ST. LOUIS -- The St. Louis Blues, in what many on the surface would consider a surprising transaction, assigned top prospect Otto Stenberg to Springfield of the American Hockey League on Monday.

But it's not for the reasons everyone thinks.

Stenberg, a first-round pick (No. 25) in the 2023 NHL Draft who has had a strong start to his NHL career playing in 18 games (one goal, seven assists, plus-4), was assigned for the purposes of allowing him to be able to play for the Thunderbirds while the NHL takes a three-week hiatus for the Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy.

The Blues (19-24-9) have five more games left before the break, and if Stenberg were to have play in any of the remaining games leading into the break, he would be entitled to take the time off during the break, and the Blues want him to keep accumulating games and minutes.

If Stenberg were to play in any of the five remaining games prior to the Olympics, he would not have been eligible to go to the AHL during the time off, so he will not be playing in any of the five remaining games prior to Milano-Cortina.

"I thought he had a lot of jump, I thought he played well last game," Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. "As far as leveling off, I think we saw that with that West coast trip where we did three different time zones. It seemed like it didn't only affect him, but it affected by the end of the trip, it affected all of our younger players and that's getting used to the grind of the NHL, how you take care of your body, how you recover game to game.

"I don't think he got discouraged, but it's a learning process that we communicate to them too and really ask our veteran players to take one of the younger guys under their wing so they really learn how to recover quicker. But your body's got to go through it before you understand it."

Under no circumstances are the Blues displeased with Stenberg's game. In fact, far from it.

"Very happy. He definitely has an NHL brain," Montgomery said. "His game management is high end. His play without the puck is really good, really solid. Again, needs to continue to develop his offensive side of the game."

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