Although he still has steps to clear before returning to the St. Louis Blues’ lineup, Dylan Holloway took another significant step in his return process, taking part in a team practice.
The St. Louis Blues were joined by winger Dylan Holloway at practice today, his first skate with the team since suffering a high-ankle sprain on Dec. 14.
Prior to his injury, Holloway had notched eight goals and nine assists for 17 points in 33 games. In his 14-game absence, the Blues have gone 6-7-1 and sit in seventh place in the Central Division and 29th in the overall NHL standings.
Holloway and Pius Suter, who also suffered a high ankle sprain, have resumed skating and will hopefully return to the lineup in the coming weeks. When Holloway was injured, the Blues announced that he would be re-evaluated in six weeks. It has been just over a month since the injury, and Holloway appears on track, or possibly ahead of pace, to return to the lineup.
“Quite a bit,” coach Jim Montgomery said. “It was good to see him out on the ice with the team today. But that’s just the first practice. Now he’s got to get into a full-time practice and see how his lower-body injury continues to heal from that exposure from getting back with the team.”
Suter, who last played on Dec. 27, is behind Holloway in recovery, but given that he sustained his injury two weeks after Holloway, he is also on a reasonably strong pace. Suter has missed the past eight games and is working out off the ice, but has not yet skated with the team; he is skating on his own at the moment.
The Blues’ injury list is long, but they could see several players return to their lineup within the next month. As previously stated, Holloway and Suter have resumed skating, and although Robert Thomas’ injury is fresh, he is said to be re-evaluated in two weeks.
If they are healthy in or around the same time and no additional injuries are sustained, the Blues will have several key decisions to make. Otto Stenberg and Dalibor Dvorsky have seemed to carve out roles for themselves on the Blues’ NHL roster, and it would be difficult to see them return to the AHL when they’ve shown plenty of good things at the NHL level. Jonatan Berggren’s scoring pace has faltered, but he’s proven to be a solid bottom-six winger.
That leaves just Nick Bjugstad, Oscar Sundqvist, Alexey Toropchenko, and Nathan Walker as possible replacements for the three forwards.
Nothing is set in stone, and plenty can change before any of those three players return, but it gives Montgomery and his staff plenty to think about as they ramp up their return process.
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