St. Louis Blues general manager Doug Armstrong put the team back on the right path in 2024-25. (Jeff Curry-Imagn Images) [https://deweb-519a7.b-cdn.net/post-images/b4349877-bef0-4e58-a216-8c91aba8cfda.jpeg] St. Louis Blues general manager Doug Armstrong put the team back on the right path in 2024-25. (Jeff Curry-Imagn Images) ST. LOUIS -- Like the players, like the head coach, St. Louis Blues [http://thn.com/stlouis] general manager Doug Armstrong was disappointed and dismayed. But in the aftermath of losing a late two-goal lead against the Winnipeg Jets [http://thn.com/winnipeg] in Game 7 of the Western Conference First Round Series that the Blues ultimately lost in double overtime [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/st-louis-blues/latest-news/three-takeaways-from-blues-4-3-double-overtime-loss-against-jets-in-game-7-of-western-conference-first-round], the Blues' GM will get a summer to look back, reflect, appreciate and then begin to put a plan into motion of how to take the next steps of getting a hockey team in the playoffs for the first time in three years back into the NHL's upper echelon. Armstrong had plenty to say on the final day of exit interviews conducted last week, from the gut-wrenching feeling of losing when it appeared the Blues would knock off the Presidents' Trophy winners to how the team got there, to bringing in an experienced coach in Jim Montgomery to lead the way to the additions that were made and how the team could plan to go into the off-season looking to upgrade. And then there's also the thoughts of heading into his final season as GM before relinquishing the role to Alex Steen and Armstrong assumes the sole role as president of hockey operations: Opening statement: Obviously we're here earlier than we want to be having a end-of-the-year conversation. I'll sort of give you my view of where the state of the Blues (is). As a (general) manager, my job I think is to look at things from 30,000 feet, not one game, one shift, one two-minute segment. That's all I can think about right now was one two-minute segment, but I do have to look at the year in its totality. I think when we started the year when we had a conversation, I was asked about expectations and I sidestepped it to an extent, but I thought we were better than maybe people thought we were going to be. I thought we had made changes to improve our team. I thought we had brought in a couple of younger players, I thought we brought in some speed and I was counting on a pushback from some of our returning players to take it to a different level. There's ebbs and flows to every year and this year was no different, and what I said to some of the guys is in five or six years when people Google or Wikipedia this season, they're going to see 96 points and a playoff team. That's probably what I thought we were going to be. One of the things I talked to our team about is an NHL team is like a tanker in the ocean. When you want to turn things around, it takes a while, and when I say that, I mean you get better in this league in small percentages. We had 92 points a year ago; this year we had 96. I hate doing math in public, but that's about five percent. I think if we do that again next year, that gets us close to 100 points and that's where we want to go. I'm hoping that we have turned the tide on the re-whatever and we're starting to become a competitive team that has expectations, honest expectations, reasonable expectations of success. Anything can happen in a season. You see that around the league. Teams that thought they were going to have a good year, didn't have a good year, and teams that thought they were going to have a bad year had a really good year. As Bill Parcells (said), 'You are who you are," and this is who I thought we were and the season ended up like that. ... My feeling on the season is we ended up extremely disappointed, extremely disappointed in how that ended. The way this ended bothered me a little bit because it was a pattern of how games ended for us. It's not a pattern that we want to continue and something if we're here next December and we're talking about the same issue, I'll have to go to the old quote machine and bring back the killer instinct quote that my wife hates, but we have to find that back in us again. We have to be able to close out games. We've done the research on where we fit in the league 5-on-6, last in the league, only team in the league 5-on-6 that had a negative goal-for differential (11-13). Those are small things that make a huge difference. I told the players that I was privileged to work with this team, and I really feel like that. They came together, they grew, but we're in the winning business and we left something on the table that I don't know if you get over it ever. I don't know. If you ever get over it, I know it's not going to be this summer because it was right there and we let it go, but for the organization, I have to let it go. It will never leave my mind, but I have to let it go and I have to start building, so that's where we're at today. How much have you seen the culture change since the players have spoken of that? I think it became a change of hoping to win to expecting to win, and I guess that is a culture change. I was talking to Mr. [Tom] Stillman the other night. I said, 'We were fortunate enough to have three large changes into our group within a year,' and you can sometimes go five years without having three large changes that affect your team. Those three were expediting or building two new players into that age bracket of the [Jake] Neighbours and [Philip] Broberg and [Dylan] Holloway bringing them in, made me believe that we were closer than other people thought because we believed they were going to be good. Bringing Jim Montgomery in gave us ... like when we hired Ken Hitchcock, I said to the players, 'Coaching's not an issue.' Not that it was an issue under Drew, but he was inexperienced and he was learning. We brought an experienced coach in and that was no longer going to be an excuse that the players or the manager or people knew more about coaching than Jim did. Jim knows more about coaching than I do, and he knows more about coaching than the players do. He knows the most about coaching than anyone in this organization. And we were lucky to get [Cam] Fowler. You bring in somebody that had an impact that Fowler had on our group, sliding into your top four, top three, likely top two, statistically being one of the top players in the game at his position from the day he got here. So you combine all three of those things, it's exciting because all three of those things are going to be here for at least another year and with regards to Fowler, he looks like a great-conditioned athlete, he's a great person. I'm getting to see that more and more every day and he's fitting into where we are next year and we'll see about moving forward. But that's why I think we had that turnaround is because of those three things. How close did you come to shaking this group up at one point when things weren't going right? That's why I prefaced that I get to do it from 30,000 feet and I don't have to do the day to day thing. In five years we had 96 points and we made the playoffs, that's how I have to look at it, but there were times when I second-guessed if we had the right group together and to their credit, they proved that we did. What excites me the most is the disappointment they have today. They're not patting themselves on the back what a great ride we had after the 4 Nations, blah blah blah. They're disappointed. They knew that we had the best team over 82 games dead to rights and we let them off the mat. That's going to sting them as it stings me and that's something that's great. There are ebbs and flows every year, though I wonder if I'm doing my job correctly. You just wait until the season's over and you reflect on it. I think organizationally, we had a decent year. Not a great year; we had a decent year. Update on Dylan Holloway injury and Tyler Tucker? Was Robert Thomas at all affected by injury in the playoffs? Holloway and Tucker were done. Holloway got injured in that game [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/st-louis-blues/latest-news/holloway-tucker-were-never-options-for-blues-in-playoffs] (April 3 against the Pittsburgh Penguins [http://thn.com/pittsburgh]). We didn't think it was going to be as serious as it was. He needed to get some work done, but he'll be 100 percent for training camp. Tucker's injury, we all saw it in the playoffs [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/st-louis-blues/players/tucker-injury-another-tough-blow-for-blues]. It was a non-surgical candidate, but he was going to be out a while. The other players, if you're healthy enough to play, then you're healthy, so we're not going to use anyone's individual ailments as an excuse for not playing tomorrow night. I don't say that to minimize what the guys go through, but I would be shocked if you go around to any team that played six months and 82 games and everyone said, 'No, no, I feel great.' That's not the type of sport that we have. We had two guys that were injured and that was it. How big a priority is re-signing Radek Faksa? He and I had a good conversation. It's something I want to reflect back on. We want to grow, we have young players that we want to grow, but we don't want to disregard what he meant to us. That's a different part where we're at in our maturation. If we expect to be good again, we have to keep good players here. He has to want to stay here too. There's a lot that goes on, but that line was out identity. I've seen what an identity line can do. I want to let the dust settle, I want to sit with Alex [Steen], I want to sit with our coaches to find out what we have coming, who can fill some of these roles, but he and [Ryan] Suter specifically came in, veteran players, one year deals and they gave us everything that we can want and more. I told Faksa how privileged I was to work with (him), and we're going to talk to him. Did Holloway have surgery? Yeah. Where do you see this roster needs improving? I think we shored up our top four 'D' for now. If we improve five percent point-wise and think we're going to bring back the same team and improve five percent again, that's not realistic, so we have to make changes. I think bringing [Jimmy] Snuggerud into our group is a positive change. I think if we could add another player that can provide 200-foot offense, that's something that we can look at. But again, the problem I have with today is I say something and then come July 15 it's not done and people think that we're not trying. We're trying to get better. If I tell you exactly what we want to do, the agent's going to know how much I want to spend and he's going to charge me 10 percent more so I'm going to keep some of those things to myself, but we would like to improve in the 200-foot offensive game. What is the difference going into the off-season this year given the season you just had if there is any difference? I think when I talked about those three changes that we made that happened in one year that can take over three, four, five sometimes is that I think the re-whatever