Alex Steen won his first and only Stanley Cup with the St. Louis Blues in 2019, defeating the Boston Bruins on the road in Game 7. Seven years later, he enters his first draft as de facto general manager of his longtime organization (he'll officially take over the reins on July 1 but is playing a big part in the process), and he can take a lot more from that Game 7 win than he even realizes.
Flashback four years before that Stanley Cup win, and Don Sweeney had just taken on the role of general manager of the Bruins. His first act was leading the franchise through a retooling phase, as they traded Dougie Hamilton and Milan Lucic to accrue two first-round draft picks, which just so happened to come in the mid-round, along with their own, much like the Blues will have on Friday night.
The Bruins historically swung and missed with those three picks in 2015, but Sweeney's decision to stick with most of his core and move around some pieces ended up paying off. The Bruins didn't go into a complete rebuild, and the core he stuck with returned to the Stanley Cup Final four years after that draft, losing to Steen and the Blues.
Colton Parayko and Robert Thomas were on that 2019 team, and instead of trading them and embarking on a complete rebuild this offseason, the tandem of Steen and Doug Armstrong is sticking with the core. The hope is that two of those franchise pillars, along with all the assets they are accruing at this draft, can turn St. Louis back into contenders sooner rather than later, hopefully within four years like that Boston team.
What can the Blues do differently than the 2015 Bruins?
The answer to that question is simple: draft better. The Bruins selected Jake DeBrusk, Zach Senyshyn, and Jakub Zboril with those picks. The list of players they missed out on includes Mathew Barzal, Kyle Connor, Thomas Chabot, Joel Eriksson Ek, Brock Boeser, and Travis Konecny.
The good news for Steen is that he still has some experience around him in Armstrong, unlike Sweeney, who took over the role himself in May 2015. But it gives Blues fans fair warning that having three, or four in this case, first-round picks doesn't guarantee that the draft will be a success.
It wouldn't be sour grapes for a Bruins fan to say that with some of those players they missed in the lineup instead of the ones they had (Karson Kuhlman was on David Krejci's wing in Game 7. It's true, look it up), Boston might've been the team to come out on top in that highly competitive series. However, Blues fans aren't going to apologize.
The only thing Blues fans can hope happens as an organization is to do a better job of drafting, and hope that in four years, if they do return to the Stanley Cup Final, the players they pick with their four first-round picks this year are there to support a group that finishes the job and brings home their second championship in 11 years.
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