It just won’t be with the Blues. Perunovich has been dispatched to the Springfield (Mass.) Thunderbirds of the American Hockey League on a conditioning assignment — his final step before returning to the Blues lineup.

“Getting real close here,” Perunovich told the Post-Dispatch after Saturday’s morning skate at Centene Community Ice Center. “Another few practices maybe and see how I’m doing.”

Turns out it will be another few practices and a few games. Under NHL guidelines, Perunovich is allowed to participate in a maximum of three games over six games on a conditioning assignment while on long-term injured reserved.

Springfield plays three games next weekend — at Providence on Friday and Sunday, with a game at Bridgeport sandwiched between on Saturday.

The Blues can also ask the NHL to have Perunovich play an additional two games, in which case the Thunderbirds have home games on Wednesday, Feb. 22 against Hartford and Saturday, Feb. 25 against Rochester.

Given the amount of time Perunovich has been sidelined with his fractured left shoulder, it would not be surprising if the Blues sought to have him play the extra two games.

“Four months is a long time,” Perunovich said. “You’re not really doing much. Now, I’m getting after it, some fast-paced, up-tempo contact. Stuff like that. It’s kind of the last piece of the puzzle before you can finally complete your rehab.”

When he spoke Saturday to the Post-Dispatch, Perunovich apparently wasn’t aware of the conditioning assignment but said: “I’ll play wherever they want me to play.”

Perunovich has been skating with the Blues for a few weeks, gradually ramping up his work. Early last week, he was cleared for full contact — a major hurdle on the path back to game action.

“So now it’s just the confidence, getting the drills in, getting repetitions of getting hit over and over,” Perunovich said. “And then saying it’s good to go.”

For a while, there was a little bit of the unknown.

“Guys were coming up to me in practice, asking if they can touch me or not,” Perunovich said. “I had to tell ’em, ‘Yeah, I want you to start hitting me.’

“They’re all helping, too. After practice, grab a guy, have him do a little corner battle with me and stuff like that. So that’s one of the things I need to keep doing right now.”

And then there’s the case of Josh Leivo.

“Josh Leivo hit me a couple weeks ago (before Perunovich was cleared for full contact). I don’t know what he was thinking,” Perunovich said with a smile. “I give him a hard time for it.”

For the next week or so, Perunovich will be playing for a Springfield team that currently is riding a franchise record nine-game winning streak and pushing for a spot in the playoffs. The current T-birds roster includes four players who have appeared in at least one game with the Blues this season: Jake Neighbours, Nikita Alexandrov, Will Bitten and Steven Santini.

Where Perunovich fits into the Blues roster once he completes the conditioning stint remains to be seen. They already have seven healthy defensemen on the roster, with Robert Bortuzzo a healthy scratch in Saturday’s 6-5 overtime win over Arizona — the first game back from an 11-day break.

“Obviously I want to get back right now, but you don’t want to rush it and not be 100 percent confident,” Perunovich said. “Even if you’re 98% confident, that’s not where you need to be. That two percent can really hurt you, and you want to come back and make sure everything’s good, make sure you’re healthy and stay healthy.”

Staying healthy has been the problem for the highly regarded Perunovich since being drafted in the second round, No. 45 overall, out of Minnesota-Duluth in 2018. He stayed in college for the 2019-20 season, hoping to win a third consecutive NCAA title.

The COVID pandemic ended that season early, but it wasn’t a total waste for Perunovich, who earned the Hobey Baker Award as college hockey’s top player.

But Perunovich’s pro career has known nothing but injuries. He missed the entire COVID-shortened 2020-21 season flowing left shoulder surgery for a torn labrum.

Last season, he missed time with left wrist surgery, playing in only 19 games with the Blues and 17 with Springfield. (He also played in seven Blues postseason games after returning from the wrist injury.)

This season, he suffered the fractured left shoulder in a Sept. 27 preseason game in Chicago and hasn’t played since. It was an innocent-looking play with Perunovich reaching out with his left arm — apparently trying to keep his balance — after absorbing a moderate hit into the glass from the Blackhawks’ Michal Teply.

The original timetable for a return was six months, which would have had Perunovich back by early April. Obviously, he’s well ahead of schedule. But he says he’s pain-free and anxious to start playing again.

“Everything’s good,” he said. “Everything, every step of the way has been good.”

Now, if he can only have some good luck when it comes to staying healthy.

“A lot of people have it a lot worse,” Perunovich said. “If this is the hardest thing going on, I’m pretty lucky.”