{"time":1790632615956,"blocks":[{"id":"yIMlr4Rdte","type":"paragraph","data":{"text":"\nMARYLAND\nHEIGHTS, Mo. -- Adam\nJiricek took the news as well as could be under the circumstances."}},{"id":"0hBYGAxiod","type":"paragraph","data":{"text":"\n\nOf\ncourse, the first-round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft by the St. Louis\nBlues was disappointed when told he was being assigned to Springfield\nof the American Hockey League following a 1-0 preseason win over the\nChicago Blackhawks last Thursday, but the defenseman understood."}},{"id":"41PUHPlXJf","type":"paragraph","data":{"text":"\n\n“After\nthe interview I had after (Thursday's preseason game), I got the call\nto go up and speak to the management in 10 minutes and they told me,\nand you have to accept it,” Jiricek\nsaid.\n“I did my best, but it didn't happen. So I went down and I was\nready to work there and wait for my chance again and it came pretty\nquick. I'm happy for that and very excited.”"}},{"id":"T7a5zzolm3","type":"paragraph","data":{"text":"\n\nThe\n20-year-old didn’t have to wait long."}},{"id":"mulsf7t2","type":"video","data":{"url":"https://us-central1-deweb-519a7.cloudfunctions.net/mediaService-api/videos/d1cd9d83-90ec-4cd9-bdb2-f2d574b47306/mp4","caption":"","autoplay":false,"controls":true,"muted":false,"stretched":true,"width":0,"height":0,"image":{"url":"https://us-central1-deweb-519a7.cloudfunctions.net/mediaService-api/videos/d1cd9d83-90ec-4cd9-bdb2-f2d574b47306/thumbnail"},"cdn":{"videoId":"d1cd9d83-90ec-4cd9-bdb2-f2d574b47306","libraryId":"372172","collectionId":"30032062-eefd-4041-a355-12ad05bc987b","cdnBaseUrl":"https://vz-052fc010-b27.b-cdn.net","mp4Url":"https://us-central1-deweb-519a7.cloudfunctions.net/mediaService-api/videos/d1cd9d83-90ec-4cd9-bdb2-f2d574b47306/mp4","thumbnailUrl":"https://us-central1-deweb-519a7.cloudfunctions.net/mediaService-api/videos/d1cd9d83-90ec-4cd9-bdb2-f2d574b47306/thumbnail","previewAnimationUrl":"https://vz-052fc010-b27.b-cdn.net/d1cd9d83-90ec-4cd9-bdb2-f2d574b47306/preview.webp"}}},{"id":"7b8D0c_lwb","type":"paragraph","data":{"text":"\n\nHe\nbarely got settled in Springfield, where the right shot D-man was to\nget tons of playing time and a plethora of minutes."}},{"id":"2evmBtLK9k","type":"paragraph","data":{"text":"\n\n“I\ngot there Friday night,” Jiricek\nsaid.\n“I was there Saturday, just like morning skate, and on Sunday I\nwent with (Juraj) Pekarcik to move their stuff from storage to the\nhouse and I was about to buy my bed and furniture. But I got the call\nthat I'm going up, so we turned around and I didn't buy anything. I\nwent to pack my stuff and I put my hockey bag in the moving truck and\nhe just drive me in this truck to the airport and they went to move\ninto the house."}},{"id":"nOcsi-fmGk","type":"paragraph","data":{"text":"\n\n“If\n(the Blues) would have called me an hour later, I would have bought\nthe bed and moved everything. I was lucky I got the call before and\ndidn't buy anything. I just used the truck to move my stuff to the\nairport and he dropped me there and he went to his new house there.\nJuraj Pekarcik and Jakub Stancl, they're going to live together and I\nwas supposed to live with them. But I went with Pekarcik, so he\ndropped me off there, and I appreciate that he did that for me.\nChange of plans pretty quick.”"}},{"id":"TnXKMKmLL1","type":"paragraph","data":{"text":"\n\n“I\nleft Sunday at 5 p.m. and I got here (in St. Louis) like at 9. I\nspent the day at the airport with one flight connecting. It was\npretty quick.”"}},{"id":"661CznwIc0","type":"paragraph","data":{"text":"\n\nJiricek\nhad such a good training camp, even Blues coach Jim Montgomery lauded\nhis play after last Thursday’s preseason win. But at that time, the Blues had one setback to deal with,\nTyler Tucker’s right knee injury, and felt they had the seventh\ndefenseman covered with 32-year-old Calle Rosen in the fold."}},{"id":"luPlrJDjiV","type":"paragraph","data":{"text":"\n\nBut\nwhen Logan Mailloux injured his right hand in a fight Saturday during\na 3-2 preseason loss in Chicago, that the Blues confirmed on Monday\nthat will sideline him for at least eight weeks, things changed\ndrastically, and Jiricek has been summoned to go into the fire."