Roster Reduction

The St. Louis roster is being cut down little-by-little. Do you know who has been sent down and who likely will make the NHL roster? On Monday the overall roster was cut down to 30 players.

For starters, Brendan Bell (pictured at left) was performing well so far this preseason, contributing some very nice passes and giving an overall solid effort in defense. He however is not amongst the 30, as he was assigned to the team’s AHL club, Peoria.

Another player we had hoped might make the club, Aaron Palushaj, suffered a setback when he got a nasty cut on his foot, and he too was assigned to Peoria. The others who also are destined for Peoria, in no particular order, are Steve Wagner, Chris Porter, Ryan Reaves, Julian Talbot, Nick Drazenovic, Cam Paddock and goaltender Hannu Toivonen.

Philip McRae has also been cut from the NHL roster. He has been assigned to his junior team.

So if that is who was cut, what does this mean for guys like Darryl Sydor and Alex Pietrangelo?

Jeremy Rutherford, the team’s beat writer, stated yesterday that Sydor is likely to make the team (that veteran experience is some valuable stuff on this young team) and Pietrangelo is getting at least a “9-game trial”.

Personally, I’m glad Pietrangelo is at least getting a shot to make the cut, and I also think having a veteran like Sydor (who has looked pretty decent defensively this preseason) is an important intangible.

So there you have it. We are that much closer to the final roster being known and that much closer to the start of the regular season.