is ending and I think we now becoming who we want to be and now how quickly do we move up and continue to expand and grow. We could take a step backwards, but I don't think we're going to take a step backwards. That's not our goal, that's not how I view the returning players as aging players that can't play because we have players ... like a player like [Zack] Bolduc and I haven't had my year-end meeting with him and I might not need to after I say this and he's watching, but 'Boldy' was able to play through mistakes this year as we grew. He doesn't have that luxury anymore. That's a one-year play-through mistake thing that the coach gives you, but at some points now, you're relied on to do things every night the right way all the time, and that's just maturity. That's not a knock on 'Boldy' whatsoever. It's just the reality when you mature and get better, there's expectations and the leash is shorter. 'Snuggy's probably going to have 'Boldy's leash next year, a little bit longer, but that's going to end too. I think we're in a good spot. I think because Fowler's coming back, because we've added two players in Broberg and Holloway that fit into that age group and because of Monty, I think we're in a spot now where we believe that we should be competing for playoff spots and hopefully moving that up to start Game 1 one year of the playoffs at home. On Barry Trotz talking about free agent class this year isn't as strong as in the past and maybe best way for change/improvements is through hockey trades; do you feel like that's your best course of action with this group is through hockey trades? Yeah, sure, have him give me a call. I think you have to look at free agency for sure; you have to look at everything. I don't think there's a cookie cutter model of building a team that just says it's through the draft, through your own players, through free agency. I think it's a blend of everything. I think there's good players in free agency. Now whether they get there or not is always something different. We have our pens ready and Mr. Stillman's money at the side of the table and all of the sudden, June 27th somebody signs. You don't know who's going to get there, but there's players that we would have interest in if they get to that point. And if not, there's a feeling that if we did nothing, we're still further ahead than we've been over the last four or five years. But our goal is to always improve. Before the winning streak, how close were you to breaking this team up? Did conversations with players have with you at all about not making a move? One-on-one conversations with players that ... I think I had one. I think it was after the Washington game. Sutes and I talked and he said, 'What are you doing?' I said, 'If you guys keep playing, we're doing nothing.' And we did (nothing). It's not my style to go ask the players what they think I should do. I can pick that up through the coaches and through their body language and their performance on the ice. But I did tell my counterparts in the league coming out of the 4 Nations that if we played .500 hockey or .550 or .600 hockey between then and the trade deadline, we'll likely be sellers because it's not going to be good enough and we didn't. But when we got to the trade deadline, analytics are what they are, but I said to get to 91 points, I thought 91 or 92 might get us in, we had to play .680 hockey for 12 weeks. We hadn't done that in two years. What makes us think we're going to do it, but they did it. They did that and plus. So they had earned the right to stay together. And we did get to a point at the trade deadline where we would make hockey trades; we wouldn't make future trades. It gave me pause to think when I got the news about Colton Parayko after the L.A. game when he was injured. That was the day before the deadline and then I had to regroup with our staff and I said, 'OK, they're playing great. What's the likelihood of them being able to do this without our No. 1 defenseman at the time?' We debated. Does that change our outlook and at the end of the day, it didn't. We were making hockey trades if we were making anything. Any more clarity on Torey Krug's situation and how does that affect your summer? I don't really think there's much uncertainty with Torey. I talked to him. He was at the rink the other day; he's just getting almost normal to day-to-day living with his leg, his ankle. I'm not expecting him to play again. Now, he's hoping that I'm wrong, I'm hoping that I'm wrong and he's pushing, but the surgery that he had, it was very, very invasive. Where do you see Dalibor Dvorsky in the organization next year? I'm glad you brought that up because I can talk about why he wasn't part of our group that got called up. He was certainly going to be in that (black aces) group that was here that came to Winnipeg with us, that would have moved on with us. But I got a call from his national team telling me that they wanted him there and then we did our due diligence on him. What do you want him for? Are you going to play him? And they said no, he's going to have an important role. So as a 19-year-old, I felt it was more important for him to continue to play than continue to be around watching us. One of the things that we felt as we were pushing to play meaningful games that he wasn't ready for that every night. If we had gotten into the playoffs, the physical maturity wasn't there. We wouldn't have gone to him; we would have gone to other guys anyways. He could have learned by being with us on what they were doing, but we didn't have a view in which he would have gotten into the lineup