The St. Louis Blues placed forward Jakub Vrana on waivers on Tuesday and news dropped Wednesday via hockey insider Elliotte Friedman that no team decided to take a chance on a claim as Vrana cleared.
Vrana will now be eligible to be sent to the AHL’s Springfield Thunderbirds and according to The Athletic’s Jeremy Rutherford, that’s exactly what Blues general manager Doug Armstrong plans on doing.
Vrana clears, Zboril (BOS) on waivers
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) December 13, 2023
If Vrana ends up in the AHL this week, the Blues’ AHL affiliate, the Springfield Thunderbirds, play the Hershey Bears at Giant Center on Sunday. Vrana played 88 games for the Bears from 2015 through 2017. He was a part of the 2016 Bears team that made it all the way to the Calder Cup Final but lost in four games to the Lake Erie Monsters.
Vrana last played in the AHL last season for the Grand Rapids Griffins. In 17 games, he recorded 11 points (6g, 5a) and none of those games came against the Bears. The last time Vrana suited up for a game inside Giant Center, he and the rest of the Bears lost a Game Seven Division Final game to the Providence Bruins on May 17, 2017.
After that the Czech winger spent four seasons with the Capitals, winning a Stanley Cup along the way, before being traded to the Detroit Red Wings in 2021. Things eventually fell apart for Vrana in Detroit and he was then dealt to the Blues last year.
Vrana has played 19 games for the Blues this season and tallied just six points (2g, 4a). He did not have a point in his last seven games and is minus-8 in plus/minus during his last four games. The 27 year old saw a season-low 8:59 of ice time in his last game for the Blues, a 3-1 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks where he was on the ice for two goals against in the first period.
The Blues are an organization in flux overall as they fired their head coach Craig Berube on Tuesday. Springfield’s head coach Drew Bannister has been named bench boss at the NHL level on an interim basis as St. Louis looks for a more permanent solution.
Vrana will join a Thunderbirds roster that sports 2018 Stanley Cup-winning teammate Nathan Walker as the team’s leading scorer. Walker has been a part of the Blues’ organization for the last five seasons after leaving the Capitals and Bears.
