The roster deadline for NHL teams to submit their rosters for opening night for the 2024-25 season, and for the St. Louis Blues, the answer — at least to start — is 13/8.
The Blues, who open the season Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. against the Seattle Kraken, will carry 12 forwards and eight defensemen to open the season on their 23-man roster.
So for now, they are carrying just two extra defensemen. And the Blues revealed defensemen Scott Perunovich and P.O. Joseph are the extras but had to assign forward Zack Bolduc to Springfield of the American Hockey League as a cap related move and will open the season with 22 skaters due to salary cap purposes.
Brandon Saad (paternity leave, birth of third child) does not count as part of the opening night roster but does in relation to the cap and is not expected to play until after the team returns.
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Bolduc, the No. 17 pick in the 2021 NHL Draft, opened camp skating with the top six but saw his play slip somewhat towards the end and was not part of the top 12 when the Blues played their full lineup last Thursday against the Dallas Stars. Unless he’s playing, Springfield of the American Hockey League when Saad returns, and Kasperi Kapanen, who was playing on the third line with Brayden Schenn in the middle and Mathieu Joseph, would drop to a fourth-line role or as the extra skater when Saad returns.
Then there’s the matter of when Oskar Sundqvist, who begins the season on injured reserve due to recovering from a right ACL tear, returns. What will the Blues do with their roster then?
It’ll be interesting to see if the Blues keep Perunovich or P.O. Joseph or slip one through waivers and go with just one extra defenseman then. Perhaps that’s the case, but for the time being, they’re committed to keeping two extra defensemen on hand.
To get down to the roster limit, defenseman Tyler Tucker and Corey Schueneman were also assigned to Springfield, while Sundqvist, Torey Krug (ankle), Adam Jiricek (knee) and Simon Robertsson (upper body) are on the injured/non-roster list.
