St. Louis Blues’ Oskar Sundqvist out for season with torn ACL

On Wednesday, the Blues announced that Sundqvist tore the ACL in his right knee on the play. He will undergo surgery and will be re-evaluated in six months. He will miss the rest of the 2023-24 NHL season and part of next season.

Sundqvist, 30, suffered the injury not even three weeks after signing a two-year extension at a $1.5 million AAV, kicking in next season. Last summer, he signed a one-year, $775,000 contract to return to the Blues, with whom he won a Stanley Cup in 2018-19.

Sundqvist was selected in the third round of the 2012 Draft, 81^st overall, by the Pittsburgh Penguins and won a Stanley Cup with them in 2015-16. They traded him to St. Louis along with a first-round pick in a deal that brought Ryan Reaves to Pittsburgh in 2017. Sundqvist found his footing as a checking forward with the Blues and had the best season of his career in 2018-19, compiling 14 goals and 31 points and scoring four goals in 25 games during the Blues’ Cup run that spring. He was traded on consecutive deadline days in 2022 and 2023, heading from St. Louis to the Detroit Red Wings and from Detroit to the Minnesota Wild, respectively. Upon becoming an unrestricted free agent in 2023, he returned to St. Louis.

This season, Sundqvist had six goals and 21 points in 71 games before suffering the injury Monday. He was playing a defensive role his season, and the results had not been pretty. In 5-on-5 play, the Blues were outscored 29-17 and outchanced 377-231 with Sundqvist on the ice.