Dalibor Dvorsky’s first NHL stint was a short-lived one. After being recalled for the first time a little more than a week ago, the Blues announced that the center has been sent back to AHL Springfield.
Dvorsky was the tenth overall pick back in 2023 and even though he’s just 19, he is eligible to play full-time in the minors this year since he wasn’t drafted out of the CHL. He’s done well this season with the Thunderbirds, collecting 20 goals and 23 assists in 57 games, ranking him in the top ten in points for a player considering that he’s still junior-eligible. Dvorsky got into one game with St. Louis while on recall but was held off the scoresheet in 10:40 of playing time.
With Jimmy Snuggerud signing and jumping right into the lineup, the Blues clearly feel that Dvorsky would be best served getting regular minutes in the minors over sporadically playing at the NHL level, a decision that certainly makes sense from a development perspective.
His assignment also helps the Blues duck a little more below the $88MM spending threshold which is notable in the sense that it allows them to bank a bit more cap space to apply against their achieved bonuses, an amount that already has reached $1.725MM thanks to Ryan Suter meeting his games played targets. Any dollar that they can save in cap space now is a dollar less of a carry-over penalty they’ll face next season, so keeping Dvorsky up to sit him would also have served little value on that front.