ST. LOUIS -- It was tough sledding to try and get into the top 10, according to St. Louis Blues general manager Doug Armstrong.

The Blues, who came into the 2026 NHL Draft with four first-round picks but ended up with two (Nos. 11 and 16) after trading Nos. 15 and 29 to the Anaheim Ducks for center Mason McTavish, were gauging interest at perhaps moving up into the top 10 and what it would cost but several attempts were thwarted.

"There was no way we were getting to four," Armstrong said. "I called five, ‘No, we’re picking.’ I called six, ‘No, we’re picking.’ I called seven, ‘No, we’re picking.’ I called eight, ‘No, we’re picking.’ There was a team near us, I don’t want to say the number, (only) if that guy’s not there. You’re using draft equity, so if pick X, I’ll give you this for pick X and you’ll say, ‘OK, if my guy’s not there, OK I’ll take it.’ I never got the call that their guy wasn’t there."

There's always a chance the Blues, who came into Saturday with nine remaining picks (three in the third round, two in the fourth and fifth rounds each, and one each in the sixth and seventh rounds), can try and move around, but after making trades for McTavish on Friday and dealing Jordan Kyrou on Tuesday to the Washington Capitals for a package that included Connor McMichael, the 16th pick in this year's draft and a 2025 second-round prospect (Milton Gastrin), the Blues' roster is starting to take shape.

"The way this business works, you do it today and you get back and you try and do it again tomorrow," Armstrong said. "I think we’ve added NHL young players in that age bracket. That was important. If you go back to the trade deadline and you look at the assets, and I don’t like to call players assets. They’re people, but if you look at … I guess they’re assets in an organization. What has gone out and what has come back in and the age of what has come back in, I think you would have to say whether you like the plan or you agree with the plan, it is a plan and we stayed within the plan."

But that plan isn't finished. Trades are still open-ended, and free agency begins on Wednesday.

"We have three thirds. We can maybe manipulate that into the second, but that’s years away," Armstrong said. "No matter what we do (Saturday), that’s years away. Alex (Steen) and his inner circle and I, we’ll sit down, now we can sit with the coach. We’ve gone through where we think these guys can play in theory, but they’re Blues now. So now where are they going to play and how can we use free agency, how can we use surplus of players if we think we have those to fill out areas that might be a strength or a deficiency. I think we’re stronger than we were at the end of last season adding the two players that we added. Now we have the opportunity to look at free agency, now we have the opportunity to look at trades to see what we want to do. What excites me is the support of the fan base of wanting to build around a certain group of players, a certain age of players and try to give them the opportunity to have enough assets to grow and push."

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