Oct 2, 2025; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; St. Louis Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington (50) celebrates with defenseman Philip Broberg (6) after the Blues defeated the Ottawa Senators at Enterprise Heart. Obligatory Credit score: Jeff Curry-Imagn Pictures The St. Louis Blues and Minnesota Wild enter this season nonetheless trying to find the suitable mixtures of their supporting forged.
That course of will proceed Thursday when the Blues host the Wild within the season opener for each groups.
Blues fourth-line heart Oskar Sundqvist suffered a lower-body damage in observe Sunday.
“I really feel dangerous for him as a result of he regularly places the work in and at some point, his luck goes to show the opposite means,” Blues common supervisor Doug Armstrong mentioned.
This damage will knock Sundqvist out of at the least the primary three video games, so coach Jim Montgomery will doubtless transfer third-line winger Nick Bjugstad into that heart slot between wingers Nathan Walker and Alexey Toropchenko.
That can create a possibility for Mathieu Joseph or Alexandre Texier to open on the third line with Brayden Schenn and Jake Neighbours. Veteran winger Milan Lucic continues to be recovering from a lower-body damage that undermined his bid to make the staff on knowledgeable tryout provide.
“I talked to him about taking a deep breath, understanding that there is gentle on the finish of the tunnel with one other in-season PTO that we will speak about, however get your self wholesome first,” Armstrong mentioned. “He has to knock out someone that’s wholesome on our roster, and we’re not there but.”
The Blues will open the season with Robert Thomas, who led the staff final season in assists (61) and factors (81), at heart between Pavel Buchnevich and rookie Jimmy Snuggerud on the highest ahead line.
St. Louis made the playoffs final yr for the primary time since 2021-22, shedding to Winnipeg within the first spherical. The Blues have superior out of the primary spherical simply as soon as since successful the Stanley Cup in 2019.
The Wild, however, have made the playoffs 11 of the final 13 years, however have not superior out of the primary spherical since 2014-15.
Minnesota hoped to plug considered one of its high ahead prospects onto its No. 2 line with Joel Eriksson Ek and Vladimir Tarasenko whereas playmaking winger Mats Zuccarello is recovering from his lower-body damage.
However neither Danila Yurov nor Liam Ohgren seized that chance throughout preseason play. Because of this, coach John Hynes will take a look at veteran checker Marcus Foligno, who has 207 factors in 528 video games with Minnesota, into that position whereas Yurov or Ohgren slot onto the fourth line.
“We really feel like (Yurov and Ohgren) have accomplished a reasonably good job there, however not quite a lot of, I simply suppose, push from that group to have the ability to do it,” Hynes mentioned. “So we knew coming into the yr that that was going to be just a little little bit of an audition spot and we really feel like we did give guys good alternatives and lengthy appears to be like there and completely different appears to be like.
“And I believe that having a look at Foligno there now, he provides a distinct component than these different guys do, nevertheless it nonetheless appears to be like like a line that might be very troublesome to play towards.”
Defenseman Jonas Brodin is working his means again from an upper-body damage. The staff initially believed he may miss a number of video games, however his restoration has moved forward of schedule.
“I do not know if he will be accessible the primary sport or the primary couple of video games, however he’s monitoring forward of schedule versus pondering he’d be again by the tip of October.” Hynes mentioned.
As of Wednesday, Brodin nonetheless had not been dominated out for the sequence opener, per a Minnesota Star Tribune report.
–Subject Stage Media
