St. Louis Blues GM Doug Armstrong told reporters they did some due diligence as soon as reports came out about an agreement in place to trade Colton Parayko to the Buffalo Sabres, which the D-man later struck down.
St. Louis Blues GM Doug Armstrong shared his displeasure regarding the reports of Colton Parayko potentially being traded to the Buffalo Sabres before he decided whether or not to waive his no-move clause.
On Wednesday, TSN reported that a trade between the Blues and Sabres that included Parayko was on the table. However, the Blues defenseman has a no-trade clause in his contract, and he eventually rejected a move to Buffalo.
With this leak, Parayko's decision became public, and that didn't sit well with the team's GM.
"It's unfortunate, and I'm not talking about Colton alone, any time there's a trade leak, I find it very disappointing," Armstrong told reporters, according to Matthew DeFranks of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "For the people that know me, we run a pretty tight ship as far as communication coming in and out."
"We did some due diligence as soon as that happened. We checked the phone records of all of our staff, texts and emails, and everybody passed the test, not surprisingly. I was disappointed it got out. I know it didn't come from us."
A situation similar to Parayko's nearly surfaced again for the Blues on Friday's deadline day.
St. Louis was trading captain and center Brayden Schenn to the New York Islanders. But with that process, Schenn needed to give his approval as he owns a 15-team no-trade clause on his contract.
In the end, Schenn was dealt to the Islanders. He told TSN the Blues and Islanders are staying in the same hotel in San Jose, and they were able to get a quick decision from the 34-year-old to waive his clause. They received Jonathan Drouin, Marcus Gidlof, as well as a first-round pick and a third-round pick in the 2026 draft.
MacKenzie Weegar also had to waive his no-trade clause for the Calgary Flames to send him to the Utah Mammoth on Wednesday. That pending trade was also reported before he waived it.
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