MARYLAND HEIGHTS, Mo. -- The St. Louis Blues dipped into the center pool on the first day of free agency by inking veteran Nick Bjugstad to a two-year contract for $3.5 million ($1.75 million average annual value).

The 32-year-old played in 66 regular-season games with the Utah Mammoth last season and had 19 points (eight goals, 11 assists).

"Bjugstad's a player that we talked about," Blues general manager Doug Armstrong said. "He's got a great wing span, great size, he's got experience. We have the ability to put [Oskar] Sundqvist in [Radek] Faksa's spot if we want. We can put Bjugstad in there. We'll have the ability to stay in the market. The market dictates also, as I said, there's a number of teams looking for certain players. Players dictate where they want to play also, so we haven't been involved in some of the things we want to be involved in, but we're OK with that. We're still in the growing process.

"I'm not sure our time was right to put all the chips in the middle right now. I think we're still growing. I'm excited about that under-25 group, and we'll continue to push and see if we can get better."

Bjugstad is a big body (6-foot-5,, 205-pounds) and had 330 points (157 goals, 173 assists) in 760 NHL regular-season games that's including stints with the Florida Panthers, Pittsburgh Penguins, Minnesota Wild, Arizona Coyotes, Edmonton Oilers and Mammoth.

"We think he's an experienced, NHL player that's going to be able to come in here," Armstrong said. "When I talked to him about coming to St. Louis, I said, 'We have a good veteran core and young players pushing.' It's probably a little bit like the situation that he was in. I said, 'We're going to need you to come in and be a good leader, but more importantly, you have to lead by your good play and we think he still has good hockey left in him." 

With Bjugstad's signing, it became a fair assumption that the Blues would not be bringing back Faksa, who became an unrestricted free agent on Tuesday and re-signed with the Dallas Stars, netting himself a three-year, $6 million contract ($2 million AAV).

"We talked to Faksa's agent," Armstrong said. "After a number of years, you get a feeling when something's going to work or not going to work. We talked last night and I got a sense that we should start looking other places. ... You just move forward."

In addition to signing Bjugstad, the Blues made a very interesting trade in a swap of young players when they traded forward Zack Bolduc to the Montreal Canadiens for defenseman Logan Mailloux.