The Blues are bringing back forward Robby Fabbri on a two-way deal, according to a team announcement. He’ll earn prorated salaries of $775K in the NHL and $300K in the AHL for the remainder of the season. He will remain on the NHL roster for now. Winger Jordan Kyrou, who’s day-to-day with a lower-body injury, has landed on injured reserve in the corresponding move – although David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reports he’s been downgraded to week-to-week.
Fabbri, 29, has gone unsigned since the Ducks elected to let him walk to unrestricted free agency last summer. He landed with the Penguins for training camp on a professional tryout but was released without landing a major or minor-league deal. He kept skating through the first two months of the season until finally landing a tryout with the Panthers’ AHL affiliate, the Charlotte Checkers, at the beginning of December. He’s now been released from that deal to get the next NHL opportunity he desired.
It’s a storybook return for Fabbri, who began his career as a first-round pick by the Blues in 2014. One year later, he had already established himself as a full-time NHLer with an 18-goal, 37-point rookie season. Unfortunately, a rash of injuries conspired to make sure those totals would stand as his career highs. The first real trouble came in his sophomore season. In February 2017, he tore his left ACL, ending his season. He showed up to training camp the following fall ready to go but blew up the same knee early in the preseason, robbing him of the entire 2017-18 season. A groin issue further delayed his return until he finally got back on the ice in November 2018, ending a year-and-a-half absence.
Those injuries pushed Fabbri down the depth chart and kept him out of a regular role for the Blues in the 2019 postseason, but he did still score once in 10 games on St. Louis’ run to the Stanley Cup. Early the following season, his first stint with the Blues came to an end when they dealt him to the Red Wings for Jacob de La Rose. His tenure in Detroit was troubled by more injuries – including another ACL surgery – but he played like a bona fide top-nine winger when healthy. He scored 66 goals and 127 points in 234 games as a Wing, good for 0.54 points per game, before they sent the final year of his contract at a $4MM cap hit to the Ducks in the 2024 offseason.
More knee problems and a hand fracture limited Fabbri to 44 games with Anaheim. The fit wasn’t as productive as it was in Detroit, and his usually high finishing rate dropped down to 12.3% – his lowest since 2018-19 – resulting in a conservative 8-8–16 scoring line in 44 games.
Fabbri did look ready to go in his brief stint with Charlotte, posting a goal and an assist in three games. He’ll now get an opportunity to get back in an NHL lineup for the first time since February as the Blues say he’ll join the team ahead of tomorrow’s game against the Predators.
Kyrou’s IR placement was an inevitability with all the injury problems the Blues are facing up front. He joins fellow forwards Jimmy Snuggerud, Alexey Toropchenko, and Nathan Walker on the injured list, while Nick Bjugstad’s status for tomorrow is uncertain after leaving yesterday’s 5-2 loss to the Bruins with an upper-body injury.