had spent over 30 days with the NHL club, meaning that he must clear waivers to return to the Blues’ AHL club in Chicago.

Hunt, who was called up when Robert Bortuzzo went on IR in early December, got off to a great start with the Blues, collecting points (one goal and three assists) in all of his first four games with the Blues. Despite his strong start, however, Hunt was bumped from the Blues’ lineup after Carl Gunnarsson returned from an injury, and he ended up sitting for eight of the team’s next 13 games, only getting back into the lineup again as Gunnarsson went down with another injury. He played in nine games overall, collecting a total of five points with a minus-2 rating.

Gunnarsson appears to be healthy enough once again to become a viable option for the Blues, so now they’ll save some cap space by moving Hunt–who has a one-year, two-way contract–off the NHL roster. That leaves the team with just 22 players on the NHL roster (one below the 23-man maximum) for the first time this season.

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The Blues have gotten by just fine with a 13-man forward rotation ever since Jaden Schwartz returned from an injury in October, so it’s unlikely that they’ll fill that 23rd spot on the roster unless it’s truly necessary. If they’re looking to make a call up, though, AHL forwards Kenny Agostino, Wade Megan, and Ivan Barbashev have performed very well of late and could be candidates for a promotion.