Blues set season-opening roster; Kyrou, MacEachern among players on taxi squad
The St. Louis Blues finalized their active roster Tuesday, assigning 16 players to their temporary AHL franchise in Utica and naming their six-man taxi squad.
The taxi squad, which is new this season to give teams a better chance of having 23 players available for every game during the pandemic, will have goaltender Joel Hofer, defenseman Niko Mikkola and forwards Jacob De La Rose, Jordan Kyrou, Mackenzie MacEachern and Austin Poganski on it when the season opens Wednesday night in Colorado.
Sent to Utica, which the Vancouver Canucks are sharing with the Blues this season while St. Louis’ new Springfield affiliate sits out the year, were Sam Anas, Evan Fitzpatrick, Jon Gillies, Dakota Joshua, Tanner Kaspick, Hugh McGing, Curtis McKenzie, Jake Neighbours, Scott Perunovich, Evan Polei, Mitch Reinke, Steve Santini, Nolan Stevens, Tyler Tucker, Nathan Walker and Jake Walman. The club also assigned Matthias Laferriere to Blainville-Boisbriand Armada of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.
Ville Husso, who will serve as Jordan Binnington‘s backup in net, made a season-opening roster for the first time. The longtime AHL goalie will make his NHL debut when he makes his first regular-season appearance.
BLUES ROSTER
Forwards
#9 – Sammy Blais
#10 – Brayden Schenn (A)
#12 – Zach Sanford
#13 – Kyle Clifford
#17 – Jaden Schwartz
#18 – Robert Thomas
#21 – Tyler Bozak
#49 – Ivan Barbashev
#57 – David Perron
#68 – Mike Hoffman
#70 – Oskar Sundqvist
#90 – Ryan O’Reilly (C)
#91 – Vladimir Tarasenko (A) (Injured)
Defensemen
#4 – Carl Gunnarsson
#6 – Marco Scandella
#29 – Vince Dunn
#41 – Robert Bortuzzo
#47 – Torey Krug
#55 – Colton Parayko (A)
#72 – Justin Faulk
Goaltenders
#35 – Ville Husso
#50 – Jordan Binnington
Taxi Squad
#1 – Joel Hofer (G)
#25 – Jordan Kyrou (F)
#28 – Mackenzie MacEachern (F)
#53 – Austin Poganski (F)
#61 – Jacob de la Rose (F)
#77 – Niko Mikkola (D)
