The St. Louis Blues put captain Ryan O’Reilly and winger Vladimir Tarasenko on injured reserve Monday, the latest blows to a Western Conference contender looking to remain in the playoff race.
The team said O’Reilly has a broken foot and Tarasenko an injured hand. O’Reilly is expected to be out for at least six weeks and Tarasenko for four.
The Blues last week put defenseman Torey Krug on IR with a lower-body injury and the expectation that he would miss the following six weeks.
St. Louis has been ravaged by injuries all season and is in 10th place in the West, five points back of the final playoff spot, nearly halfway through the NHL season.
The latest developments led to the Blues recalling rookie forward Jake Neighbours from Springfield of the American Hockey League.
General manager Doug Armstrong was to address reporters later Monday. O’Reilly and Tarasenko are each in the final year of their contracts and could be dealt before the March 3 trade deadline if new deals aren’t done and Armstrong decides the Blues are sellers.
They haven’t been in quite some time. St. Louis has made the playoffs in 10 of the past 11 seasons and missed out by one point the only other year during that stretch, which including the team winning the Stanley Cup for the first time in franchise history in 2019 with O’Reilly and Tarasenko playing key roles.