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Blues forward Patrik Berglund out four months after shoulder surgery

Blues forward Patrik Berglund out four months after shoulder surgery

What is it with the St. Louis Blues and crummy offseason surgeries to key forwards?

On Thursday the team announced Patrik Berglund would go under the knife for shoulder surgery that will knock him out at least four months. According to the team, Berglund reinjured his shoulder while training this offseason. The surgery will take place Friday. He will be reevaluated after four months to which means he could be out even longer.

Via the Post-Dispatch:

The injury originally happened on April 11, 2014 against Dallas in the second-to-last game of the 2013-14 regular season. Berglund missed three games, including the first two games of the Blues' first-round playoff series against Chicago, before returning for Game 3.

Berglund then re-injured the shoulder again last season in a 5-4 shootout win over Nashville on Jan. 29. He rejoined the lineup Feb. 5 in Buffalo, admitting that the shoulder probably wouldn't be 100 percent the remainder of the season.

It’s the second such offseason procedure for a Blues forward. St. Louis announced forward Jori Lehtera would be out until around the start of the regular season after ankle surgery. 

According to the Post-Dispatch, Berglund was skating with the Blues as early as last week during the team's informal drills.

Last season, Berglund, 27, notched 27 points in 77 games. Another blow to the Blues forwards for sure, but this is why they have a ton of depth. The Blues gave veteran forward Scott Gomez a professional tryout agreement on Thursday.

Per NHL.com

"It gives him a great opportunity," (general manager Doug) Armstrong said of Gomez. "I talked to Scott's representative when Lehtera went down. Seeing as Lehtera wasn't going to be participating in the first part of camp, if [Gomez] wanted to come in and play with some good players and show what he can do. Obviously now with the Berglund injury, it has opened up wide open for Gomez and for players like [Jordan] Caron and [Danny] Kristo and [Justin] Hodgman and obviously our own players like [Ty] Rattie, Fabbri, [Ivan] Barbashev. It's going to be a really competitive camp. The one spot that was locked down is now open."

As the Blues know, you can never have too much depth.

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