Alexander Steen

"This has been an emotional process," Steen said. "But as I look back on my years in hockey, I would like to thank our organization, our city, our fans and my teammates as I am so proud of all the teams I was part of." He played in 1,018 games over 15 seasons in the NHL, while producing 245 goals and 622 points for Toronto and St. Louis. According to a press release from the Blues, Steen has "multiple levels of degenerative herniated discs of his lumbar spine." He will reportedly be placed on LTIR for the 2020-21 campaign and will be paid his full salary on the final year of his contract. 

The Blues have all but Klim Kostin and Alexei Toropchenko (both are still playing in the KHL) back in the city from their European contingent, with Steen just returning. “Steen’s back in town," GM Doug Armstrong said. "He popped his head in here. He still has some issues. He’s more of a wait and see than Tarasenko. ... He hasn’t had any surgery.” Stay tuned as he certainly will not be ready for the start of the NHL season.

GM Doug Armstrong stated that the Blues weren't worried about the salary cap even though they are about $1.1 million over at this time. “With the (Alexander) Steen and (Vladimir) Tarasenko situations we have an abundance of cap space, so we’re not concerned about that at all,” Armstrong said. This could be a reason that Steen was not bought out a month ago as an injured player is not eligible to be bought out. Steen is at best a fourth line player at this stage of his career, and at the age of 36, is not going to get any better.

Steen has one more season on his four-year, $23 million contract and then he is eligible to become an unrestricted free agent. The Blues wouldn't save much on the cap by buying him out and it's believed that he isn't healthy at this time anyway following the team's exit from the postseason. Steen had seven goals and 17 points in 55 games last season, but he does have value as a leader in the team's bottom-six forward group.