The St. Louis Blues are bringing back a familiar face, but this time there’s no guarantee he starts the season in the NHL. Veteran center Oskar Sundqvist signed a one-year, two-way contract with the team Friday night, according to PuckPedia. The deal pays him $850,000 at the NHL level and $300,000 in the AHL, with $350,000 of that total locked in regardless.
Sundqvist, 32, already spent the 2025-26 season with St. Louis, logging 52 games and putting up 17 points on five goals and 12 assists. He also piled up 26 penalty minutes while averaging just under 13 minutes of ice time. But it wasn’t a smooth year. He missed 11 games due to three separate injuries and sat out as a healthy scratch at times too.
A familiar piece of the 2019 Cup run
This will be Sundqvist’s second stint with the Blues. Across 432 regular-season games with the organization, he’s tallied 141 points, including 52 goals and 89 assists, plus 180 penalty minutes. More importantly, he was part of that 2019 Stanley Cup team that brought the franchise its first championship. He played all 25 playoff games that spring, grinding through the fourth-line minutes and penalty kill work that helped define that run.
His best offensive season came that same year when he racked up 31 points. Over an 11-year NHL career split between the Blues, Penguins, Red Wings, and Wild, Sundqvist has 181 points in 545 games, with 67 goals and 114 assists.
Training camp won’t be easy this time
The Blues have stacked up their forward depth this offseason. They traded for Mason McTavish on draft day, promoted Dillon Dube from a minor-league deal to an NHL contract, and signed winger Ross Johnston in free agency. All of that creates serious competition for those bottom-six spots.
Sundqvist might start camp as a depth piece rather than a lock for the opening night roster. If the Blues try to send him to the AHL, he’d need to clear waivers first. That would be his first trip to the minors since 2017-18, when he played six games with AHL San Antonio. Not exactly where a veteran Cup winner wants to be, but that’s where the roster math sits right now.
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