St. Louis Blues Place Alexander Steen on IR, Expect Him to Miss at Least a Month
The St. Louis Blues will be without one of their top forwards for at least a month after he suffered an injury in Saturday’s win.
The St. Louis Blues announced on Sunday afternoon that forward Alexander Steen has been placed on injured reserve with an upper-body injury and will be re-evaluated in four weeks. Steen was checked from behind by Arizona Coyotes defenseman Kevin Connauton during the first period of Saturday’s 6-4 Blues win, and he landed right in front of the boards before immediately getting up and exiting the ice, appearing to grab at his right arm. Now, if Steen recovers according to the Blues’ four-week timetable, he’ll at least miss the team’s next 12 games.
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Steen’s injury means that Ken Hitchcock will finally be required to make alterations to a lineup that has been static since Jaden Schwartz returned five games ago (February 12 at Florida). It’s likely that Magnus Paajarvi will re-enter the lineup on Monday night against San Jose, with David Backes moving back to center, as he did against Arizona following Steen’s injury.
While Paajarvi can provide some nice energy, particularly against a bigger and more physical opponent like San Jose, the Blues may want to consider adding a more offensively-inclined player to help offset Steen’s production, since Paajarvi has no points in his past 13 games and just five points (two goals, three assists) in 36 games this season.
The Blues could recall either Ty Rattie, who scored three goals during a six-game NHL stint in early January and has a total of three goals and two assists in 11 games this season, or Dmitrij Jaskin, who has struggled in 2015-16 but had 13 goals and five assists in 54 games for the Blues last season. Since his demotion to the AHL earlier this week, Jaskin has a goal and an assist in two games with the Chicago Wolves. Rattie, meanwhile, may be dealing with some discouragement after being demoted following a productive NHL stint, and he has just one goal in eight games since being sent down for the latest time.
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If the club wants to give Paajarvi another prolonged chance to stick in the lineup, they could opt for a more experienced player like Jordan Caron, Jeremy Welsh, or Pat Cannone to serve as the extra forward.
Caron and Welsh both saw brief stints as fourth-liners with the Blues earlier this year, while the 29-year-old Cannone would be making his NHL debut if he were to be recalled by the Blues.
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It’s very possible that the Blues could operate with just the minimum 12 forwards until Saturday’s visit to Nashville; judging by Jaskin’s demotion earlier this week and extra defenseman Peter Harold’s demotion on Sunday, the team appears to be trying to conserve as much cap space as possible in advance of the trade deadline and forward Steve Ott‘s anticipated March return, which will cease the long-term injured reserve cap savings that they’ve been receiving in his absence.