St. Louis Blues agree to one-year contract with Oskar Sundqvist
The Blues signed Oskar Sundqvist to a one-year, one-way contract on Saturday.
In addition to signing two unrestricted free agents on Saturday morning, the St. Louis Blues were also active in the restricted free agent market, inking forward Oskar Sundqvist to a one-year deal worth $650,000.
The 23-year-old Sundqvist was acquired in the draft-night trade that sent Ryan Reaves to the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Blues also received a first-round pick, which they used to select highly-touted Russian forward Klim Kostin.
The 6-foot-3, 209-pound Swede skated in 10 games for the Penguins last season, collecting no points while posting a minus-4 rating. In 28 career NHL games, he’s got one goal and three assists with the same minus-4 rating.
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The Blues have 13 forwards signed to one-way contracts (meaning they’re paid the same salary whether they’re in the NHL or AHL), and they also have three notable forwards on two-way deals — Robby Fabbri, who’s obviously one of the team’s most important forwards, as well as Ivan Barbashev, and Zach Sanford, both of whom will be given good opportunities this fall.
The Blues will be without Patrik Berglund due to a shoulder injury, which thins out the competition a bit to start the year, but that still leaves 15 forwards (plus any other additions or guys that force themselves into the mix in camp) competing for 14 spots.
Next: Blues sign Beau Bennett to one-year deal
Since he has relatively little NHL experience and is only making $650,000, Sundqvist is likely one of the guys who will have to fight hardest for a spot along with recent signee Beau Bennett, Barbashev, and Sanford. He’d have to pass through waivers to return to the AHL, however, so he’ll probably have a solid shot at an NHL job.