ST. LOUIS - The Blues will be without forward Jaden Schwartz to start the season after he sustained a left elbow injury in practice.

Schwartz is expected to miss four weeks, but Blues Head Coach Ken Hitchcock said the news isn't all that bad.

"It could be a lot worse," Hitchcock said Friday. "We've got two weeks of training camp left, so he won't miss many games. With an injury like that, it could be nothing or it could be surgery, you don't know… The nice part is, he's going to be in shape because it's not going to affect his skating. He'll be in cardio shape and can hit the ground running.

"We're not going to play many games without him, maybe five, six, (or) seven - and we can certainly do that."