Blues lose Paajarvi on waivers

Senators claim forward, ending five-year run in St. Louis

By LOU KORAC
ST. LOUIS -- On the fourth try, the Blues couldn't hang onto Magnus Paajarvi.

The Blues lost Paajarvi through waivers after the Ottawa Senators claimed him Friday morning, a day after the Blues tried to get Paajarvi once again to go through with the purpose of assigning him to the American Hockey League.

It's the fourth time the Blues put Paajarvi through waivers during his Blues tenure; he passed through the previous three times.

Magnus Paajarvi

Paajarvi, 26, who had four points (two goals, two assists) in 44 games this season, was made expendable when the Blues needed a roster spot after activating Jaden Schwartz off injured reserve. 

The Blues had a handful of candidates to pick from and Paajarvi was chosen over the likes of Oskar Sundqvist, who would also require waivers and rookies Ivan Barbashev and Tage Thompson, who would pass without the requirement of waivers.

Paajarvi, the 10th pick in the 2009 NHL Draft acquired from the Edmonton Oilers July 10, 2013 along with a 2014 second-round pick (which the Blues used to draft Barbashev with) for David Perron, will be most remembered for the series-clinching goal in Game 5 of the first round playoff series against the Minnesota Wild last season.

"He didn't have the offensive confidence that he had last season, no question," Blues coach Mike Yeo said Thursday about Paajarvi. "I think his time in the minors last year allowed him to put himself in a position where he was forced to attack a little bit more and create a little bit more offensively and I think he brought a lot of that confidence up with him. We couldn't find it for a while here in the offensive part of his game."

Paajarvi had 39 points (19 goals, 20 assists) in 189 games with the Blues; he became the fourth player the Blues have lost after exposing them to waivers in the past two seasons, joining Nate Prosser (Minnesota), Ty Rattie twice (Carolina and Edmonton) and Brad Hunt (Nashville).