St. Louis Blues: Jordan Schmaltz carousel continues

Jordan Schmaltz (at least for a day) is back with the Blues.

The St. Louis Blues announced on Thursday morning that they’ve recalled defenseman Jordan Schmaltz from the AHL Chicago Wolves. Schmaltz, who has shuttled back and forth all postseason between the NHL and AHL, played in the Wolves’ 4-1 loss to the Grand Rapids Griffins in the first game of their second-round playoff series on Wednesday night.

Schmaltz hasn’t played for the Blues since the first game of the playoffs, but he’s been up on several occasions to serve as their seventh defenseman. He’s found time to make a pretty major impact on the Wolves during their playoff run, too, adding a goal and three assists over six postseason contests.

It should be interesting to see if Schmaltz sticks with the Blues for Friday night’s Game 5 against the Predators. Thus far, they’ve made it a priority to get Schmaltz in all the Wolves’ postseason games, generally sending him down on Wolves gamedays and then calling him back up when the AHL team is off.

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They’ve swapped him out on a couple occasions for defensemen lower on the organizational depth chart (first Tommy Vannelli, then Petteri Lindbohm) in order to have a seventh defenseman on the roster for emergency purposes. With the season on the line Friday, though, their approach may be different.