St. Louis Blues Re-Sign Jordan Caron to One-Year Deal

With the strain that they could potentially end up putting on the salary cap if they decide to bring back free agent forwards David Backes and Troy Brouwer, the St. Louis Blues aren’t going to have the easiest time attracting free agent forwards to serve as depth players within their organization for the 2016-17 season. That’s why it’s perhaps more important than it might seem right now the the Blues were able to re-sign winger Jordan Caron to a one-year, two-way contract on Wednesday.

Caron, a 25-year-old former first-round pick who measures in at 6-foot-3 and 204 pounds, played in just four games for the Blues last December, collecting no points while posting a minus-3 rating. He’s got 157 games of NHL experience over six seasons, though, having played for the Boston Bruins and Colorado Avalanche before joining the Blues organization. He’s a guy that the Blues can stash with their AHL club–like they did in 2015-16, when he had 17 goals, 19 assists, a minus-11 rating, and 115 penalty minutes in 70 games with the Chicago Wolves–and he’s a good option to come up for a spell if the Blues suffer a wave of forward injuries.

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Caron had been tendered a qualifying offer by the Blues earlier in the week as he prepared to hit restricted free agency. With him back in the fold, the Blues have seven restricted free agents–headlined by forward Jaden Schwartz–left to lock up this offseason.