Playoff Team, Retool Or Rebuild? What Direction Are The St. Louis Blues Going?

The St. Louis Blues are entering a period of significant transition – or at least, they should be now that longtime GM Doug Armstrong is handing over the GM duties to former Blues star forward Alexander Steen.

It’s a friendly transfer of power from Armstrong to Steen, although Armstrong will still get a say in matters now that he’s moving to president of hockey operations.  

That said, it’s difficult to see exactly what the blueprint for success is in St. Louis. Armstrong has made some significant moves that center around the long-term plan for the Blues.

In contrast, other moves – or the lack of other moves – indicate that St. Louis still doesn’t want to bottom out and land the type of generational talent the Blues need to keep up with the Joneses in the highly competitive Central Division.

This is why people are watching the Blues with curiosity. While St. Louis does have young talent to build with – including forwards Jimmy Snuggerud and Jake Neighbours, and defenseman Philip Broberg – they also have a slew of veterans, including 33-year-old blueliner Colton Parayko,  34-year-old D-man Cam Fowler and 31-year-old winger Pavel Buchnevich, all of whom could fetch a significant collection of assets in any trade.

And think: the biggest pieces Steen could move are players we haven’t mentioned yet – forwards Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou, and goalie Jordan Binnington – all of whom could be hotly pursued by teams seeking a long Stanley Cup playoff run. Thomas and Kyrou are signed through 2031, while Binnington enters the final year of his contract, so they’re a cost-certain known quantity that could help another team go on a deep post-season push. 

While Kyrou, Thomas and Binnington all have some form of no-trade clauses – Kyrou and Thomas have full no-trade clauses, while Binnington has a modified no-trade clause allowing him to veto a deal to 10 teams of his choosing – we all know by now a no-trade clause is there primarily to give players a say in where they get moved. 

That’s almost certain to be the case with Kyrou, Thomas and Binnington. If the Blues really are focused on a long-term rebuild, Thomas, Binnington and Kyrou should welcome the chance to compete for a Cup with a different team.

But right now, it still feels like the Blues have one foot in the here-and-now and the other foot in the future, highlighted by a recent report indicating that the Blues aren’t interested in trading Thomas. St. Louis currently has the 11th-overall pick in this year’s entry draft, as well as the 15th-overall pick and the 29th-overall pick.

Shouldn’t Steen’s primary job at the draft be to parlay those first-rounders into a better spot in the first round? The Blues are still going to get a good player at 11th overall, but St. Louis should be focused on taking big swings at the plate, and that means trying to move into a top-five spot or better.

The last thing the Blues want to be is a “Mushy Middle” team – a team that isn’t a year-in, year-out playoff team, and yet a team that doesn’t finish close enough to the top end of the draft to acquire the foundational talent teams can only get at the top of the draft.

Steen must move in one direction – a retool that helps the Blues become a playoff team sooner rather than later, or a full rebuild that will deliver generational talent, but at the cost of years of pain in the win/loss department – and he has to do so quickly.

The transfer of power in the Blues’ front office doesn’t change this writer’s view of where they need to be in their competitive cycle. This St. Louis team has to focus on the long haul, and that means moving out veteran players while building for the future. The Blues have had ultimate success not all that long ago, but Father Time has put them in a bind, and they need to crawl out of the crater they’ve created by building a new generation of foundational talent for the franchise.

So, in the days and weeks immediately ahead, we need to see Steen laying out his vision for the team. The Blues have an opportunity to restock for the future, and any attempt at fast-tracking St. Louis’ rebuild could lead to disaster and disappointment. But with the right managerial choices, the Blues could – eventually – be a legitimate Cup threat once again.

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