Patrik Berglund out until December with shoulder injury.

Blues forward Patrik Berglund is coming off of a season that saw him score 23 goals (second on the team behind Vladimir Tarasenko) and 34 points. This year of solid production got him a four year contract extension, a no-movement clause, and a salary of $4,700,000 per season.

So, it stands to reason that during off-season training in Sweden, Berglund would injure his shoulder again and require surgery that will push his debut back to December.

Says Doug Armstrong:

"It certainly will move someone else in the middle," Blues general manager Doug Armstrong said. "Right now you can go with (Paul) Stastny, (Brayden) Schenn or have the option to go to (Vladimir) Sobotka back in there. (Ivan) Barbashev has played there, the young player we got from Pittsburgh - Oskar Sundqvist - he can play in there. There are some internal options and we'll explore those."

Armstrong also said he could evaluate free agency on July 1.

"We're always looking to see if we can get creative maybe," he said. "We're talking to some potential free agents, but I don't want to get anyone's hopes up that there will be a lot of change to this roster."

(insert laughter at his last sentence here)

For those of you who find this familiar, don’t go and check the date of the article yet. This exact same thing happened in 2015, when Berglund had to have surgery on his shoulder after training aggravated a dislocated shoulder injury he sustained in 2013-2014.

It’s like deja vu all over again.