St. Louis Blues: One Offseason May Have Made The Team Worse

The St. Louis Blues seemed to be on the cusp of something special once they made the 2016 Western Conference Finals. Who knew that it might have been a blip instead of a building block?

The St. Louis Blues reached the culmination of years of effort and building and growing pains when they reached the Western Conference Finals in 2016. With several key players under wraps, we thought it was going to be the first step toward that final step that results in a championship.

While there are still reasons to believe this team can win, the facts are that the 2016 offseason may have changed this team in ways we did not think imaginable. Not even the most obvious changes seemed like they were going to alter this team the way it has.

Despite the growing sentiment that Doug Armstrong is doing a terrible job and should not be retained, this piece is not to pick on him alone. It is more to point out how some people are not meant to have the faith we show in them.

This problem does not rest in management alone. It had to do with coaching and most importantly, the players as well.

The Blues, at least according to rumors, were never going to be able to take that next step. They seem to be a team with too many inner struggles.

The more we hear, the more it seemed like the success they experienced in 2015-16 was in spite of themselves. It was as much about will and talent as opposed to a true, sustainable structure.

When Ken Hitchcock got fired, there were stories emerging that the players had been discontent with the coach for several years. Jeremy Rutherford, the Blues beat writer, even said there were motions made by the team to have Hitchcock let go prior to their best season in 15 years and perhaps before as well.

Regardless of how you feel about him in this moment, Armstrong made the right call. The pieces the team added made them title contenders and had a profound effect the team’s success. It was supposed to be the next step and instead it looks like the peak before a very long fall.

Unfortunately, the Blues were painted into a corner by several factors.

Despite what the denizens of Facebook and Twitter type about in all-caps, the Blues made the right call in regards to David Backes. It just has not worked out.

Backes will always remain a Blue in the hearts of many. However, he was already showing signs of wear.

Despite his form in the playoffs, Backes had the fewest amount of points last season since 2009-10. It can be partially attributed to less playing time, but his numbers are on pace to be lower this season in Boston as well.

If he fails to achieve his normal averages, even if only by a few, is Backes really worth $6 million a year? Can you fully expect him to regain or surpass his averages as he ages?

The answer is no. And no amount of perceived leadership is worth that much money alone also.

To those that say the leadership was worth the price, how much did Backes’ leadership provide before last season? He was with the team for 10 seasons and captain for half of that.

In that time the Blues reached the playoffs six times, got bounced in the first round four of those times. It took his 14 from last year’s playoff run to get his career playoff totals into the 20’s.

Troy Brouwer was clearly the more important cog in the team’s success from 2015-16. It wasn’t just from production either.

Brouwer knew what it took to win from his days in Chicago and that rubbed off on the team. He also had the cachet to tell a strong personality like Hitchcock to shut up and leave the players to themselves for a bit. Though he was not the captain, he had the personality behind him to tell guys this is how it is done to win.

Oct 8, 2015; St. Louis, MO, USA; St. Louis Blues right wing Troy Brouwer (L) celebrates with center David Backes (R) after scoring an empty net goal against the Edmonton Oilers during the third period at Scottrade Center. Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports /

He leaves and the Blues go back to what they were. A soft team that whined about their coach being to strict and demanding. In the end, the team got what they wanted with the firing of Hitchcock, but the new voice only lasted so long.

The Blues looked like last year’s team for about eight games following the coaching change. Now it is back to that listless, lackadaisical play with the team’s top players acting like they could not care less at times.

However, for those that complain that the Blues should have kept Brouwer, it was never going to happen. Unless they grossly overpaid him, he was always going to Calgary as long as the Flames showed any interest.

He was building a home in Calgary, his father is there and he was going to return there. You cannot say the Blues have too many bad contracts in one breath and say they should have given the Earth and the moon to Backes and Brouwer in another.

The point where the management failed was failing to do anything after that. Brouwer and Backes leaving was almost a foregone conclusion in hindsight. Armstrong did not do enough to mitigate the losses though.

Most fans would have been more than accepting had he turned Kevin Shattenkirk into a high draft pick in the 2016 draft. There were several highly touted current and near-future NHL players in that draft and it could have been an easy sell.

Instead, he stood pat. Well, he stood pat after Shattenkirk nixed a trade that would have brought Taylor Hall to St. Louis, but that falls on the Oilers too since they could have still taken Shattenkirk as a rental to convince him to stay. Neither option helped this team.

At the time, those of us that drank the kool-aid, believed it was going to be alright. The team was seeking to become younger, faster and more dynamic. The thinking then, as it is in this very moment, was it is OK to give more time and responsibility to the younger Blues.