and so going to the Worlds is going to be a huge benefit to him. Again, 19. He's just leaving his eligibility for junior. We're not putting expectations that are unrealistic for him. He has to come in, he has to have a great summer, he knows he has to earn a spot, there's nothing given to him and if he can do it, great, but if he doesn't make the team out of training camp next year, it's part of the process. I look Bolduc as an example went down, played almost three-quarters of the year, came up, had a really good year this year, probably somewhat similar. Now I'm hoping he comes in and has a great camp and he makes our decisions hard, but NHL teams fail players as much as players fail NHL teams. We're not going to fail him by putting him in a situation not to have success. How instrumental was it signing depth players like Faksa, Suter, etc.? Well for us it was big because they have experience and if you're going to find an experienced player, I'd like to take one from a winning organization. You probably don't know what you know until you're not around, so all the things that 'Sutes' picked up over 20-plus years, and I don't think Faksa knew how much he learned in Dallas that he could bring to us that was very monumental in us having the proper attitude. So I think depth players from winning organizations mean a lot and those two guys continued my belief that that's the way to go and you're going to go in that direction. As far as people and I don't say this (lightly), I trust Al MacInnis and Peter Chiarelli and Scott Mellanby, Tim Taylor and the people I work with, Alex Steen, to know what makes a team tick. Not every signing is sexy. It's not going to be one that the fans ooh and ahh over. Again, if they make us half a percent better and you get two of them, that's one percent better. We're at 20 percent of the five that we've got to get to. What did you think of Mathieu Joseph, Alexandre Texier? That was the speed element that we wanted to bring in, and I thought that both players showed flashes of strong play, but quite honestly, the Faksa, [Nathan] Walker, [Alexey] Toropchenko line kept them at bay. That's the internal part of competition that makes the team better. What they have to do is be great teammates and come back and wrestle that ice away, and what those guys have to do is become great teammates and not let them wrestle that ice away. The groups that I've been around that had the most success, it's not what the team across from you brings, it's what you bring in your practices, the competition you have internally just to get on the ice makes you better. Those guys brought us speed, brought us elements that helped us on different nights. And now they have to continue to push to get into that role where they're going to take someone's job. That's the beauty of sport. How do you analyze Jordan Kyrou's evolution from a couple years ago to now, being a minus-38 two years ago to a plus-23 this year? That is the beautiful part of being at 30,000 feet. You can take time to let things evolve and grow and not fail a player. It happens quicker sometimes. When he was those big minuses, it's not like we were a really good team and he was the outlier. As we became better, those minuses turned into pluses. When you outscore your opposition, you gain pluses. When you get outscored, no matter what you're doing, you get minuses. I think he's matured. I think that for he and Thomas, Broberg and Holloway aren't there yet, they'll be there in another year or two. Their next three or four years are going to be their prime, top of the bell curve, 25, 26, 27 to 31-32. That's the analytical look on when players play their best. He's entering the best part of what he's going to be. Now it's u to him to decide how high is that mountain. Is it Everest or is it a foothill? I think he's got a chance to climb a big mountain. He's got the skillset, he's got the talent and he now knows the effect he can have on a team that's getting better. What did you see from Kyrou in the playoffs? Did this playoff experience give him knowledge of what it's going to take? I do. Those are battle wounds that you're going to have to go through. I thought Game 1 of the playoffs was likely our last game we played in Winnipeg. If I was working for Winnipeg, I would have said, 'OK, this is Game 1. Let's set the tone.' I don't even remember [Logan] Stanley ran him over that game. That's something you learn. That wasn't game 78 or (79) for them. They viewed that as Game 1 of Round One and they had circled names and they were getting their pound of flesh. And I think he learned that. Unfortunately I think he learned it the hard way, and I think he's going to grow from that. When you're a marked man in this league, when you're an exceptional player, people want a part of you and when I look at the playoffs, that's what made me excited about our team is that they knew if we got to Game 6 and 7, the ounce of flesh they took in Game 1, 2 and 3, they'd look in their pocket and they'd have a pound of flesh in Game 6 and 7. I thought our guys did a great job of pushing and making it difficult, and again that's why it hurt so much because I thought they did a great job of putting themselves in a spot to reap the benefits of playing hard from Game 1, shift one. That's what really eats at you is you weren't able to close that out because they had done everything they could do physically to gain the position to be in to close that game out. How did Brayden Schenn grow as a captain this year? I think it's been a tough couple of years. So the answer is very well. Very well I thought. He's got