Players signed away from Edmonton Oilers appreciate St. Louis Blues GM Doug Armstrong trying to alleviate urgency to live up to expectations immediately

MARYLAND HEIGHTS, Mo. -- One of the first things Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway did upon their arrival to town was to sit down with Doug Armstrong.

Along with the usual welcoming to and getting the high level treatement as being new members of the St. Louis Blues, Armstrong, the team's general manager, wanted to make one thing perfectly clear after the defenseman and forward signed offer sheets in August that raised eyebrows around the NHL landscape.

The message: don't put pressure on yourselves.

"I talked to both of those players about expectations and controlling the controllables," Armstrong said. "Those guys coming in here, they came here via offer sheet and that in itself has a lot of permutations around it and people talking about it. What I said to them and mostly Broberg in this conversation, 'We're in this for the marathon, not the sprint.' I think he's got less than 100 games, 80 games. I want him to have a good tenure (and) career here in St. Louis. I want him to hit the ground running, but we're not going to judge him in October, November. This is going to be a growing process."

And coach Drew Bannister is on board with the message.

"I think the natural instinct of those players is internally, there's putting pressure on themselves a little bit and externally, they probably have some pressure too," Bannister said. "But I think for our staff and the rest of the players is kind of let them kind of feel themselves in and get them into position where they feel comfortable and they can have success. That's going to take time. It's a new team, new systems. We'll help them out in any way we can and we'll put them in positions where they can have success."

Broberg, who in fact has played in 81 regular-season games for the Oilers; Holloway has 89. Combined, it's two seasons worth of games. Hardly anything to harp about in terms of length. But the contracts they signed (Broberg, two years, $9.16 million, $4.58 million average annual value; Holloway, two years, $4.58 million, $2.29 million AAV) was quite a significant pay raise for each. And with that come expectations.

And each player is OK with that, despite the calming affect put on them by their new GM and coach, something each appreciates.

"It was great to hear from him," Holloway said of Armstrong. "He had a lot of good things to say about the team and where the team's headed. I've completely bought into that mindset. We've got a special group and a good, young core group of guys that hopefully play with each other for a long time and find success in the near future.

"It's obviously good to hear, but I expect a lot out of myself. I don't think that the pressure comes from anywhere but myself. I have high expectations for myself and I'm just going to hold myself to that standard.

"I've always been that way, 100 percent. I feel like I've got some lofty goals for myself. But I'm just trying to take it a day at a time and trying to work my hardest and hopefully those goals will come true. We're just really excited to be a Blue and trying to give it everything I can to help this team win."

Broberg added, "I have high expectations of myself. I try to push myself every day and get better.

"I'm very excited for the opportunity here. When all this developed, I'm very happy that I'm a Blue. I'm excited to get going and get to know the guys. I think I have high expectations of myself. I want to come become better every day and try to develop my game. I'm looking forward to the opportunity here."

Each player made his Blues debut on Sunday, a 5-3 preseason loss against the Utah Hockey Club in Des Moines, Iowa and came away with positive results.

Holloway scored and Broberg was paired with Colton Parayko, perhaps a prelude for what's to come in the not-too-distant future.

"Just know from watching him, he's a smooth skater, extremely hard to play against and he moves the puck well," Parayko said of Broberg. "Excited to get to watch him start here, develop and keep getting better. He's a great player already. The ceiling's unlimited."

Holloway displayed the speed that comes with his credentials. With the puck, he was dangerous off the rush and came in from the point to score a power-play goal in the first period, set up by Brayden Schenn.

"My first impressions have always been really good," Holloway said. "It's definitely a tight-knit group of guys. You can tell right away from when I walked in. They're very welcoming. Great group of guys and obviously tremendous players too.

"I bring some skill and physicality, also a lot of speed. I'm going to try and play fast and skilled, chipping in on offense, but also if they need me to play a role, be physical, I can do that too."

There's sort of a calming affect for the two players, each who is 23, to talk hockey after the unknown time frame of when the offer sheets were made Aug. 13 to Aug. 20.

"It was a stressful week, didn't know what to expect, but I'm glad that's over and I'm looking to the future now and excited to be here and try to help this team any way I can," Broberg said. "It feels good. Guys here seem awesome. I'm just trying to get to know everybody. I've only been been here just over a week now. I'm trying to get to know everybody and get comfortable.

"I think I've worked hard in the summer to get better. I'm looking forward to the opportunity. I've tried to take advantage of it of course, but I have high expectations of myself and I try to push myself."

Unlike Broberg, who is getting acclimated with his new teammates, Holloway at least has one new teammate he had experience with in the past: Jake Neighbours.

"Throughout the whole offer sheet process, I was texting with Jakey Neighbours," said Holloway, who turned 23 on Monday. "I know him a little bit growing up, played against him. Obviously he's a great guy. He reached out right away and then he actually helped me find my place here. He's been great. All the guys have been great."

"We started playing against each other when we were probably 11 years old," Neighbours said. "We have kind of always been acquaintances and then over the last three years, started to become better friends, hung out a little bit in the summers and stuff and then obviously when I saw offer sheets, kind of a pretty easy transition for him. We played in a couple all-star games together and stuff like that so we're pretty familiar.

"My reaction was probably pretty similar to everybody else's. Just a lot of excitement obviously and hopeful that we were going to get them. Obviously shocked too. That stuff doesn't happen too often. That's great for our team and those are two very good players. I know 'Holly' personally and he's going to fit in really well here. Just from the couple weeks I've known 'Broby,' he seems like a great kid. He's obviously a great player. Very exciting for us."

Again, the expectations -- aside from the ones from the players -- should be curbed, at least from a fan's perspective. Should they come out of the gates running, the Blues will be ahead of the curve.

"My impression on Broberg when he was on my ice, I thought he was excellent. He moved the puck really well. We talked about him quickly as a staff. Really impressed with his size and his skating ability and the way he moves pucks," Bannister said. "Speaking to the other staff, they thought the line of [Radek] Faksa and Holloway were really good and they were really impressed with his compete level, his ability to skate. Right now, initially we're really happy with them obviously."