Zach Dean and Dillon Dube appear to have done enough to secure the final forward spots on the St. Louis Blues’ opening night roster, while Oskar Sundqvist, Nathan Walker and Jack Finley were placed on waivers Friday as the team trimmed toward Monday’s 23-man deadline.
The Blues made their first wave of cuts early Friday morning, sending forwards Otto Stenberg, Dylan Peterson and Aleksanteri Kaskimaki, along with defenseman Adam Jiricek, out of the picture as the roster battle narrowed. That left five moves still to be made, and one of them will be goalie Georgii Romanov going on waivers for the purpose of getting him to Springfield of the American Hockey League.
If the veterans clear, they’ll head to Springfield to start the season with Steve Ott and the Thunderbirds.
The decision on Dean and Dube came after a camp that coach Jim Montgomery said stayed competitive from start to finish.
"I wouldn't say certainly (that's the 23-man team that was on the ice Friday), but it's certainly been a good camp," Blues coach Jim Montgomery said prior to Friday afternoon's transactions. "We wanted it to be competitive, it's been competitive.
There's a lot of young guys, the veterans have shown really well. We're excited about where our group's at."
Dean will appear in all four preseason games, with the Blues finishing exhibition play Saturday against the Chicago Blackhawks. Dube, signed this summer to a one-year, one-way, $850,000 deal, is in line to join him as one of the 13th and 14th forwards when the roster is submitted by Monday’s 4 p.m. (CT) deadline.
Montgomery pointed to the same things for both players: pace, effort and the ability to win pucks.
"I think their speed, their energy, their tenacity on pucks, coming up with pucks," Montgomery said. "That's been primarily (it). Those things, those attributes.
"They both are fast, they both are tenacious. I would say that Dean probably has more game-breaking speed and I would say that Dube has a little more savvy.
He's really savvy out there. He always comes up with pucks, he's going to the right places."
Dean got a longer look Thursday, skating on the top line with Pavel Buchnevich and Connor McMichael in a 1-0 home win over the Blackhawks. He had a pair of quality scoring chances and turned in another strong performance.
"He played really well," Montgomery said. "He supported those guys really well.
I thought that line was effective. Yeah, played well."
On the back end, Jiricek’s assignment to Springfield leaves Calle Rosen as the seventh defenseman. The 32-year-old veteran, who scored the only goal Thursday, won that competition in the end because the Blues wanted experience and dependable depth, while Jiricek is better served by playing major minutes in the AHL.
"He's a really good hockey player," Montgomery said of Rosen. "Smart, veteran, great feet.
What a shot last night. Supports people really well."
Tyler Tucker, meanwhile, has not skated since tweaking his right knee in practice Sunday, and Montgomery said the defenseman is likely headed to injured reserve to start the season, though he stopped short of making anything definitive.
"I don't want to talk too much because I would say that I think so, but there's a chance not," Montgomery said. "I'd just rather not say because I don't definitively know."
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Why The Blues Suddenly Look Like A Real Playoff Threat
For a team that spent plenty of the summer outside the national playoff chatter, the Blues suddenly have a look that is hard to ignore. The young core keeps getting more interesting, with Dylan Holloway, Jimmy Snuggerud, Mason McTavish and Connor McMichael all still 25 or younger, and the hope is obvious: if even a few of those pieces take another step, St. Louis can start looking less like a fringe team and more like a group with real staying power.
Joel Hofers rise only adds to that feeling, giving the Blues a different kind of stability in goal while Jordan Binnington shifts into the backup role. Pair that with the recent strong play from some of the clubs younger skaters, and the roster begins to resemble one that can make noise over a full season rather than just hang around. The catch, of course, is whether all of that promise turns into the kind of consistent production that separates a promising team from an actual playoff threat. [Read more 🡒]