ST. LOUIS -- The St. Louis Blues [http://thn.com/stlouis] trimmed their training camp roster by 20 on Sunday, including assigning their past two first-round picks to their junior teams. They sent 2024 first-round pick Adam Jiricek (No. 16 overall) and 2025 first-round pick Justin Carbonneau to their respective junior squads, Brantford of the Ontario Hockey League and Blainville-Boisbriand of the QMJHL. It was no secret that Carbonneau, who played in all three preseason games for the Blues, was heading back when he was saying goodbyes to teammates [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/st-louis-blues/latest-news/blues-top-prospect-heading-back-to-juniors] after a 4-2 loss [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/st-louis-blues/latest-news/observations-from-blues-4-2-preseason-loss-vs-blackhawks] against the Chicago Blackhawks [http://thn.com/chicago] on Saturday. But the Blues also assigned Jiricek, a defenseman, to junior this season, meaning each is not eligible until after their respective junior seasons conclude. The Blues also assigned 18 to Springfield of the American Hockey League, including forwards Nikita Alexandrov, Sam Bitten, Hugh McGing, Matthew Peca, Juraj Pekarcik, Dylan Peterson, Simon Robertsson, Jakub Stancl, Sam Stange, Nikita Susuev, and Christopher Wagner, defensemen Michael Buchinger, Quinton Burns, Marc-Andre Gaudet, Samuel Johannesson, and Anthony Kehrer, and goalies Will Cranley and Vadim Zherenko. That should leave the Blues with 33 players remaining on the camp roster, including all three 2023 first-round picks (Dalibor Dvorsky, Otto Stenberg and Theo Linsdtein).
