Thoughts on Doug Armstrong

[GoldenSeal]

Blues fan coming in peace.

I’d like to hear your experiences and thoughts/opinion/pertinent data on GM Doug Armstrong’s tenure with your team. I’m noticing parallels where we are at now and points where the Stars were at when he was GM.

I’m trying to get an idea of the man himself and his relationship with the players and staff as well and get a barometer on where we may be heading.

I thank you kindly for allowing me to post here and wish you and your team well. Respect.

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[FirstRowUpperDeck]

Blues fan coming in peace.

I’d like to hear your experiences and thoughts/opinion/pertinent data on GM Doug Armstrong’s tenure with your team. I’m noticing parallels where we are at now and points where the Stars were at when he was GM.

I’m trying to get an idea of the man himself and his relationship with the players and staff as well and get a barometer on where we may be heading.

I thank you kindly for allowing me to post here and wish you and your team well. Respect.

I met him several times as Stars GM at things like Season Ticket Holder parties, etc. First off, very gracious and accommodating to fans, as well as very open as to the moves he made or didn't make. He is less fondly remembered around here as a guy who kept trading away first round picks, often trading down for more picks overall. He actually explained to us that Mo and Zubie kept coming to him emphasizing they were at the end of their careers and wanted him to improve their Cup chances in many years. It obviously didn't work out

I once asked him how trades came about at the TDL. He said the hardest part was initiating the conversation with borderline playoff teams GM's. He would carefully say, "IF things don't work out for you in the next few weeks, we MIGHT be interested in player X." He also said most GM's had great respect for each other, and tried very hard to make a trade fair to both sides.

He was also very open to fans on trades that didn't materialize, on some saying those were just rumors that he had never discussed. In other cases, he said they were asking too much. He gave the example of the Stars rumored to be in talks for an aging star D man for the playoffs but they asked for a young forward that "you probably never heard of" that they weren't willing to part with. Given the timing, I quickly guessed he was talking about Jussi Jokinen, then yet to have even come to America.

Overall, a good guy, and despite the typical negative fan reactions, the % of reaching the PO and a SC victory says he kind of knows what he is doing. Are some Blues fans now thinking he has forgotten all he knows?

 

[piqued]

It's hard to untangle who deserved what amount of credit for the Cup year. Obviously both Armstrong and Bob Gainey were instrumental in assembling the powerhouse team of the 90s.

It was a different era though. Prospects were valued basically not at all. It was all about adding veteran complimentary pieces to the drafted core that came from Minnesota and then the 2 blockbuster trades to acquire Nieuwendyk and Zubov. No pesky salary cap to contend with.

After Army officially took over it was unfortunately a lot of chasing the night. Things weren't quite the same and he was always going after the biggest free agent name available to fill gaps. Guerin, Arnott, Turgeon, Young...

The team was bolstered by the emergence and passing of the torch to Brenden Morrow, along with the acquisition of Ribeiro, which culminated in the 2008 WCF run. By which time though Army had given way to Les Jackson (and Brett Hull lol).

If we're trying to relate this to the Blues trajectory I'm not sure I see a ton of parallels. There's still young talent on the Blues coming forward and some shrewd trades like the Buchnevich acquisition. You could look at ROR for Tage as a Nieuwendyk for Iginla type deal that worked in terms of getting the Cup but gave a superstar player away in the process. I don't know what the common thinking is from the St. Louis perspective but the post-Cup decline IMO can be pretty much entirely traced to losing Pietrangelo. You simply can't subtract your #1 D for nothing and expect to continue as a top contender. Not assigning blame to Armstrong necessarily on that, Petro seemed pretty determined to leave.

 

[BeaverSports]

It's hard to untangle who deserved what amount of credit for the Cup year. Obviously both Armstrong and Bob Gainey were instrumental in assembling the powerhouse team of the 90s.

It was a different era though. Prospects were valued basically not at all. It was all about adding veteran complimentary pieces to the drafted core that came from Minnesota and then the 2 blockbuster trades to acquire Nieuwendyk and Zubov. No pesky salary cap to contend with.

After Army officially took over it was unfortunately a lot of chasing the night. Things weren't quite the same and he was always going after the biggest free agent name available to fill gaps. Guerin, Arnott, Turgeon, Young...

The team was bolstered by the emergence and passing of the torch to Brenden Morrow, along with the acquisition of Ribeiro, which culminated in the 2008 WCF run. By which time though Army had given way to Les Jackson (and Brett Hull lol).

If we're trying to relate this to the Blues trajectory I'm not sure I see a ton of parallels. There's still young talent on the Blues coming forward and some shrewd trades like the Buchnevich acquisition. You could look at ROR for Tage as a Nieuwendyk for Iginla type deal that worked in terms of getting the Cup but gave a superstar player away in the process. I don't know what the common thinking is from the St. Louis perspective but the post-Cup decline IMO can be pretty much entirely traced to losing Pietrangelo. You simply can't subtract your #1 D for nothing and expect to continue as a top contender. Not assigning blame to Armstrong necessarily on that, Petro seemed pretty determined to leave

Good commentary.

Just some notes: Turgeon was Gainey. I’m not exactly sure about the fascination with him and Audette replacing Hull. It didn’t work.

Also, I recall Armstrong believed he had a deal with Selanne the year Young signed. Talk was that Hicks intervened.

 

[BeaverSports]

I felt like he was a good GM who wanted to build a new core group around the likes of Arnott and Guerin, but seemed to find resistance from ownership and a fan base wanting to hold onto 1999 heroes beyond their expiry date.

Later on, he did gamble some first round picks and other assets on rentals that just didn’t pan out.