The Blues will be waiting another year before their top pick in 2018 makes his debut in North America. Tom Timmermann of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch notes that Dominik Bokk is expected to return to the SHL for 2019-20 and that he intends to then play in St. Louis’ system starting in 2020-21.
The winger has already signed an entry-level deal and because he was a first-round selection, St. Louis could have elected to put him with their AHL team and superseded his contract in Sweden. However, Bokk indicated that his preference was to continue to develop in the SHL where he spent last season. He had some success last year with Vaxjo, picking up a respectable 23 points (8-15-23) in 47 games and also led Germany in scoring at the D1A level for the World Juniors, helping lead them back into the top group for the upcoming tournament in December.
Bokk has seen his SHL rights loaned to Rogle for the upcoming season and then is expected to make the jump to North America for 2020-21. As a result of staying overseas, his contract will slide in 2019-20 and still have three years remaining on it afterwards with a small reduction on his cap hit.