最新杏吧原创

The blinds in the second-floor office are half-open. The light flicks on sometime before practice begins. The chair farthest from the door faces the window, its back to the desk. The architect watches his construction site come to life.

For most Blues practices, that鈥檚 how general manager Doug Armstrong consumes the action on the ice below him at Centene Community Ice Center in Maryland Heights, peering over the benches to watch his coaches, his players 鈥� his projects. When he watched his club throughout training camp, there were different groups he could theoretically see.

There were the dwindling players who helped the Blues win their only Stanley Cup in 2019, holding onto the coastline in hopes of bridging one successful era to another. There were the veterans who were supposed to extend the contention window, now trying to avoid the blasphemous thought of missing the playoffs three years in a row.

There were the franchise cornerstones around whom Armstrong and the Blues chose to build instead of detonating, key cogs signed until the end of the decade. There were the kids 鈥� both drafted and offer-sheeted 鈥� offering the hope of something more promising in the years to come.

It鈥檚 a group in transition for Armstrong and the Blues. But if you ask Armstrong, perhaps it鈥檚 a different phase of the organization鈥檚 metamorphosis.

鈥淵ou鈥檙e never sure how you鈥檙e going to be able to do it, but we brought in good players with good pedigree that are in the league now,鈥� Armstrong said. 鈥淣ow, they鈥檙e ready to take off. I do think we鈥檙e in a different phase. I鈥檓 looking forward to seeing how it plays itself out.鈥�

What exactly is the different phase?

Well, the Blues are past accumulating assets. They鈥檙e on to developing them and pushing the older wave to qualify for the postseason.

Over the summer, the Blues made their biggest splashes by bringing in defenseman Philip Broberg (No. 8 overall pick in 2019) and forward Dylan Holloway (No. 14 pick in 2020), prying them away from Edmonton with seldom-used offer sheets. The moves cost them a lot, in terms of salary (a combined $6,871,374 cap hit the next two seasons) and in terms of draft capital.

When accounting for the interconnected Kevin Hayes salary dump to Pittsburgh, the acquisition of Mathieu Joseph from Ottawa, the transaction to reacquire a draft pick from the Penguins, the offer sheet compensation to Edmonton and the ransom to quell the threat of Edmonton matching the offer sheets, the cost of doing business became 鈥� well, costly.

In? Broberg, Holloway, Joseph and a 2026 fifth-round pick. Out? A 2025 second-round pick, a 2026 second-round pick, a 2025 third-round pick, a 2028 third-round pick, prospect Paul Fischer and Hayes.

Add in that the Blues traded their 2025 fourth-rounder to Columbus for Alexandre Texier and their 2025 seventh-rounder to Detroit for Jakub Vrana and 最新杏吧原创 has just three picks next summer: a first, a fifth and a sixth. It鈥檚 not a draft board indicative of a team that has missed the playoffs in two straight seasons.

鈥淲e have restocked the cupboard,鈥� Armstrong said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e going to have a thin draft this year, the way it sits now. We don鈥檛 have a second, third or a fourth, but we also have young players at 22 or 23 that were former first-round picks. You have to give to get.鈥�

Part of why Armstrong was comfortable parting with future assets is the number of pieces the Blues have gathered across the past year-plus, essentially since the 2023 trade deadline when 最新杏吧原创 sold Vladimir Tarasenko, Ryan O鈥橰eilly, Ivan Barbashev, Niko Mikkola and Noel Acciari.

In adding Broberg, Holloway and picking defenseman Adam Jiricek at No. 16, the Blues now have 10 players drafted in the first round since 2019. Seven of those players 鈥� Broberg, Holloway, Jiricek, Zach Dean, Dalibor Dvorsky, Otto Stenberg and Theo Lindstein 鈥� have been acquired in the past year and a half. Zack Bolduc, Jake Neighbours and Jimmy Snuggerud were already in the fold.

There鈥檚 reason to be excited about that.

Across the past six drafts, only Montreal (12) and Buffalo (11) have more former first-round picks in their system than the Blues (10). Across the past five drafts, only Chicago (10) has more than 最新杏吧原创 (nine). Across the past four drafts, it鈥檚 just Chicago (nine) and Nashville (eight) that have more than the Blues鈥� seven.

You get the picture. The Blues have a prospect pool overflowing with future contributors.

But is that enough?

