Blues place Nathan Walker on IR, out at least eight weeks

The St. Louis Blues announced on Tuesday morning that they have placed winger Nathan Walker on injured reserve, and that he will be re-evaluated in eight weeks after sustaining an upper-body injury.

Walker appeared in the team’s game on Monday night and posted a minus-1 rating while recoding 12:21 of time on ice, just slightly below his season average.

Walker, the first Australian both to be selected in an NHL Draft and to play in the NHL, is in the midst of his seventh season as a member of the Blues after signing there as a free agent in 2019. He was drafted by the Washington Capitals and appeared in a total of 12 NHL games across two seasons in stints with the Caps as well as the Edmonton Oilers.

Throughout his tenure in the Show Me State, Walker has proven to be a solid bottom-six checking presence while racking up 63 points in 242 career regular season games. So far this year, he’s found the back of the net three times and dished out six assists for nine points in his 25 appearances.

With Walker out, the Blues made a move on Tuesday to acquire more depth at forward, as they landed Akil Thomas in a swap with the Los Angeles Kings.

The Blues have had a tough time to start this 2025-26 season, as they currently sit in seventh place in the Central Division with a 9-11-7 record. Thanks to an abundance of extra points from overtime and shootout losses, they find themselves just four points behind the Utah Mammoth for fourth place despite winning games at a 33 percent clip.

St. Louis is coming off of an impressive win over Anaheim on Monday night, and they’ll hit the road for a three-game swing that will take them through a trio of Atlantic Division cities with showdowns in Boston, Ottawa and Montreal.