The Blues activated winger Mathieu Joseph from injured reserve on Friday, according to Matthew DeFranks of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He’s been replaced on injured reserve by Oskar Sundqvist to keep the Blues’ active roster at the 23-player maximum.
Joseph will be in the lineup for tonight’s game against the Stars in a third-line role with rookies Dalibor Dvorsky and Otto Stenberg, per Elise Butler of the team’s website. He comes in for Nathan Walker, who had two points in his first two games since returning from an upper-body injury earlier this month, but has now gone without a point in five straight.
The 28-year-old Joseph’s stay on IR was relatively brief. He hasn’t played since Jan. 3 but was a healthy scratch for several games after that before developing an elbow infection, diagnosed as day-to-day on Jan. 12. He was moved to IR the following day to create a roster spot for Nick Bjugstad.
Joseph operated as an occasional healthy scratch for much of last season. His deployment hasn’t changed much in 2025-26, the last season of a four-year, $11.8MM deal signed with the Senators in 2022 that St. Louis picked up as a cap dump in 2024. He’s shot under 10% for every season of that contract and has just two goals in 35 games this year, although his 10 points bring him to a respectable 24-point pace over 82 games – more offense than he gave the Blues last year while also seeing his ice time increase by nearly a minute per game.
He’s an effective forechecker and penalty killer, but at this stage of his career, what was long thought to be untapped offensive potential looks to stay unrealized if he continues as one of the league’s most underwhelming finishers. He’s nonetheless an experienced body (455 career games) for a Blues group currently without a third of its top nine in Dylan Holloway, Pius Suter, and Robert Thomas.
That’s not counting Sundqvist’s injury. The 31-year-old is out indefinitely after sustaining an ankle laceration due to a skate cut against the Oilers last weekend, according to the team. He already missed Tuesday’s loss to the Jets and is ruled out for St. Louis’ next two games as a result of the IR placement, although he might not end up returning until the other side of the Olympic break, depending on the severity of the laceration and how much, if any, tendon or muscular damage it caused.
Sundqvist is in the third year of his second stint with the Blues and has been chugging along as a reliable two-way piece in their bottom six. They’ve relied on him more than anticipated due to their rash of injuries, and he’s held up his end of the bargain offensively with 13 points in 39 games – right at his career average pace of 0.33 points per game. He’s the Blues’ most relied-upon forward in the defensive zone at even strength and averages 1:22 of ice time per game on the penalty kill. Joseph’s return should help the Blues shoulder Sundqvist’s shorthanded absence, though.