St. Louis Blues sign Alexey Toropchenko to two-year contract with $1.25 million AAV

The St. Louis Blues have signed winger Alexey Toropchenko to a two-year contract with a $1.25 million cap hit.

Toropchenko, 24, was a restricted free agent after the conclusion of his one-year, $750,000 contract that he signed with the Blues last offseason. He was scheduled for an arbitration hearing on July 20th, so the two parties manage to come to an agreement before that process. He will be a restricted free agent with arbitration rights again at the end of this contract.

Toropchenko is coming off his first season of consistent NHL playing time, getting into 69 games with the Blues with 10 goals, 9 assists, and 19 points. He also played five games with the Springfield Thunderbirds in the AHL, where he had one goal, two assists, and three points.

Toropchenko was a fourth round pick of the Blues in the 2017 draft out of the Junior Hockey League in Russia. He’s bounced around different leagues since then, playing two seasons in the OHL before going pro and playing in the AHL, followed by a season in the KHL before going back to North America to play in both the AHL and NHL.

The Blues have had a significantly quieter offseason than anticipated, as many expected general manager Doug Armstrong to take advantage of their three first-round picks to add some players to their roster. Instead, they used all three picks in the draft, with their lone additions seeing them acquire Kevin Hayes from the Philadelphia Flyers for a sixth-round pick and signing Oskar Sundqvist to a league-minimum deal. Part of the lack of moves is due to their lack of cap space, as they have only $293,571 available at the moment, so there likely won’t be any big moves unless they move on from some salary.

The Blues will look to rebound from missing the playoffs for the first time since 2018, after they had a disappointing 37-38-7 record that placed them in sixth in the Central Division and 10th-last in the league.