Blues’ Alexey Toropchenko won’t play vs. Hurricanes, day-to-day with lower-body injury

St. Louis Blues forward Alexey Toropchenko will miss Saturday’s game against the Carolina Hurricanes with a lower-body and is considered day-to-day, according to Head Coach Drew Bannister.

Bannister also said that defenseman Nick Leddy will miss Saturday’s game, as he continues to deal with a lower-body injury.

Toropchenko has one assist in five games with the Blues this season. In 2023-24, the Russian winger had 14 goals and seven assists for 21 points in 82 regular-season games.

Now in his fourth NHL seasons, the 25-year-old Toropchenko has 26 goals and 17 assists for 43 points in 184 regular-season games.

Drafted in the fourth round of the 2017 NHL Entry Draft, Toropchenko spent two seasons with the Ontario Hockey League’s Guelph Storm, where he scored 34 goals and 48 assists for 82 points in 128 regular-season games.

Toropchenko was a big part of the Storm’s 2019 OHL Championship, scoring 13 goals and six assists for 19 points in 24 playoff games.

After his OHL career, Toropchenko would bounce between Russia’s KHL and the American Hockey League. In 2019-20, he would score five goals and four assists for nine points in 59 games with the Blues’ AHL affiliate, the San Antonio Rampage. The next season, he would play with Kunlun Red Star of the KHL, recording seven goals and four assists for 11 points in 45 games.

Toropchenko would return to North America in 2021-22, splitting the season with the Rampage and the Blues. He would record 10 goals and 10 assists for 20 points in 42 AHL regular-season games, as well as two goals in 28 NHL regular-season games.