St. Louis Blues Not Using Former Players As GM Smart

The St. Louis Blues have not always been at the forefront of trends, but they have avoided one completely. They have yet, in recent years, made the mistake of using a former player in a prominent front office role.

The St. Louis Blues get some things right and some things wrong. Some fans will say they have gotten more wrong than right since they have yet to win a championship.

Nevertheless, they have been correct in one particular thing. They have avoided this new trend of putting former players in prominent front office roles.

We have seen it all across sports, with varying degrees of success. To me, the most curious one is hiring players as managers in baseball almost the day after they retire. But there have been plenty of success stories there. Elsewhere, it is more mixed.

Michael Jordan has yet to turn his playing success into any kind of success as a team president or owner. Brendan Shanahan is still young in his days in Toronto, but has yet to yield the results Toronto demands. The same can be said of Colorado and Joe Sakic, though the results are not as demanded from the populous.

However, the idea of hiring a former player to work for the team is not bad in and of itself. The Blues have actually had several ex-players in their front offices.

Brett Hull and Al MacInnis work for the team, Bruce Affleck has had several positions with the Blues and Martin Brodeur is the assistant general manager. However, they are not the guy. They are not the final say, outside of the owner, or the one who must fall on the sword if things go wrong.

Hull is listed as an executive vice president and works mostly in corporate sales, using his cache to make inroads with sponsoring partners. MacInnis has various roles, but is mainly in operations as an advisor.

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None of them are the team president or the general manager. Currently, the Blues have one person in both roles and that’s Doug Armstrong.

We can argue all we want about the job he’s done over the years. There have been plenty of ups and downs. However, that is the point. When Armstrong was hired, it brought no real expectations. When he eventually leaves, few will give it a second thought.

Those things are completely different when you hire a high profile player with all the nostalgic baggage that comes with it. ESPN just posted a good piece about the difficulty surrounding the recent departure of Trevor Linden from Vancouver.

There is rarely an opinion that is equally shared about the direction of any team or the job the general manager is doing. Armstrong is hiding behind doors, waiting for the pitchfork carrying mob one day and a superhero the next. I

Now, imagine that same scrutiny heaped on your childhood hero. Imagine Bernie Federko or Hull getting all the same insults slung their way.

When people take those jobs, they know the risks in it. However, from a public relations standpoint, it becomes a mess.

You’ll have some fans tearing down a treasured former player, simply because they disagree with a trade. Conversely, you’ll have some fans that give them too much benefit of the doubt, simply because they grew up watching them.

One day Brodeur might become a general manager. However, even if it was with the Blues, he does not have quite the same issue. He barely wore the Blues sweater long enough to get a wrinkle in it.

Someone like Hull or Shanahan or Federko could hurt their own image, even though their intentions were good. Every GM or president of operations steps into a role thinking they are the one to bring the championship here.

When the suits fail, we just let them go. When a player is in that role, things are different. I shudder to think what might happen to a statue in the front of the arena if a former player such as those made a few bad moves.

The person themselves can only do what is best for them. If they feel they are ready for those roles and believe, more power to them.

I, for one, am glad the Blues have not gone that route. Players do not need remain players their entire lives, but it does change your perception of them.

Steve Yzerman is doing a great job in Tampa. He might be under more scrutiny if he was in Detroit. Hull could have easily taken a more player focused role in St. Louis as he had in Dallas. Now, he gets all the perks of working for the team with none of the heat, which sounds pretty nice.

Plenty can say they’ll always have those memories, but the ones that fail always have a but. You can say you remember when, but you’ll always have that but they messed up as a GM or president in your head too. Nope. I would rather keep my memories of them in sweaters, not suits and of them on the ice.