}},{"id":"Qgj-XkWmbv","type":"paragraph","data":{"text":"\n\n“I\nfeel like I didn't realize everything right away because it was so\nfast and I couldn't process all the thinking,” Jiricek said. “It's\nhard to see what is happening. I just get there, I was there one\nnight, and I'm going back. It was pretty quick and I don't have time\nto think about it, so I'm just excited. I'm moving my thinking to\nplay here.”"}},{"id":"ypBEz8ygVk","type":"paragraph","data":{"text":"\n\nMontgomery\ncalled it, “Very\ndeserving. I believe mentally, he thinks he shouldn’t have been\nsent down, but you like that,\nthat’s what you want.”"}},{"id":"84L6igsokY","type":"paragraph","data":{"text":"\n\nNow\nthe question becomes: what do the Blues do with Jiricek?"}},{"id":"b-K_GOPHkv","type":"paragraph","data":{"text":"\n\nWell,\nthey didn’t bring him up to the NHL to sit, so you have to assume\nhe will play, but will he play alongside Philip Broberg in Mailloux’s\nplace? It’s a 50/50 shot, because Montgomery said he will not make\nthe mistake of playing two young d-men together. That means Jiricek\nwill not play with Theo Lindstein and get either Broberg or Cam\nFowler."}},{"id":"o-0G59VBVk","type":"paragraph","data":{"text":"\n\n“I\nhope not, but if the game calls for it to make adjustments … for\ninstance, (Broberg) playing with Jiricek, you can think it’s great\nchemistry right now,” Montgomery\nsaid.\n“In my mind I can think it, but I’m going to look out there and\nsee like there isn’t. Now maybe Fowler goes with Jiricek. But he’s\ndefinitely going to play with a veteran. I’m not going to have\nJiricek and Lindstein out there together. It’s just not fair to\nthem.”"}},{"id":"l4odOzUFtb","type":"paragraph","data":{"text":"\n\n“We\nhaven’t made complete, finished plans yet. I have no problem\nsliding him in there\n(with Broberg),\nbut if he slides in there, they’re not going to play the No. 1\noffensive line, they’ll play in the two-hole. The good thing is we\nhave so much depth on our D-core. (Brandon)\nCarlo\nand (Colton)\nParayko\nhave played in line matchups against top pairings their entire\ncareers, Broberg has, so had 17 (Fowler). We have four D-men that\nhave done that at the NHL at a high level.”"}},{"id":"vF2v4muVRj","type":"paragraph","data":{"text":"\n\nBlues\ngeneral manager Alex Steen realizes that with Jiricek, this is a\nlong-haul project, but that doesn’t preclude things from happening\nperhaps sooner than they expected."}},{"id":"CWpP_I977y","type":"paragraph","data":{"text":"\n\n“Yeah,\nwe were looking at everything,” Steen\nsaid.\n“With Adam we're in it for the marathon, so we wanted to make sure\nthat we were putting him in the best position to succeed. That's\nstill the goal, (but) obviously things change in the game very\nquickly. We try to re-adjust and still be able to give him that\nopportunity to be in positions to succeed consistently. Yeah we feel\nstrongly about Adam. He's had a great camp. I'd say great over his\nlast 18 months, he's taken a lot of steps, so it's an exciting time\nfor him.”"}},{"id":"32hbPU9AOi","type":"paragraph","data":{"text":"\n\nBut\nMontgomery doesn’t to put any expectations on Jiricek … not yet\nanyway."}},{"id":"SpX8e_YMLs","type":"paragraph","data":{"text":"\n\n“I\ndon’t want to put any labels on him because of the undue pressure,\nbut I think the ceiling is very high and I hope to see it as soon as\npossible,” Montgomery\nsaid.\n“He has shown the ability to adapt his game and easily make changes\nthat are going to make him harder to play against offensively and\ndefensively. I don’t see any … live with mistakes, yeah I want to\nlive with aggressive mistakes, and the way he thinks, the way he\nplays the game, he’s going to make mistakes being aggressive, and\nwe can teach him. You’d rather teach a tiger with stripes on\nalready than someone that doesn’t have any stripes and have that\nmindset.”"}},{"id":"3wj-FIULnV","type":"paragraph","data":{"text":"\n\nIt\nappears, unless the Blues insert Justin Barron, who was claimed off\nwaivers from the Nashville Predators on Sunday, into the opening\nnight lineup, that Jiricek will get his chance to make his NHL debut\nin the season-opener against the Dallas Stars on Friday, and he will\nget special teams work right away."}},{"id":"BSbmD7YNRd","type":"paragraph","data":{"text":"\n\n“He’s\ngoing to play power play,” Montgomery\nsaid.\n“He’s special offensively, and we’re going to put him in\nsituations to succeed. It’s up to him to grab it and take it."