St. Louis Blues’ Marco Scandella to miss the remainder of season with lower-body injury

 St. Louis Blues head coach Craig Berube announced Tuesday that defenseman Marco Scandella would miss the remainder of the season with a lower-body injury. 

The 33-year-old blocked a shot during the second period in Saturday’s 6-1 loss against the Nashville Predators; he went to the locker room and would not return to the game. He logged 10:28 of ice time with one hit and one blocked shot. 

Scandella missed the first half of the season recovering from a hip injury. He was cleared to play and returned to action on February 20th. In 20 games this season, he has registered one goal and one assist. Scandella is currently in the third year of a four-year $13,100,000 contract he signed with the Blues in 2020. The contract has a cap hit of $3,275,000. 

He was acquired by the Blues in February 2020 from the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for a 2020 second-round pick (Jack Finley) and a 2021 fourth-round pick (William Trudeau). Scandella was initially drafted in the second round of the 2008 NHL Draft by the Minnesota Wild. He was traded from the Wild, along with Jason Pominville, to the Sabres in 2017-18 in exchange for Marcus Foligno and Tyler Ennis. After a few seasons in Buffalo, he was shipped off to the Canadiens before the 2020 NHL trade deadline. Throughout his career, he has appeared in 719 regular season games totalling 49 goals, and 113 assists for 162 points with the Wild, Canadiens, Sabres and Blues. He has appeared in 150 games while donning the Blues jersey, registering seven goals, 19 assists and a plus-37 rating.

The Blues currently have five games remaining on their schedule and are mathematically eliminated from playoff contention. They pose a record of 35-35-7.