St. Louis Blues News: Doug Armstrong Adds International GM To Resume

St. Louis Blues fans are not always happy with Doug Armstrong, but he has given them far more to be happy about than not. When a GM’s main claim to infamy is the length of contract extensions, he’s doing pretty good.

Armstrong is mainly known for working his magic in trades. His last three major deals have worked out far better for the Blues than their counterparts.

St. Louis has acquired Brayden Schenn, Ryan O’Reilly and Justin Faulk for almost nothing.

Out of three players traded, only Tage Thompson is still with the Buffalo Sabres and he’s barely playing. The only thing of note the Philadelphia Flyers received for Schenn was draft picks they turned into Morgan Frost (22 NHL games) and Joel Farabee (65 NHL games).

Last season, Blues fans were whining about the Faulk trade and hoping Seattle would poach him. Now, he’s the Blues best defender and Joel Edmundson is in Montreal instead of Carolina.

After all those moves, Team Canada is hoping Doug Armstrong can work the same magic for them. Armstrong has been named the general manager of Team Canada for the 2022 Olympics.

Armstrong has served as an assistant GM for the program in 2010 and 2014. This is his first time in charge of the entire national team for the Olympics, though he was the GM for Team Canada during the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.

The Associated Press seemed to throw in the caveat that Armstrong was named GM if the NHL players actually participate. While he might have as extensive a knowledge of non-NHL players, it would seem odd to strip him of the spot simply because NHL players might not be allowed to go.

Armstrong will have some heavy hitters on his staff. Ken Holland, Ron Francis, Roberto Luongo and Don Sweeney are all on Armstrong’s staff to build the best possible Canadian roster.

Hopefully, if NHL players do play in the next Olympics, Armstrong loads up Team Canada with divisional rival players and leaves the Blues at home. That way, St. Louis is well rested and the others are tired.

Of course, he has too much pride in his job to actually do that. Nevertheless, Blues fans would not be too upset if one of their guys got “snubbed”.

All this assumes there are any Olympics in 2022 anyway. Given current sentiment, we may never get out of this shutdown.