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Hurting at forward, Blues bring in Havlat and Zubrus on PTOs

Martin Havlat

Martin Havlat

AP

St. Louis had some success bringing in veterans Scott Gomez and Scottie Upshall this season on professional tryouts.

So why not try it again?

On Tuesday, the club announced it had signed Martin Havlat and Danius Zubrus to PTOs. The moves come with three key Blues forwards out injured: Paul Stastny (broken foot), Jaden Schwartz (fractured ankle) and Patrik Berglund (shoulder surgery).

Havlat, 34, was in camp earlier this fall with Florida, but failed to secure a deal. He played last year with the Devils, scoring 14 points in 40 games.

Zubrus, 37, also spent last year with the Devils, scoring 10 points in 74 games before getting bought out this summer. He was a longtime teammate of Blues assistant GM Martin Brodeur in New Jersey.

Some additional context for these PTOs:

While it’s possible one -- or, both -- could be signed to Brodeur-like contracts (last season he inked a to a one-year contract worth a pro-rated base pay of $700,000) to temporarily fill the void, neither Havlat nor Zubrus seem like they’re long for St. Louis.

That said, nobody expected much from the Gomez and Upshall PTOs, either, and those have turned out reasonably well. Upshall has two goals in five games thus far, while Gomez has an assist through four games.