St. Louis Blues Doug Armstrong Leaving All Doors Open But One

St. Louis Blues general manager Doug Armstrong usually hits the mark with his deals and his comments. However, he was surprisingly open with the media lately.

NHL general managers are notorious for playing things close to the vest and St. Louis Blues GM Doug Armstrong is no different, normally. Recent comments were surprisingly open and forthright though, making you wonder if someone spiked his drink.

In a recent article by Jim Thomas of STLToday.com, Armstrong had some interesting and odd comments. Basically, he left every door open except for one.

The one that was not left open, at least if the words of the GM are to be believed, is that Jordan Kyrou is staying with the Blues no matter what. That seems puzzling since it means someone will eventually have to be put on waivers.

Sammy Blais is on the cusp of returning and might even be ready for the first game after the All-Star break. As of right now, the Blues are still hoping Vladimir Tarasenko will be ready to return at some point during the regular season.

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Blais and Colton Parayko are currently on IR, but both are expected to come off for the Vancouver game or during the western Canada trip. The Blues currently have 22 of 23 roster spots filled. That means when both come back, regardless of the Tarasenko situation, someone has to be taken off the roster.

Armstrong is saying Kyrou likely won’t be that name.

“I gave him my word that I wouldn’t do it (send him down). In hindsight, going down probably wouldn’t have been the worst thing for him. But I told him he didn’t need to go down. He’s done everything down at the American League that we wanted to see. He just has to continue to work hard off the ice and wait for the opportunity for the coaches to give him that chance to play.” – Armstrong on STLToday.com

In fairness, the loophole the GM has is this was a response to why Kyrou was not sent to the AHL during the All-Star break. However, the answer still seems somewhat definitive from an overall perspective.

Armstrong told Kyrou to get a house in St. Louis. I cannot see him telling the player that and then saying he only promised him not to send him down during the All-Star break.

Overall, I have no problem with the Blues keeping Kyrou other than a lack of playing time. The issue is to be definitive with it when sending him down is an easy out for a roster crunch.

If Kyrou is staying, that probably means Troy Brouwer will be without a job soon again. I can’t see the Blues trying to get Zach Sanford or Mackenzie MacEachern through waivers.

Adding to the puzzling comments was Armstrong saying the team would be open to adding a top-six forward. Now, it was not said they were actively searching for help and Kyrou, Blais and Tarasenko’s current situations will have a large impact on what the Blues do at the trade deadline. Nevertheless, it is somewhat shocking to think the Blues general manager would rock the boat of a team that has pushed through so many injuries and kept themselves at the top of the conference even after losing their top scorer.

If you look at the quote at face value, there’s nothing really wrong with it. “You’re always looking to see if you can improve your team, and if we can improve our team in our top six, I think we can take a look at that,” Armstrong told Thomas. “A lot of that will have to do on the updated medical information I get on Vladi.”

OK, so let’s assume they get news that Tarasenko would not be ready until April. Even if you take out the financial aspect, what are you trading away?

Armstrong doesn’t want to trade away picks right now. “I don’t think we need to be spending mid-to-late round draft picks on players just in case we have an injury,” Armstrong said.

So, that would mean you’re trading away current players or prospects. We would all love to have another scoring forward, but are we willing to part with names like Kyrou, Niko Mikkola or Klim Kostin?

The Blues made most of their foundation by keeping their best prospects and then making shrewd deals to support it all. It seems odd that Armstrong would want to mess with chemistry.

At this point, the Blues general manager has earned the benefit of the doubt. If he chooses to make a deal, we should trust that it will be good for the team.

However, with a team that won based on chemistry in 2018-19, it would be a big change to try and win based on changing the chemistry the year after.

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Time will tell. For now, it is just a slight jolt that Armstrong was so open regarding possible deals and semi-definitive regarding the roster.

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