St. Louis Blues Place Forward Ty Rattie on Waivers

Ty Rattie‘s indefinite banishment to the press box has come to an end, but probably not in the way he wanted it to.

According to the god of NHL waiver wire reports, Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports in Montreal, the St. Louis Blues have waived forward Ty Rattie. While he didn’t dress for the game, Rattie took part in warmups for yesterday’s Winter Classic, so it’s a little surprising to see that he’s been jettisoned.

It’s less shocking that Rattie is being waived now than it was that he stuck with the NHL team as long as he did. He dressed in just four of the team’s first 38 games, and while he had been given plenty of opportunities to warm up with the game roster as of late, he hadn’t actually played in a game since November 28. Rattie, who hadn’t played more than 8:02 in any of his four games, had no points and an even rating this season.

Whenever Ken Hitchcock has been given an opportunity to use a forward other than Rattie, he’s generally taken advantage of it. Magnus Paajarvi played in three games–compared to one for Rattie during that period–before being waived in late October. When Paul Stastny went down with an injury late in December, the Blues recalled center Wade Megan rather than moving Alexander Steen or Jaden Schwartz to center and playing Rattie or his recent press box buddy, Nail Yakupov.

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Much of Rattie’s non-usefulness–and a reason that he may be less attractive as a waiver claim–stems from the fact that he has only shown the ability to play right wing. When you couple that positional inflexibility with the fact that he’s an undersized forward who doesn’t really fit on the fourth line, it’s difficult to find opportunities for him to play on a competitive team.

Unless the Blues are looking to reward minor-league winger Kenny Agostino, who had a great training camp and has been by far the best player in the AHL for the past month (he leads the league with 43 points, while runners-up Cole Schneider and Jake Guentzel have 34), it’s likely that they’ll soon transition to a 13-forward, eight-defenseman roster alignment.

While he’s been a healthy scratch for the past three games, defenseman Brad Hunt has shown that he deserves to stick in the NHL by collecting a goal and three assists in six games. If the Blues stick with seven defensemen when Robert Bortuzzo completes his recovery from a lower-body injury, Hunt will likely be sent back to AHL Chicago, but an eight-man rotation would allow Hitchcock to mix and match Hunt, Bortuzzo, and Brad Hunt.