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After a year on the shelf, David Perron’s cleared for contact

David Perron

St. Louis Blues’ David Perron celebrates after scoring during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Chicago Blackhawks, Friday, Oct. 22, 2010, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

AP

Andy Strickland of The Fan 590 St. Louis reports that Blues forward David Perron is cleared for contact and now considered a regular practice player. That’s huge, exciting news for both the organization and Perron himself, who has been out of action since last November after suffering a concussion on this hit from San Jose’s Joe Thornton:

Perron’s road to recovery has been a long and arduous one. It took two full days following the Thornton hit for Perron’s concussion symptoms to set in -- he began feeling dizzy, suffered headaches and couldn’t watch television or drive his car. (And remember, he actually returned to the San Jose game and scored a goal 10 minutes after getting hit.)

The concussion cost Perron 72 games last season and 18 this year, which is a massive amount of time lost for a 23-year-old about to hit restricted free agency (Perron’s in the final year of a deal with a $2.15 million cap hit.)

While there’s still no timetable for Perron’s return to game action, the ability to receive contact has to be an exciting development for the Blues. St. Louis is 4-0-1 under new head coach Ken Hitchcock and given its strength down the middle (David Backes, Patrik Berglund, Jason Arnott), there’s no shortage of places to play Perron, who can play both wings.