}},{"id":"o9XcfXDQkl","type":"paragraph","data":{"text":"\n\n“The\nlevels that he’s played at so far, he can get away with holding\nonto pucks and moving pucks, skating with pucks longer. When you’re\nin the NHL on the power play, the puck should move faster than any\nplayer, it always has, and he’s got to learn to learn to get to the\nmiddle of the ice and be a little more stationary and let his puck\nskills and deception with the puck … instead of moving all over the\nplace at the blue line, he should move it and get to the middle and\nmake the power play go from the middle of the ice. That’s something\nthat people have to learn.”"}},{"id":"w6-_xTntrg","type":"paragraph","data":{"text":"\n\nIf\nJiricek gets to make his debut Friday, he welcomes it with open arms,\nand after the training camp he had, the confidence should be pretty\nsteady."}},{"id":"2TsyzNPARc","type":"paragraph","data":{"text":"\n\n“It's\nexciting,” Jiricek\nsaid.\n“I didn't play in the NHL yet, so it's a dream. It's still a couple\nof days until the game. I think it's going to hit me like harder when\nI'm going to see that I'm in the lineup."}},{"id":"6V2J2qOYOb","type":"paragraph","data":{"text":"\n\n“…\nI\nwas trying to play my best hockey (in\ncamp) and\nI think I did pretty good. I showed myself and I want to keep\nbuilding on that and continue what I'm supposed to do. I feel like I\ncan play here and I can make the team better and that's what I'm\ngoing to try to do.”"}},{"id":"jRfyWfZAtI","type":"linkTool","data":{"link":"https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/st-louis-blues/latest-news/logan-maillouxs-injury-comes-at-a-tough-time-after-strong-training-camp-for-st-louis-blues","meta":{"title":"Logan Mailloux's Injury Comes At A Tough Time After Strong Training Camp For St. Louis Blues","site_name":"The Hockey News","url":"https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/st-louis-blues/latest-news/logan-maillouxs-injury-comes-at-a-tough-time-after-strong-training-camp-for-st-louis-blues","description":"Defenseman had surgery on right hand Sunday, will be re-evaluated in eight weeks","image":{"url":"https://deweb-519a7.b-cdn.net/post-images/ccb16bbd-bd40-4fe7-bc31-bed75c9de338.jpeg","type":"jpeg","width":"1150","height":"493"}}}},{"id":"wgIEuHQiUc","type":"linkTool","data":{"link":"https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/st-louis-blues/latest-news/rosen-romanov-clear-waivers-are-assigned-to-ahl","meta":{"title":"Rosen, Romanov clear waivers, are assigned to AHL","site_name":"The Hockey News","url":"https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/st-louis-blues/latest-news/rosen-romanov-clear-waivers-are-assigned-to-ahl","description":"Defenseman, goalie head to Springfield after clearing waivers on Monday afternoon","image":{"url":"https://deweb-519a7.b-cdn.net/post-images/6e7fae15-6c54-4d58-953d-3ff3bc610c70.jpeg","type":"jpeg","width":"1150","height":"493"}}}},{"id":"R7zQc8j0tp","type":"linkTool","data":{"link":"https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/st-louis-blues/latest-news/blues-claim-justin-barron-off-waivers","meta":{"title":"Blues Claim Justin Barron Off Waivers; Adam Jiricek Recalled From Springfield","site_name":"The Hockey News","url":"https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/st-louis-blues/latest-news/blues-claim-justin-barron-off-waivers","description":"Defenseman spent past two seasons with Nashville Predators, has one year remaining with a cap hit of $1.575 million; Calle Rosen, Georgii Romanov placed on waivers","image":{"url":"https://deweb-519a7.b-cdn.net/post-images/31abee73-d8ef-4f3c-9c2f-128f58ccbed8.jpeg","type":"jpeg","width":"1150","height":"493"}}}},{"id":"6ZUzFn-NcQ","type":"image","data":{"caption":"","withBorder":false,"withBackground":false,"size":"full","alignment":"center","linkUrl":"THN.com/FREE ","file":{"url":"https://deweb-519a7.b-cdn.net/post-images/1168f750-6bc3-458a-b24f-21339fa0b04c.jpeg","width":1920,"height":1080}}},{"id":"5op5tbKjFI","type":"paragraph","data":{"text":"For action-packed issues, access to the entire magazine archive and a free issue, subscribe to The Hockey News at THN.com/free. Get the latest news and trending stories by subscribing to our newsletter here. And share your thoughts by commenting below the article on THN.com or creating your own post in our community forum."}}],"version":"2.31.6"}

Blues stick with 16th pick, select defenseman Adam Jiricek

Blues best suited to think D at draft, known under Armstrong to select best player available