The St. Louis Blues are heading into the regular season with two more names on injured reserve, after placing Logan Mailloux and Tyler Tucker on IR in a move announced this morning.
Mailloux’s situation is the more significant of the two. The 23-year-old defenseman left a preseason game with an upper-body injury, and the Blues later said he underwent successful surgery on his right hand last Sunday.
He’s scheduled to be re-evaluated in eight weeks, which means he won’t be available when St. Louis opens the regular season on Friday.
That’s a tough break for a player who had started to settle in. After arriving from the Montreal Canadiens last summer, Mailloux found his game as 2025-26 went along.
He finished with five goals and 13 points, enough to make him one of the more intriguing pieces on the Blues’ blue line. The former 2021 first-round pick had been projected to begin the year in the top four alongside Philip Broberg.
Tucker’s timeline is shorter, but his absence still matters. He’s being labeled week-to-week after tweaking his knee in practice last weekend, according to earlier reporting from Lou Korac of NHL.com. Lower-body injuries have been a recurring issue for Tucker since he became a full-time NHL option early in the 2024-25 season.
Last year, Tucker carved out a steady role and gave St. Louis a physical edge, posting 17 points, 81 penalty minutes and 100 hits in 69 games while serving as the team’s top enforcer. He also missed six games late in the season with a lower-body injury, though it’s not known whether that was related to his knee.
The good news for the Blues is that these injuries are creating openings elsewhere on the roster. 2023 first-round pick Theo Lindstein is expected to make the opening-night roster for the first time and could slide into Tucker’s spot on the left side for now. St.
Louis also claimed Justin Barron off waivers from the Nashville Predators over the weekend. The 24-year-old brings added depth after posting 21 points in 97 games over the past two seasons with Nashville.
In another move aimed at bolstering the group, the Blues have also called up Adam Jiricek from the AHL, according to Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic. The former 16th-overall pick in 2024 has not yet made his NHL debut.
In Other News...
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The Blues added some much-needed depth on the blue line by claiming Justin Barron off waivers from the Nashville Predators, a move that comes at a time when their defense has already taken some hits in camp. St. Louis also recalled Adam Jiricek from the AHL, giving the club another body to work with as it sorts through the back end and tries to keep its preseason plans on track.
Barrons arrival looks especially useful because the Blues are already dealing with uncertainty on defense, and the front office clearly wanted another option in the mix. With Tucker out and Mailloux also a question after leaving a preseason game, St. Louis had a need to address, and Barron gives it some cover while the situation around the rest of the group settles. [Read more 🡒]
Blues Suddenly Have An Early Lineup Concern Fans Didn't Expect
Logan Mailloux was in the middle of trying to make an early impression when the preseason turned uneasy for the Blues defenseman. In a game that was supposed to offer another look at where St. Louis stands with its blue line, Mailloux exited with an upper-body injury, adding an unwelcome wrinkle to a team still sorting out its depth heading toward opening night.
For the Blues, the timing is what makes this matter. Any preseason injury can complicate the roster picture, but this one landed in a spot where every practice and lineup decision counts even more. The club now has to wait and see how much time Mailloux misses, and his availability for the regular-season opener Friday is far from certain. [Read more 🡒]
Blues End Preseason With A Strange Loss And Bigger Questions Ahead
The preseason ended in a way that fit the uneasy feel around the Blues right now: a 3-2 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks, even though St. Louis controlled enough of the action to leave with a different result on another night. The game also offered a strange mix of stops and starts, with goals being wiped off the board and the kind of choppy rhythm that can make a final tune-up feel more like a test of patience than a clean evaluation.
As the Blues turn the page toward the 2026-27 regular season opener on Oct. 2, the bigger picture remains about change as much as the final score. With a new general manager, a new captain and a roster still taking shape, the preseason exit leaves St. Louis with plenty to sort through before the games start to count, and at least a few reasons to wonder how quickly the pieces will fit together. [Read more 🡒]