The St. Louis Blues have signed forward Alexey Toropchenko to a 2 year / $2.5M extension the club announced Sunday. The new $1.25M AAV deal will also avoid an arbitration hearing.
The 24 year old was originally drafted by St. Louis in the 4th round, 113th overall, in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft. Across 97 career NHL games the Moscow native has recorded 21pts (12G, 9A) and 27 PIMs.
In 2022-23 Toropchenko split time between the Blues and Springfield Thunderbirds, ultimately posting 19pts (10G, 9A) in 69 NHL contests.
The 6’6” winger has had a winding journey to the National Hockey League. Between 2015 and 2021 he spent time in the Russian Junior Hockey ranks (Rus-MHL), VHL (Dynamo Balashikha), OHL (Guelph Storm), AHL (San Antonio Rampage), and KHL (Kunlun Red Star). He represented Russia internationally in 2016 and 2017 at the IH18 and U18 championships, capturing two bronze medals in the process.
Prior to the signing, St. Louis was sitting at only $810K worth of cap space. However, they currently have one too many players on their active NHL roster heading into training camp, meaning a current player could be assigned to the minors or become part of a trade over the coming weeks.
Toropchenko primarily played a 4th line role in head coach Craig Berube’s system in 2022-23. And it’s likely that he’ll assume a similar role this year as well given the Blues additions of Kasperi Kapenen, Jakub Vrana, and Kevin Hayes over the last few months.
Still, he’s shown the ability to move up and down the lineup in various other stints throughout his career. Should St. Louis run into injury trouble this season Toropchenko could see a boost to his ice time inside the club’s top nine.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner
Photo: Jenn G. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.