St. Louis Blues Make Moves to Assemble Opening Night Roster
The St. Louis Blues made a series of moves to assemble their opening night roster on Monday afternoon, though it’s possible that a bit more activity may be soon to come. Forwards Magnus Paajarvi and Ty Rattie and defensemen Chris Butler and Petteri Lindbohm were assigned to the AHL Chicago Wolves, while veteran forward Scottie Upshall, who had been in training camp on a professional tryout arrangement, was signed to a one-year, two-way contract. Those moves leave the Blues at 22 active players–one below the maximum–so it’s possible that veteran center Scott Gomez, who like Upshall, was on a PTO deal during camp, could be signed to a contract and become the team’s 14th forward.
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The biggest surprise of the bunch to be demoted was the 22-year-old Lindbohm, who was one of the team’s most impressive defensemen during brief action in his rookie season last year. While Lindbohm played perfectly fine during this year’s training camp, he simply couldn’t match the production of rookies Colton Parayko and Joel Edmundson, both of whom had spectacular camps and will be on the roster to begin the season. Lindbohm will now have to head back to the AHL, which at his age isn’t the worst thing in the world, but is surely a letdown for a player who many believed would make the team and play a bigger role during 2015-16.
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Butler and Paajarvi were also on one-way contracts and seemed to be penciled onto the NHL roster going into camp, but they weren’t exceptionally productive during the preseason and were beat out by guys like Upshall, possibly Gomez, Parayko, and Edmundson. Both veterans will head to the minors and hope to be depth callups later in the year, though each of them will struggle to pass up younger, more intriguing players like Lindbohm and Rattie if playing time becomes available at the NHL level.
Upshall will likely be in the opening night lineup on the fourth line, as he seemed to pass up veteran Steve Ott during camp.