MARYLAND HEIGHTS, Mo. -- Doug Armstrong’s not looking for gifts; he’s not looking for accolades.

The St. Louis Blues general manager since 2012 is fully aware that this is his last hurrah, and although the clock is ticking on his tenure as GM before Alexander Steen takes over for the 2026-27 season and Armstrong will solely focus on being president of hockey operations, there’s still an immediate job to do.

“I haven’t spent a lot of time on that. Excited about the year,” Armstrong said Wednesday in his state of the union address before training camp opens on Thursday at Centene Community Ice Center. “One of the things we want to focus on is this year. Alex and I worked together hand in hand last year, I don’t see anything being different this year. It is a little strange knowing that there is an expiration date. That doesn’t affect this year’s team and they expect us to do our best and we’re going to do that.”

Armstrong began his tenure with the Blues as director of player personnel in 2008 before moving up to executive vice president of hockey operations in 2010 and taking the reigns as GM from Larry Pleau the same year and ultimately, taking his current duo role as president of hockey operations and GM in 2014. He has also been part of Hockey Canada since 2001 when Armstrong was named as an assistant GM for the World Championship; he has also been a senior advisor and GM of the World Championship and Winter Olympics.

The Blues won their first Stanley Cup in 2019 under Armstrong, who has since tried to reshape the roster that has it on the upswing again after reaching the playoffs last season for the first time since 2021-22 but falling to the Winnipeg Jets in seven games of the Western Conference First Round.

That’s why staying in the moment is what the GM feels is the best and not worrying about looking back or reminiscing about a career that’s spanned 22 years in St. Louis, with this being the 16th season as GM of the Blues

“You stay grounded,” Armstrong said. “The manager's job is to look this year, three years ahead, five years ahead. I don't have to look five years ahead. I'm excited about how quickly our players have responded to this and I'm excited about how some of our younger players have taken to this as a challenge, whether it's a Jake Neighbours or a [Joel] Hofer or a [Tyler] Tucker, then you get [Philip] Broberg and [Dylan] Holloway. They didn't want to be part of a losing organization. They didn't want that to become part of the norm.

“I'm happy, excited, proud as an elder statesman of 60 years old working with these 20 year olds. I'm proud of them. I'm proud of what they've accomplished. But that doesn't mean anything tomorrow. We've got to do it again and after next year, they've got to do it again. But there's growth there. I'm excited about how quickly we've gotten back to the playoffs. Immensely disappointed about how that ended. Hopefully that's a learning thing, but again, I'm not looking too far into the future down memory lane. There's enough to do here. I say that with all seriousness. These players don't care about me and what I'm going to do next year. They just want to have a good year. They want to make money. They want to have a good season. They want to take ‘Steener’ to the woodshed contract-wise and I want to help them do that.”

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