St. Louis Blues: Doug Armstrong Has His Fingerprints All Over The Cup

It takes a special formula to win the hardest trophy in sports, and St. Louis Blues general manager Doug Armstrong found the special recipe and left his mark on history.

You can point to a lot of reasons why the St. Louis Blues took over 50 years to win their first Stanley Cup, but Doug Armstrong finally found the winning recipe that sent the Blues to eternal glory.

Armstrong took over the general manager position in 2010, and his road to the Stanley Cup took a long time and gave some fans some heartache over the years, but anytime you win a Stanley Cup, it becomes a lot easier to forget the painful years.

We can question some of the contracts that Armstrong had given out in the past. The Jake Allen and Alex Steen contracts come to mind immediately as questionable calls, but both had contributions to the team’s championship.

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The easier thing to do when analyzing how a team was built, is to look at the draft, and look at the offseason acquisitions made the year before.

The Blues have turned some older veterans into big-time draft picks and players. Brayden Schenn was acquired from the Philadelphia Flyers for Jori Lehtera and a couple of picks.

Schenn eventually finished fourth on the team in goals with 17 in 2018-19.

Not to mention the players the Blues drafted, including Robert Thomas, Colton Parayko, and Vladimir Tarasenko. Oh yeah, and then there was some guy named Jordan Binnington who the Blues drafted in the third round in 2011.

More noticeable was Armstrong’s ability to acquire Ryan O’Reilly from the Sabres, and sign Pat Maroon, Tyler Bozak, and David Perron in the span of a week.

O’Reilly contribution to the team was unmatched by any Blues skater. Even when the Blues were in a landslide to begin the season, O’Reilly never let that affect his game.

The 28-year-old center continued that regular-season success deep into the postseason, winning the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP. O’Reilly’s 28 points led the team in addition to finishing third on the team in goals scored during the postseason.

Maroon’s impact for his hometown club was not evident on the scoresheet, but the Oakville native did just about everything else for St. Louis, including scoring the game-winning goal in double overtime against the Dallas Stars in Game 7.

Perron was hurt for most of the regular season, and despite making some Blues fans angry with some bonehead penalties in the offensive zone seemingly every game, Perron proved to be a very productive player.

He finished the regular season having played just 57 games but still managed to record 23 goals and assists. His 23 goals ranked fourth on the team despite being absent for 25 games.

Bozak quickly became one of my favorite players to watch as the season went on. He is not the most flashy player you will see on the ice, but he does so many things well.

He excelled in the faceoff circle and was able to play in every situation on the ice. He was also able to contribute offensively on occasion. He netted just 13 goals during the regular season, but in addition to everything else he was able to bring to the table, I’ll take the lackluster scoring effort.

Armstrong was able to leave his prints up and down the Blues’ first-ever Stanley Cup, and this should be taken both literally and figuratively, considering he had spent the day with the Cup recently.