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Blues Challenging Scott Perunovich to Earn Nightly Lineup Spot

Originally posted on The Hockey Writers | By Mike Meyer | Last updated 10/12/23

The retool remains in full swing with the St. Louis Blues opting to keep younger players on their roster in lieu of players with NHL experience. Ahead of the first game of the season, the team announced they had placed forwards MacKenzie MacEachern, Nathan Walker, Adam Gaudette, and Calle Rosen all on waivers to create roster spots for Scott Perunovich, Nikita Alexandrov, Tyler Tucker, Alexey Toropchenko, and Jake Neighbours. With this decision, the Blues have created an environment surrounding these young players with skilled NHL-veterans that, together, could vault the club into the postseason.

Armstrong Looking for Better All-Around Game

Ahead of the Blues’ season-opening game against the Dallas Stars, general manager Doug Armstrong held a press conference outlining the expectations for the team and answering any questions surrounding the players on the roster. When he was asked about Perunovich, he explained that while the young defenseman has made the squad, he is looking for more out of him at this point.

“Obviously having a healthy camp and getting through it. Right now, he’s not in our group of six, but he’s on our team, he’s in our group. Given the opportunity, he’s an offensive player. He has to help on the offensive side of the puck, special teams but also he has to be competent in his own end, and then that’s what we’re really looking for is the ability get back, get the puck quickly, transition the puck out of our zone and be a good offensive player when he gets the opportunity. Right now, we’re just looking for him to get stable, get comfortable again in the group. It’s been an up and down few years for him and I think stability is important.”
(from ‘Now that Perunovich is on NHL roster, defenseman will have to earn spot,’ The Hockey News, Oct. 11, 2023)

With eight defensemen on the roster, he will need to take advantage of every opportunity he can. The team has a wide range of players and talent that can serve many different needs from skilled-playmakers to heavy-hitting defenders. While the 25-year-old tends to play a very good playmaking, offensive game, he will need to find success in his own end and improve his defensive abilities if he is to beat out two others on the roster for consistent playing time.

Perunovich’s Uphill Battle

Perunovich is a highly-regarded offensive defenseman with a very high ceiling and potential. That being said, the Blues need him to play in games to get the most out of his development. After playing only 26 games split between the American Hockey League (AHL) with the Springfield Thunderbirds and St. Louis during the 2021-22 season, he fractured his left clavicle during the 2022-23 preseason and was limited to 22 regular season games and two postseason games with the Thunderbirds.

The defenseman has been mired with injuries over the past few seasons and will need to do his part by putting in the work and proving to the coaching staff that he is deserving of the roster spot. Armstrong continued in his comments on the young defenseman’s progress stating:

“We believe that his game is evolving. I think that the way you’re at his experience level, not maybe age, but just injury due to games played, he has to play games to understand what’s in front of him and to get better. But we’re not going to force-feed that right now. Craig [Berube’s] got his lineup set and we’re going to go with that group. When he gets the opportunity, he has to seize it. That’s the competition and that’s the job responsibility of every player is to seize the opportunity when given to him.

“On his defensive game, I would say we’ve seen improvement. He’s obviously going to have to defend with his stick and quite honestly his feet and his brain. Physically, he’s not a big man. I don’t think I’m telling any stories out of school there, so he’s going to have to really use his quickness to get back to pucks, he’s going to have to be the first guy back and he’s also going to have to move those pucks quickly and then he’s going to have to defend, tying up sticks and getting good puck position. But I think a lot of his success will come from transition.”

The 2020 Hobey Baker Award winner has proven in the past that he has what it takes to rise to the challenge. After being passed over in the NHL Entry Draft, Perunovich improved his all-around game in the NCAA to become the team’s second-round draft choice in 2018. He became one of the best defensemen in the AHL with the Thunderbirds during the 2021-22 season scoring three goals and 22 points over 17 games. To date, he has appeared in 19 NHL games over three seasons registering six assists. Should he take hold of a nightly roster spot, he could be one of the most dynamic offensive defensemen on the Blues’ roster.

This article first appeared on The Hockey Writers and was syndicated with permission.

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