Find more episodes by The Hockey News at THN.com/podcast. Image [https://thehockeynews.com/.image/c_fit,h_600,w_600/MTk1OTc2MzM1NDAxNjkwNTkz/usatsi_19977967.jpg] Much of the hype surrounding the blockbuster trade late Friday between the Toronto Maple Leafs, St. Louis Blues and Minnesota Wild focused on the best player in the transaction – veteran star center Ryan O’Reilly – and the Leafs team that acquired him. But you have to stop for a moment and acknowledge Blues GM Doug Armstrong for a cold-blooded assessment of his team’s chances at making the playoffs and his subsequent actions to better his team in the long term. Indeed, like many NHL GMs – cough-cough, Chuck Fletcher in Philadelphia and David Poile in Nashville, cough-cough – Armstrong could’ve taken the easy way out, kept all his veteran players and tried to make additions in the name of making the post-season. But that isn’t what the Blues need at this point in their competitive cycle. By making two huge splashes this past week – first, the trade of star winger Vladimir Tarasenko, and now, moving O’Reilly and depth winger Noel Acciari to Toronto – Armstrong is admitting the Blues aren’t good enough to contend for a playoff spot, let alone a Stanley Cup. He ought to be credited for that. When you look at the haul Armstrong got in the two big trades he’s made this week, you have to be impressed. In exchange for Tarasenko, Armstrong received defense prospect Hunter Skinner, a conditional first-round pick this summer, and a fourth-rounder in the 2024 draft. The O’Reilly/Acciari trade gave St. Louis Toronto’s first-rounder this year, a third-rounder this summer, a second-rounder in 2024, fringe NHLer Adam Gaudette and forward prospect Mikhail Abramov. So, as it stands today, the Blues have three first-round picks in the 2023 draft – their own pick, Toronto’s pick, and a conditional first-rounder that will either be the New York Rangers’ pick or Dallas’ pick. In a deep draft, having nearly 10 percent of the picks is an excellent position for St. Louis to be in. They may not come away with a generational talent, but their draft and development team has three shots to draft a player who can be a difference-maker in a few years. And their D&D team has a couple of youngsters, Skinner and Abramov, to try developing into NHLers. And Armstrong may not be done making moves before the NHL’s March 3 trade deadline. As per CapFriendly [https://www.capfriendly.com/teams/blues], St. Louis is projected to have more than $7.6 million in salary-cap space by the deadline. They could help other teams fit a trade under the cap by assuming some portions of another player’s contract. They’ve also got a couple of players who could attract interest on the trade front – namely, soon-to-be-UFA forward Ivan Barbashev (10 goals, 28 points in 50 games this year) and journeyman goaltender Thomas Greiss (.909 save percentage, 3.22 goals-against average in 15 games). Neither Greiss nor Barbashev will command a king’s ransom, but Armstrong can convert them into more draft picks and/or prospects for the future. The next few months, and the next couple of years, could be trying times for the Blues. But they’re much better served by Armstrong’s realistic approach to where they are in the league’s pecking order. And it’s possible O’Reilly returns as a UFA for the 2023-24 season. In that case, turning him into a rental talent would look like a genius move. But let’s say O’Reilly stays in Toronto or signs with a brand new team – the Blues now have many assets to show for O’Reilly’s late-career presence with the team, and they’re better positioned to have success down the line. It has to be tough for Blues fans to bid goodbye to a player who was integral to their Stanley Cup-winning season. But this is what the salary cap does – it forces teams to move on from their key veterans eventually, and that’s what Armstrong has done with the trades of Tarasenko and O’Reilly. The Leafs and Rangers have benefitted by acquiring veteran stars, probably for the short term, and the Blues are benefitting in the long term by ending an era that made many St. Louis fans ecstatic and rebuilding. It’s not easy to turn the page, but it’s better than being a team that deludes itself into believing they’re one or two players away and going for a retool on the fly. The Blues are not one or two players away from being Cup front-runners again. Of course, that would change if they win the NHL draft lottery and land phenom Connor Bedard. But let’s presume that doesn’t happen. St. Louis is now set to make three important picks in the first round. The only way they get that many selections is by making the tough choices to move on from two of their all-time greats. Kudos to Armstrong for seeing things as they are.
