Blues place top defenseman on IR

The St. Louis Blues have placed top defenseman Justin Faulk on injured reserve with a lower-body injury. Faulk suffered the injury late in the last minute of the team’s Dec. 29 matchup against the Colorado Avalanche. He has already missed one game with the injury and is now slated to be out for at least a week. St. Louis has also swapped depth forwards, recalling Jakub Vrana and sending Nikita Alexandrov to the minor leagues.

Faulk has once again served as St. Louis’ top defenseman this season, averaging nearly 22-and-a-half minutes each game. He’s tallied 17 points through 35 games in the role, on pace for 40 points in 82 games. That’s a step down from the marks Faulk has been able to reach in St. Louis, with the defenseman setting a career-high 50 points in 82 games last season. It was the first time that any Blues defender has hit the half-century mark since Alex Pietrangelo did it in 2019-20 – and Faulk becomes the first defenseman not named Pietrangelo to reach the feat since the legendary Chris Pronger in 2003-04.

With Faulk moved to IR, the Blues opted to reinforce their offense rather than their defense – a move that makes sense considering the team recalled Matthew Kessel midway through last week. The reinforcements come in the way of Jakub Vrana, who the Blues acquired via trade last season, sending Dylan McLaughlin and a seventh-round pick to the Detroit Red Wings. The hope was that Vrana could rebound to the 50-point form he showed off in the 2019-20 season. And while his time in St. Louis has been marred by struggles and waiver placements, the 27-year-old winger has totaled 20 points in 39 games since joining the Blues organization. He will hope to find his groove under new head coach Drew Bannister, who Vrana has yet to play for: getting sent down prior to Craig Berube’s dismissal from the team.