The Blues were pleasantly surprised to learn today that defenseman Jeff Woywitka has cleared waivers and will play with Peoria Friday night.

Woywitka cracked a bone in his foot early in the preseason and has yet to play a regular-season game with the Blues. Someone astutely asked in today’s JR Live chat why the Blues didn’t send Woywitka on a conditioning assignment to Peoria, and thus avoid waivers. Peoria general manager Kevin McDonald told me that in that case, Woywitka would still count toward the Blues’ 23-man roster, and they were trying to clear room on the roster.

“Jeff Woywitka cleared waivers and we have a sigh of relief on that because he is a guy that we expect to play games for us this year, and to lose him on the waiver wire would have been tough,” Blues coach Andy Murray said. “But he’s cleared, he’ll get an opportunity to play in Peoria now and be in a better position to come up and help us. He didn’t get a chance to play a lot of exhibition games and missed so much of training camp with the broken foot, we needed to have him play some games there . . . it’s fortunate he got through waivers.” 

Woywitka does not need to pass through re-entry waivers on his way back to the Blues, which could be after he plays in a couple of games this weekend.

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The Blues assigned Chris Porter to Peoria today. With the addition of David Koci Wednesday, the Blues were up to 15 forwards on the active roster. The healthy scratches Wednesday night against Detroit were Koci, Cam Janssen and Yan Stastny.

“We needed to make a move up front,” Murray said. ”We had three extra forwards, that’s too many to carry. Chris Porter had a great training camp. He’s played well early here in the season, but he needs to get some more experience. We indicated to him that there’s some things in his game that he needs to work on. We expect to see that down in Peoria. He’s the type of player that has shown he can be an NHLer, and I think he’ll work his way back here.”

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There’s been so much movement with the roster Blues’ lately, I think it’s worth it to review who’s on the roster, who’s active and who’s on IR.

There’s currently 22 players on the active roster . . .

Forwards (14): Keith Tkachuk, Paul Kariya, Brad Boyes, Andy McDonald, Dan Hinote, David Backes, Lee Stempniak, Jay McClement, T.J. Oshie, Patrik Berglund, David Perron, Cam Janssen, Yan Stastny and David Koci.

Defense (6): Jay McKee, Eric Brewer, Barret Jackman, Roman Polak, Steve Wagner and Mike Weaver.

Goalies (2): Manny Legace and Ben Bishop.

IR (4): Jonas Junland, Alex Pietrangelo, Chris Mason, D.J. King and Erik Johnson

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Koci, who is a BIG BOY at 6-6 and 238 pounds, was surprised when he heard the Blues had claimed him.

“My first thought was, ‘Why would they pick me up if they have D.J. King and Cam Janssen,” Koci said. “But then I heard that D.J. King is hurt . . . I’m just glad for this opportunity. I will try to help this team and show them how thankful I am for them picking me up.”

Koci said that he and Janssen fought a few times in the minors, “but we like each other.” Unfortunately, we don’t have any footage of those fights to see who won, but most of us have seen the other Koci fights. (I posted a few in my blog the other day). I asked Koci about his fight with Boston’s Zdeno Chara and if it were true that he went into that fight with a broken nose.

“I was in Chicago last year and I my season was really good at the start,” Koci said. “I was playing regular. I just wanted to show the coach . . . I had a broken nose from the Toronto game the night before and the coach put me in the lineup (against Boston). I still had to play 100 percent. I can’t be thinking about (the broken nose). I didn’t want to fight Chara, but he just took me out from a big scramble and I had to do it. I learned . . . it was good for me and good for my career.”

Koci will get into a game with the Blues, but I get the sense that Murray has some loyalty to Janssen, who has performed his job well for the team.

“Cam has always been keen to fill the physical role on our team,” Murray said. “He’s a guy that you never have to encourage to go out and be physical. He’s a guy that sometimes you have to say, ‘Hey Cam, we don’t need it right now.’ He’s a great team player. He’ll stand up for his teammates. We’ve got David Koci here now that gives us depth on that physical side. But Cam is our guy and I think the whole city identifies with how he’s battled to become a National Hockey League player.”

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We keep hearing about Junland being ready? When will he play?

“Jonas will play hockey this weekend . . . we’re not exactly sure whether it will be with the Blues or what the scenario will be,” Murray said. “But he’s able to play this weekend.”

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David Perron and Patrik Berglund need to be better, or both could find themselves sitting in the press box. Perron has five assists in six games this season, but he has just eight shots on goal, and Murray believes he hasn’t been very hard on the puck. His ice time was 12:36 against the Red Wings, as he sat out much of the third period.

“David Perron needs to play hard every night,” Murray said. “He needs to realize that every time you’re on the ice is an opportunity to get something accomplished. If you’re not ready to go, you’re opponents can take advantage of it. David has turned the puck over too much in the neutral zone. We need him to be harder on the puck and compete harder. It’s something that a lot of young players have to go through. He’s certainly had some growing pains in that area.

“(Perron) drips of passion. He’s one of the first ones in the dressing room - Keith Tkachuk is always the first and David Perron is second - and I just want to see a little bit of that passion he shows for the game during the game.”

Berglund also sat out much of the third period Wednesday and finished with 10:31 of ice time. He didn’t have a shot in the game.

JR

The Blues

He just didn’t get a chance to play a lot of