The experiment is over for now, as the St. Louis Blues have assigned Jordan Kyrou to the San Antonio Rampage of the AHL. Kyrou registered one point in his nine-game stint, but will now head to the minor leagues to open up some room on the roster for Robby Fabbri, Nikita Soshnikov and Carl Gunnarsson, who all returned from their conditioning stints today.
Kyrou, 20, was an easy choice for the Blues given his waiver-exempt status and rapidly diminishing role on the NHL team. Though he started out the season given a chance with some of the more established offensive players on the roster, Kyrou has seen an average of just seven and a half minutes over his last three games, which included an overtime-extended loss against the Winnipeg Jets. It’s hard to see how playing such a small role with the Blues would be more beneficial for the development of the young forward, given he’s only in his first professional season and still has lots he can learn at the minor league level.
A brilliant skater, Kyrou needs to find the decisiveness that led him to 94 and 109 point seasons in his final two years of junior hockey and get back to being a dominant offensive force. This will hardly be the last chance he receives with the Blues, and he could be back up as soon as a single injury hits. For now though, the team will test out Fabbri to see if they can still rely on him as a top-9 option, while allowing Kyrou to get prime playing time with the Rampage.