{"id":466533,"date":"2025-04-11T21:51:59","date_gmt":"2025-04-12T01:51:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=466533"},"modified":"2025-04-11T21:51:59","modified_gmt":"2025-04-12T01:51:59","slug":"return-looming-for-st-louis-blues-defenceman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/04\/11\/return-looming-for-st-louis-blues-defenceman\/","title":{"rendered":"Return Looming for St. Louis Blues Defenceman"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The St. Louis Blues may get a key piece of their lineup back soon. Defenceman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/p\/parayco01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-04-11_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Colton Parayko<\/a>, who has been out since <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/03\/06\/st-louis-blues-defenceman-out-at-least-six-weeks-with-knee-injury\/\" target=\"_self\">March 5th<\/a>, could return to the lineup for next Tuesday&#8217;s game against the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?s=utah+hockey+club\" target=\"_self\">Utah Hockey Club<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>Parayko&#8217;s Return Looming<\/h2>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Monty was just on The Fast Lane <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/101espn?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@101espn<\/a> and says Parayko is doubtful for Saturday\u2019s game in Seattle, but he\u2019s getting close and the Utah game Tuesday is a possible target date for a return. <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/stlblues?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#stlblues<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jeremy Rutherford (@jprutherford) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jprutherford\/status\/1910822822722646305?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 11, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The news of Parayko&#8217;s looming return was announced on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.101espn.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">101 ESPN<\/a> by the Blues head coach, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/m\/montgji01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-04-11_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jim Montgomery<\/a>. Montgomery said Parayko was doutbful for Saturday&#8217;s game against the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?s=seattle+kraken\" target=\"_self\">Seattle Kraken<\/a>, but could return on Tuesday for the season finale.<\/p>\n<h3>Likelihood of an Earlier Return<\/h3>\n<p>However, the use of the word &#8220;doubtful&#8221; makes one wonder if Parayko could be available Saturday if absolutely necessary. That could depend on the outcome of <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/04\/11\/nhl-predictions-april-11-minnesota-wild-vs-calgary-flames\/\" target=\"_self\">Friday&#8217;s game<\/a> between the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?s=calgary+flames\" target=\"_self\">Calgary Flames<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?s=minnesota+wild\" target=\"_self\">Minnesota Wild<\/a>. A Flames loss of any kind would give the Blues an opportunity to clinch a playoff spot Saturday with a win of any kind.<\/p>\n<p>Even so, the Blues are not in a position where they have to win on Saturday, regardless of what the Flames do. As a result, it would not make sense for Parayko to play before his target date.<\/p>\n<h4>Parayko&#8217;s Return Needed<\/h4>\n<p>The Blues have been bit by the injury bug. In addition to Parayko, forward <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/h\/hollody01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-04-11_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dylan Holloway<\/a> is week-to-week following an injury sustained late last week. Getting Parayko back will be a huge boost to the Blues lineup.<\/p>\n<p>Parayko was in the middle of a great season before his injury. The defenceman was on pace for a 20-goal season. Furthermore, he played a key role in the Team Canada&#8217;s victory in the 4 Nations Face-Off.<\/p>\n<p>The contributions of the Blues defence have been a big part in the team&#8217;s success this season. Parayko has led the way. When he returns, you can bet he will lead the way once again.<\/p>\n<p><em>Main Photo: Jeff Le- Imagn Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The St. Louis Blues may get a key piece of their lineup back soon. Defenceman Colton Parayko, who has been out since March 5th, could return to the lineup for next Tuesday&#8217;s game against the Utah Hockey Club. Parayko&#8217;s Return Looming Monty was just on The Fast Lane @101espn and says Parayko is doubtful for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3464,"featured_media":466535,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[34,4547,4548,32],"tags":[718],"class_list":["post-466533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-hockey","category-nhl","category-blues","tag-colton-parayko"],"modified_by":"Andrew Willis","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3464"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466533"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466533\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":466536,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466533\/revisions\/466536"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/466535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}