St. Louis Blues and franchise paralysis at the trade deadline
The Western Conference is an arms race.
The Chicago Blackhawks, Colorado Avalanche, Los Angeles Kings, Anaheim Ducks and Dallas Stars added to their arsenals. The San Jose Sharks got some impressive insurance in goal. Even the Minnesota Wild added a body.
Two teams stood pat at the trade deadline. The Nashville Predators have won four in a row, already made their big play for Ryan Johansen and expect NCAA star Jimmy Vesey to be a de facto late-season “acquisition.” The St. Louis Blues, meanwhile, were one of the biggest surprises on deadline day. In the sense that a team that seemingly needed to make a move, didn’t.
GM Doug Armstrong spun it this way for the St. Louis Dispatch:
“I believe in the group,” Armstrong said. “What you want to do is put a product on the ice that gets you into the playoffs. If we can continue to play well and get a playoff spot, anything can happen when you get there. We want to get healthy, we want to play to the best of our ability and we need players that we’re counting on to lead us to perform and play well in the playoffs.”
And to the St. Louis Blues website:
“Going in, we were hoping to stay involved in a few things,” Armstrong said. “We had set a value to the players we were looking to acquire but thought the asking price got to where we weren’t comfortable. This year, we weren’t comfortable giving up a first or second-round pick for a rental player… so we just sat this one out.
“I didn’t see a player that was going to fit into our (forward) group of nine when we’re 100 percent healthy,” Armstrong added. “So, that kept us out of doing some things.”
So, in summary:
1. Getting Alexander Steen, Jori Lehtera, Steve Ott and Brian Elliott back from injury will ‘be like adding players at the deadline,’ according to Armstrong. The Blues are 24th in the NHL in average goals per game at 2.45.
2. The Blues weren’t willing to sacrifice the future like nearly every other contender in the West did. Perhaps you find this admirable. Perhaps you find this to be a tangible admission that the Blues aren’t confident that they can truly contend in the West, and are glancing harder at their draft position than they are the playoff seeding. This is only underscored when your general manager says things like “if we can get a playoff spot, anything can happen.” Other teams are gearing up for a Cup run, and the Blues are staring down a wishing well.
3. Their cap situation, which is very much Armstrong’s doing, has handcuffed them.
4. Armstrong says that “I didn’t see a player that was going to fit into our (forward) group of nine when we’re 100 percent healthy.” Which literally means there wasn’t a player available that Armstrong saw as being better than a fourth liner on this Blues juggernaut that has one playoff series victory in the last 13 years.
Who could blame Blues fans for being … well, less than pleased with the deadline? From St. Louis Game Time:
They are the guy who gets invited to the prom and their date doesn’t show up, their car breaks down, and the building where the dance is collapses to the ground. The next few months they wonder why things went so bad.
Doug Armstrong is betting on the roster he currently has to change things. Risky business dude. If it doesn’t change, his job status should change this summer. As much as Hitch is [crapped] on for his inability to transcend talent into postseason success, maybe that would change if his boss gave him some more ammo at the deadline. When was the last big offensive trade? Chris Stewart? That was five years ago.
The worst thing that can happen to a general manager is when he falls too deeply in love with his own work. I think that’s part of Armstrong’s problem: The idea that there shouldn’t already be significant changes to this group, rather than a GM extolling its virtues, is frustrating as all hell. The T.J. Oshie trade, it turns out, was the exception rather than the rule when it comes to self-awareness.
The only defense of the Blues’ stasis at the trade deadline is that Armstrong’s at his best at the NHL Draft. Hell, I’d hire him on the basis of making Jaden Schwartz and Vladimir Tarasenko mid-round picks, finding Colton Parayko at No. 86 and Jori Lehtera at No. 65. So holding onto one’s picks could be the smartest course.
But that’s the trouble with the Blues: They don’t know if the time is now or later. They’re so afraid of losing that regular season success, which is something that might need to happen in order to retool into a legitimate, ‘beat the Blackhawks’ contender in the West.
There’s no boldness in declaring your top nine is better than anything that could have been added at the deadline. There’s no boldness in bringing back Ken Hitchcock for another season, knowing that “very good” probably won’t become “great.”
This team is probably going to lose another first-round series. Maybe then we start to see sweeping changes. Perhaps they’ll include some fresh eyes on the player personnel side.
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Greg Wyshynski is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at [email protected] or find him on Twitter. His book, TAKE YOUR EYE OFF THE PUCK, is available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.
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