Doug Armstrong In A League Of His Own After Leaving Team Canada

St. Louis Blues general manager Doug Armstrong was named the GM of Team Canada for the 2022 Olympics, and although the NHL is not going, he and the Blues gained a tremendous advantage.

The St. Louis Blues have one of the greatest general managers in the game in Doug Armstrong. He has kept the Blues competitive throughout his entire tenure, and one of the best GMs in the game got better over the past few years.

Armstrong was named general manager of Team Canada and put together the best roster to win an Olympic medal in China in February. Despite not going to the Olympics and stepping down as GM, Armstrong gained valuable information he could use to make the Blues a better team.

Being chosen for this honor to lead one of the greatest hockey countries in the world into the Olympic games with the best NHLers on the planet shows how many rivals executives and people within the NHL respect Armstrong’s abilities.

As general manager of Team Canada, Armstrong was tasked to search the NHL for the best Canadian-born players on the planet. Some current Blues were surely on his list, like Jordan Binnington, Ryan O’Reilly, and Colton Paryako.

Armstrong’s hard work in picking Team Canada’s roster will not go unused. Not only was selecting the roster for the Canadian team essential, but so was scouting the rest of the world to see how the Canadiens would match up with other countries.

Armstrong undoubtedly had scouts in every corner of North America analyzing the play of many of the top NHLers to determine the best course of action while picking a team.

The Blues GM can now use this information learned from his time with Team Canada to continue building the St. Louis Blues into a true cup-contending team.

St. Louis has seven Canadian-born players on the roster, the three aforementioned stars and Robert Bortuzzo, Tyler Bozak, and Marco Scandella. Bozak would have been the only other player with a remote chance of making the team, but he would have to benefit from an absurd amount of opt-outs or injuries from other players.

Other Olympians on the Blues could have included Russians Pavel Buchnevich, Vladimir Tarasenko, Swede Oskar Sundqvist, and Americans Justin Faulk and Torey Krug.

There’s no doubt that Armstrong is a better general manager after stepping down as GM of Team Canada. Now he gets to turn his attention to his domestic club and to winning another Stanley Cup.