St. Louis Blues Sign Andre Benoit to One-Year, Two-Way Contract

The St. Louis Blues further bolstered their organizational depth on the blueline Monday morning, signing 31-year-old NHL veteran Andre Benoit to a one-year, two-way contract. He joins former New Jersey Devil Peter Harrold as defensemen who played in the NHL during the 2014-15 season but have been signed by the Blues in the past week with the intention of assigning them to AHL Chicago to begin 2015-16.

Benoit, a 5-foot-11, 191-pounder, has played 179 NHL games over four seasons and spent the entirety of 2014-15 in the NHL with the Buffalo Sabres. He has 11 goals and 37 assists during that time, with the vast majority of his production having come during the 2013-14 season with the Colorado Avalanche, when he had seven goals and 21 assists over 79 games.

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The Blues organization probably wants to be more than prepared in terms of defensive depth considering how things went down last season. Veteran defenseman Nate Prosser was signed to a two-way contract with the intention of having him at Chicago as a depth player in the event of injury. However, when the Blues attempted to get him through waivers at the end of training camp, he was reclaimed by his former team, the Minnesota Wild. The Blues were lucky to get a surprisingly great training camp performance out of 21-year-old former sixth-rounder Petteri Lindbohm, who was originally scheduled to play in Finland during the 2014-15 season. If Lindbohm hadn’t so vastly exceeded expectations during the preseason, the team may have been faced with pressing some less-than-stellar defensemen into action as their defensive depth wore down during the season.

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Benoit and Harrold both need to go through waivers to be assigned to the minors, so by increasing the quantity of NHL-tested defensemen in the organization, the Blues lessen the chance that they’ll be left without a veteran to turn to in the event of injury. In addition, Benoit and Harrold provide insurance in case, for some reason, Lindbohm regresses significantly during his first full NHL season.

It should be interesting to see if the Blues’ brightest defensive prospects, Joel Edmundson and Colton Parayko, are given a chance to contribute at the NHL level now that the Blues have accumulated so much veteran depth. General manager Doug Armstrong has seemed to express a willingness to give the duo a try over the past few months, but with Harrold and Benoit having so much NHL experience and the prospects having none, it may be a stretch to think that Parayko and Edmundson could pass those two on the depth chart.

Next: Blues Fifth-Rounder Luke Opilka to Bypass College, Go Pro