Blues unveil 23-man roster to begin regular season

Roster includes pair of defensemen who could miss most, if not entire 

regular season; Neighbours, Leivo assigned to Springfield to be cap-compliant

By LOU KORAC
ST. LOUIS -- The Blues unveiled their 2022-23 season-opening roster on Monday, having to get it set at the 23-man limit and doing so with a little maneuvering.

The roster currently has 12 forwards, seven defensemen and two goalies, along with injured defensemen Marco Scandella (hip) and Scott Perunovich (shoulder), who will miss the majority, if not the entire regular season, with long-term injuries.

The 23-man roster doesn't include forwards Jake Neighbours and Josh Leivo, who each was assigned to Springfield of the American Hockey League in order to be cap-compliant of the $82.5 million ceiling.

Their transactions was merely a paper transaction and those players will more than likely be recalled back to the Blues prior to their season starting, which is Saturday at home against the Columbus Blue Jackets, after the team places Scandella and Perunovich on injured-reserve, whether it be long term or not.

And Alexey Toropchenko, who had offseason shoulder surgery whose prognosis was determined to keep the forward out until mid-December, isn't projected to begin the season ready to play and it could promote 2019 second-round pick Nikita Alexandrov, who was assigned to the Thunderbirds on Saturday after impressing the coaches throughout training camp.

Without further ado, here is the 23-man season-opening roster:

Forwards (12): Noel Acciari, Ivan Barbashev, Logan Brown, Pavel Buchnevich, Jordan Kyrou, Ryan O'Reilly, Brandon Saad, Brayden Schenn, Vladimir Tarasenko, Robert Thomas, Alexey Toropchenko, Nathan Walker.

Defense (7): Robert Bortuzzo, Justin Faulk, Torey Krug, Nick Leddy, Niko Mikkola, Colton Parayko, Calle Rosen.

Goalies (2): Jordan Binnington, Thomas Greiss.

Injured (2): Scott Perunovich, Marco Scandella.