The Blues have signed forward Nikita Alexandrov to a one-year, two-way contract worth $775K in the NHL and $150K in the AHL, general manager Doug Armstrong announced Monday. He was one of the league’s last remaining unsigned restricted free agents, now leaving Bruins star Jeremy Swayman as the only one without a contract for this season.
Alexandrov and the Blues had likely agreed to terms on this deal for quite some time. St. Louis, however, was at the 50-contract maximum and couldn’t register the deal until making their initial training camp cuts and assigning a few players on entry-level contracts back to their junior teams, temporarily removing them from counting toward the limit. Alexandrov had been with the Blues in camp on a PTO while waiting for the contract to be official.
A second-round pick in 2019, Alexandrov is working his way toward being an NHL regular. The 24-year-old center has played 20-plus NHL games in each of the past two seasons, recording nine points and a -4 rating in 51 career appearances thus far.
He finds himself amid a tight roster battle for an extra forward spot with players like Nathan Walker and prospects like Zachary Bolduc and Zach Dean, but could very well find himself on the outside looking in. He’ll need waivers if the Blues attempt to assign him to AHL Springfield, where he posted seven points in seven games during a conditioning stint last year. He spent most of last season as a healthy scratch on the St. Louis roster after making the opening night roster for the first time.
Alexandrov will be a restricted free agent again next summer upon expiry. He won’t be eligible for UFA status until 2028 unless he satisfies the requirements to become a Group 6 UFA by playing fewer than 80 career NHL games by the end of the 2025-26 season.