his arms of what needs to be done. He is selfless in the way he treats players off the ice. He does a lot of those things behind the scenes that leaders do. I think he's done a really good job and it's not like we handed him a functioning top end team when he was the captain. We didn't give him the keys to the Titanic, but we weren't sailing smooth either. I think he's done a really good job and more importantly, his teammates think he's done a good job. If he has respect of his teammates, which he does, he has the respect of me. What were those last two minutes in Game 7 like for you? Awful. Honestly, I never felt comfortable because I never had enough information to think that that was the time to feel comfortable. We had been down that path too often and had bad things happen to us that it was uncomfortable and our worst fears came to path. We hadn't learned enough as an organization, coaches, players, all of us how to close those games out and it bit us at the worst time, that that was something that we couldn't figure out because you can't go deep in the playoffs not being able to close games out. We're actually quite fortunate to make the playoffs with that 5-on-6 record in the regular season. I think Tampa was unbelievable in that situation. If we're just league average closing those games out, we're 102 points like falling out of bed. But Vancouver in here at the end of the year. The concern was is we got seamed. Seamed meaning cross-ice passes too often and at the end of the day, it might have been a broken play, but we still got seamed and it ends up in the back of our net (in Game 7) and we go to overtime and then you're in the hockey gods' hands. Thoughts on going into final year of GM duties and thoughts on Alex Steen, watching him up close, was it a good year for him before he takes over as GM? The second part first, yeah I do. When you make a long-term plan, you never know how it's going to work out. I'm happy that Mr. Stillman had the vision to allow us to do this because Alex was looked at differently this year than he would have been if he didn't have that title coming. He could act differently, that people know where he's going to be, what decisions he's going to make. His confidence as a hockey executive is growing. The questions he asks now are genuine, they're thought out, he's been around long enough to see what we do and how we do it. I think he's in a really good spot and he'll be ready. There's no question he's going to be ready. For myself, yeah, there are times you do reflect on that. I love this job. I love managing a hockey team, but as I said, I think when we said to Alex just because I love it, it doesn't mean it's the right thing either. I'm excited about this next year, I'm excited to make sure that this team is ready to take off when there's a new guy doing this press conference next year. Actually I'll do this press conference next year, [Steen] the year after. What are your thoughts on the respective seasons that Aleksanteri Kaskimaki, Dylan Peterson, Otto Stenberg, Michael Buchinger had? All three of those guys had very good years. Stenberg came over after the World Junior, a 19-year-old playing in a man's league. I thought he got his eyes opened on just the three-in-three nights or two-in-two. Over there, they never play with the travel. He's a benefactor of doing that. Kaskimaki is one of my ... I saw him at the World Junior in Sweden. There's something about that player that attracts me to him. His detail. He reminds me a lot of, I hate putting comparisons out because I get held to it, but not the offense of Alex Steen; he doesn't have that offense yet, might never have that offense but he has that understanding of the game, understanding the important times of the game, where important ice is, how to get to it. I saw that when he represents his national team. He's a guy if does what he's supposed to do, I see him getting games next year. If he does what he's supposed to do and has a great training camp, he could start with us. Petey's another guy and I've got to give Chris Thorburn a ton of credit on this one. He works on our development group and he's had this guy's back right from the get-go. It's been injuries, there's been a lot going on there. and I tell ya, this is like a Toropchenko style of player, big body, plays direct, understands the elements that he could bring to a game and accepts them and wants to do that. He's probably a guy I wasn't sure what you're going to get. That is a guy that's really embraced what he's going to be when he gets to the NHL. A guy that if we had to throw him in a game, I wouldn't have any hesitation because he knows who he is. Buch a first-year pro. Learning on the job. That position is harder to ... they say NHL players, it's not until 200 games until you find out if they can play in this league, he's had one AHL season, so the jury's out, I would say. I think he had a good first year, but there's more seasoning that needs to be done there. Final thoughts: I'm excited to where the Blues are at today. To our fans, I just want to say thank you for sticking with us. We're trying to make this a really difficult place to play. The guys did that at the end of the year and it starts with the enthusiasm they brought every night when the guys came out of the tunnel. I don't want to under-emphasize how bitter we feel today, how disappointed we are, but I also do want to let people know we thank them for putting us in this spot to feel like that, giving us the support and we're going to keep pushing ahead and hopefully we're not doing this next year for another few weeks.
