“Reload not rebuild” the plan for St. Louis Blues’ GM Doug Armstrong

The St. Louis Blues seemed on the verge of an overhaul when they dealt franchise icons Ryan O’Reilly and Vladimir Tarasenko to contenders at the trade deadline. GM Doug Armstrong kept most of his veteran core intact, though, and with young stars Joel Hofer, Jordan Kyrou, and Robert Thomas coming into their own, the Stanley Cup winner will not want to wait to return to contention. On Monday’s edition of Daily Faceoff Live, hosts Mike McKenna and Frank Seravalli shed light on Armstrong’s headspace going into a critical offseason.

Mike McKenna: Let’s talk about the St. Louis Blues, Frank. They’ll be looking to re-tool this summer. We’ve talked about them previously. I’d like to see the switch up on the back end. They’ve got people under long-term contracts, but what do you think the Blues have in mind?

Frank Seravalli: Not only do they have all those guys in their top-4 locked up, they also all have no-trade clauses, which really makes it difficult for Doug Armstrong to reshape the look of that back end. You’re right, I think they need to. They’re also getting a bit long in the tooth on defense. 

It is no shock that the St. Louis Blues are willing to move the two additional first round picks that they ended up getting. When you look at the spot that they are in, they have the Toronto Maple Leafs’ pick at 25th overall from the Ryan O’Reilly deal, and they can move those late first-round picks to improve in the short-term. We’ve seen this play from Doug Armstrong before when he added Brayden Schenn and Ryan O’Reilly to begin with using extra first-round picks they had gotten over the years from guys like Shattenkirk and Paul Stastny. 

What do they want in return? In conversations that Doug Armstrong has had with other GMs throughout the NHL, I’m told he’s asking for a player or players that are in their mid-twenties and under team control to help reboot this team. 

They’re a team that had 109 points a season ago but struggled and missed the playoffs this year. Like some other teams, they think they can bounce right back. With guys like Robert Thomas, Jordan Kyrou, and Torey Krug still in place, they were never going to hit rock bottom and rebuild. The plan certainly is not to rebuild for Doug Armstrong, it’s to reboot.

Mike McKenna: It’ll be interesting to see who fills that leadership void too after Ryan O’Reilly moved on at the trade deadline. 

You can watch the entire episode here…