Kyrou signs eight-year, $65 million contract with Blues

Jordan Kyrou signed an eight-year, $65 million contract with the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday. It has an average annual value of $8.125 million and begins with the 2023-24 season.

"It's like a once in a lifetime opportunity," Kyrou said Wednesday. "Growing up as a kid, it's something you dream of, right? This is it. Now it's just time to focus on getting better, getting stronger, faster, working on my game and how I can improve my game."
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The 23-year-old forward set NHL career highs in goals (27), assists (48) and points (75) last season, ranking fourth on the Blues in points. Kyrou, who tied for third on St. Louis with 19 power-play points (five goals, 14 assists), could have become a restricted free agent after this season.
"It's nice to get something done and just kind of not have to worry about that," Kyrou said. "Now I can just go focus on playing hockey and working on my game and working on what I need to do to be at the peak of my game. I think for me, it just gives me this whole year to continue and work on my game and just get better and not even focus on any of the contract talk and any of the stuff like that."
Kyrou scored seven goals in 12 Stanley Cup Playoff games, tying center Ryan O'Reilly for second on the Blues last season. St. Louis lost to the Colorado Avalanche in the Western Conference Second Round.
"We're excited to have a player of his caliber locked up for the meat of his career," Blues general manager Doug Armstrong said. "Coming in as a high draft choice, what he did as a junior hockey player, Ontario (Hockey League) player of the year, won a World Championship, came in and was a good player in the American [Hockey] League and he honed his craft coming here last year and being a over a point a game player."

Selected by St. Louis in the second round (No. 35) of the 2016 NHL Draft, Kyrou has 122 points (46 goals, 76 assists) in 173 regular-season games and 10 points (eight goals, two assists) in 21 postseason games. He was awarded the 2018 Red Tilson Trophy as the most outstanding player in the OHL and the Jim Mahon Memorial Trophy as the top scoring right wing in the league after he had 109 points (39 goals, 70 assists) for Sarnia, and helped Canada win the 2018 IIHF World Junior Championship.
The Blues signed center Robert Thomas to an eight-year, $65 million contract ($8.125 million AAV) on July 13. Like Kyrou, Thomas could have become an RFA after this season. He set NHL career highs in goals (20), assists (57) and points (77) in 72 games last season.
"We're playing for today and building for the future," Armstrong said. "Having those two guys signed long term is the cornerstone of what we're trying to accomplish moving forward. It's great news for the organization, great news for the city, great news for the players obviously themselves."
St. Louis also signed defenseman Nick Leddy (four years, $16 million), goalie Thomas Greiss (one year, $1.25 million), and forward Noel Acciari (one year, $1.25 million) on July 13.
"Obviously they're putting their faith and their trust in us," Kyrou said. "I think me and 'Tommer' are definitely ready for that. I think we've taken right steps over the last couple of years and obviously now we're ready to take even bigger steps and bigger roles for the team. I'm super excited for that. We're super excited to get going. It's pretty special."
NHL.com independent correspondent Lou Korac contributed to this report