As rumours of Vladimir Sobotka’s NHL return continue to burn, St. Louis Blues general manager Doug Armstrong has again expressed his desire to get the centre back in a Blues uniform.

“I had a good talk with his agent,” Armstrong told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Sunday.

“The agent [Petr Svoboda] told me that the money he made last year, they guaranteed him for next year. He’s got two weeks to decide what he’s going to do. I said, ‘We’d love to have him back.’ I understand if the economics are so great in the KHL and he has to stay. I respect that. Then we’ll talk again a year from now.”

Sobotka’s three-year deal with the Kontinental Hockey League’s Avangard Omsk is believed to be worth $4 per season and includes an out clause to return to the NHL each summer.

Armstrong hopes the decline of Russia’s ruble could spur Sobotka to consider coming back to the NHL, where he owes the Blues one more season at at arbitrator-awarded $2.725 million.

The 27-year-old Czech forward scored 10 goals and 38 points in 53 games with Omsk this season. In 381 career NHL games he’s registered 35 goals and 123 points.

“There’s no ill will there,” Armstrong told Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston last month of Sobotka’s departure for 2014-15. “He made a business decision.”