(10-15-26) Blues-Wild Gameday Lineup

The St. Louis Blues announced early Thursday afternoon that forward Pavel Buchnevich will not play in the second of a three-game road trip against the Minnesota Wild on Thursday because the forward returned to St. Louis for the birth of his child.

Buchnevich is coming off a three-assist game in a 7-2 win over the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday and had five points (one goal, four assists) and is a plus-3 in six games thus far this season.

With Buchnevich’s absence, and the Blues already missing Alexey Toropchenko (upper body injury) and Dillon Dube (neck) out multiple weeks on the forward front, Zach Dean will slide back into the lineup against the Wild.

It will be another skater the Blues will miss, on both sides of their special teams. Buchnevich has been a key piece to the league's seventh-ranked penalty kill (89.5 percent) that is off to a 17-for-19 start.

The Blues (3-2-1) did not hold a morning skate, and coach Jim Montgomery spoke pregame to address the lineup/changes against the Wild (4-2-1), and Dean will slide into center the fourth line. Montgomery has indicated he likes Dean’s speed element and it’s more conducive to use in a scoring role than a fourth-line role, but the versatility of Pius Suter, who had two goals and an assist Tuesday, makes him the one to move up into the lineup on the third line.

The Blues have a chance at their first three-game winning streak in the month of October since opening the 2022-23 season with three straight wins. You might remember that they were the last team to win three straight games two seasons ago, doing so on Feb. 27, 2025.

“We need to have success on the road this year; we didn’t have enough of it within our own division,” Montgomery said Wednesday. “We know that, but right now, we’re really focused on ourselves. We’ve got an opportunity to get on a little bit of a streak here. We could win three in a row. That would be nice to do so early in the year, gets you off on the right foot, and we know going into Minnesota that that’s a really, highly competitive, physical team that we need to be prepared (for) right from the puck drop.”

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Blues Projected Lineup:

Dylan Holloway-Robert Thomas-Jimmy Snuggerud

Connor McMichael-Mason McTavish-Jonatan Berggren

Jake Neighbours-Dalibor Dvorsky-Pius Suter

Ross Johnston-Zach Dean-Dylan Peterson

Philip Broberg-Adam Jiricek

Justin Barron-Colton Parayko

Cam Fowler-Brandon Carlo

Joel Hofer is projected to start in goal; Jordan Binnington would be the backup.

Healthy scratches include Pavel Buchnevich, who returned to St. Louis for the birth of his child, and Theo Lindstein. Alexey Toropchenko (upper body), Tyler Tucker (knee), Logan Mailloux (hand) and Dillon Dube (neck) are out.

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Wild Projected Lineup:

Kirill Kaprizov-Joel Eriksson Ek-Matt Boldy

Blake Coleman-Ryan Hartman-Maxim Shabanov

Rieger Lorenz-Danila Yurov-Bobby Brink

Tyler Pitlick-Michael McCarro-Yakov Trenin

Quinn Hughes-Jonas Brodin

Daemon Hunt-Zach Bogosian

Matt Kiersted-David Spacek

Jesper Wallstedt will start in goal; Calvin Pickard will be the backup.

The healthy scratch includes Justin Kirkland. Jared Spurgeon (upper body), Marcus Foligno (mid body), Nick Foligno (upper body), Brock Faber (skull fracture), Olli Maatta (upper body), Filip Gustavsson (lower body) and Nico Sturm (concussion) are out.

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