St. Louis Blues Add Peter Harrold, Jordan Caron on Two-Way Deals
The St. Louis Blues continued to fortify their AHL depth for the coming season on Thursday, following the morning signing of forward Danny Kristo and the trade for goaltender Pheonix Copley with the signings of two NHL veterans to one-year, two-way deals: forward Jordan Caron and defenseman Peter Harrold.
Both players split time between the NHL and AHL last season. Caron played in 11 games for the Boston Bruins and 23 for their AHL affiliate, the Providence Bruins, before being traded to the Colorado Avalanche in March and finishing the season out by playing 19 games for their NHL club. Harrold played in 43 games for the New Jersey Devils while also seeing his first AHL action in three seasons, skating in 13 contests for the Albany Devils.
Despite his youth, the 24-year-old Caron has already spent a pretty large amount of time in the NHL, having played 153 games over parts of five seasons. The 2009 first-rounder has not really lived up to his draft status thus far in his NHL career; his most productive season was in 2011-12, when he had seven goals and eight assists over 48 games. Since then, he has just two goals and four assists over the past three seasons, and he had no points in 30 NHL games during 2014-15. Caron, along with trade acquisition Troy Brouwer, is one of two players the Blues added on Thursday who have been on the roster for a Stanley Cup championship. Though Caron didn’t participate in any postseason games for the team, he was on the roster for the 2010-11 Bruins when they defeated the Vancouver Canucks in the Finals.
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The 32-year-old Harrold is an experienced blueliner who should provide some quality depth at AHL Chicago, as he’s played in 274 NHL games over nine seasons. He’s never been much of an offensive contributor in the NHL, with season career highs of four goals, eight assists, and 12 points, However, Harrold does bring the treasured quality of being a player with experience on the big stage. He saw action in the Stanley Cup Finals for the 2011-12 New Jersey Devils, and he’s played in a total of 19 postseason games at the NHL level.
It should be interesting to see where Harrold ends up ranking on the organizational depth chart. It’s conceivable that he could slide into the same position that Chris Butler was in last fall, beginning the season as the top defenseman at Chicago and waiting for a possible injury to occur at the NHL level. With that said, the Blues have several defensive prospects who may be ready to contribute on at least a short-term basis at the NHL level in Joel Edmundson and Colton Parayko, so Harrold may be more of a last-ditch insurance policy.