鈥淭he Blues have a lot of depth in their system,鈥� said Chris Peters, a draft and prospects analyst for FloHockey. 鈥淭hey don鈥檛 have a super-great high end where it鈥檚 going to be a lot of first-line players. Some of these guys could develop into that but not a lot of first line (players); there鈥檚 some good secondary scoring here. There鈥檚 probably a top-four defenseman here. Maybe there鈥檚 a (No.) 4, 5 defenseman here.

鈥淔rom right now, and development does not move in a straight line, it looks like they have a lot of mid-range guys that are going to help them in the middle of their lineup but maybe not in the top of their lineup.鈥�

While the Blues have piled up first-rounders, they have not piled up highly drafted first-rounders. Only Broberg and Dvorsky were drafted in the top 10. On average, those 10 players were drafted at 19.8. Only eight teams have, on average, lower-drafted first-rounders currently in their system.

It makes for a lot of serviceable NHL players but maybe not difference-makers.

鈥淭hey鈥檙e lottery tickets, but how many of them have star as a ceiling?鈥� Peters said. 鈥淚f you鈥檙e projecting them out, you at least have some idea of where they鈥檙e going to go. They have a lot of guys that project to contribute. Honestly, when you have more of those, you increase the odds that one of them is going to overshoot what you expected of them.鈥�

The potential jackpots could be Dvorsky (thanks to his supreme skill) and Jiricek (whose evaluation was maybe stunted by his knee injury). But, Peters said, a lot of the other prospects are more known quantities with floors and ceilings a bit closer to each other.

鈥淚 think they did a really good job of getting guys that are going to play in the NHL,鈥� Peters said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a lot harder than it sounds. Just getting guys that鈥檒l be part of your roster is really difficult, especially at the number they have within their system. I think there鈥檚 a lot of guys where I鈥檓 like, 鈥楾hat guy is going to play.鈥欌��

One Eastern Conference evaluator cautioned against the approach of picking up middle-of-the-lineup talent, which Broberg and Holloway could be considered at this point in their careers.

鈥淵ou鈥檙e adding at the middle or bottom of the lineup and hoping they鈥檙e moving up, as opposed to going a little bit more all-in and getting a first-line, top-pair guy that鈥檚 going to push guys down,鈥� they said.

Essentially, the Blues need some of those guys to play above their draft level. And then they need some of their later-round picks to hit as if they were top-end selections. That鈥檚 not unique to the Blues relative to the rest of the league.

The good news? The Blues have shown that they can find players who produce above their draft slot.

Robert Thomas was picked 20th in 2017. He鈥檚 fourth in his draft class in both games played and points.

Jordan Kyrou went 35th in 2016. He鈥檚 ninth in goals and 10th in points among his draft class.

Jake Neighbours was 26th in 2020. He鈥檚 eighth in goals scored in his draft class.

Toss in players like Tage Thompson or Vince Dunn and the Blues have a decent recent history of hitting on picks. Of course, the Blues have also missed big. Klim Kostin hasn鈥檛 panned out. Dominik Bokk never played an NHL game, but he helped the Blues acquire Justin Faulk.

And so there is another avenue for the Blues to pursue at this stage of their transition: trading from their prospect surplus to supplement the NHL roster.

鈥淭here鈥檚 probably a path given his history to move those players for the pieces that can get him there,鈥� an Eastern Conference evaluator said.

Bokk (in the Faulk trade) and Thompson (in the trade that brought O鈥橰eilly to 最新杏吧原创) are the easy examples of Armstrong鈥檚 willingness to deal from his prospect pool to help build the NHL roster. Older examples include Erik Johnson鈥檚 trade to Colorado or swapping David Rundblad for the pick that became Tarasenko.

Armstrong could be given another opportunity to do so, and it wouldn鈥檛 be a new part of his playbook.

鈥淵ou have to accumulate as many puzzle pieces as you can, and then at some point, you have to start making the puzzle,鈥� Armstrong said. 鈥淚 go back to when I first got here, I thought Larry Pleau and John Davidson did a great job of acquiring a lot of young players, and then we moved some of those chess pieces around to build a team.

鈥淚 think we鈥檙e getting in that team-building mode now. We expect to compete. If it鈥檚 not fitting in with our puzzle, we have to move pieces along to find better fits.鈥�

So while the Blues may not have the choose-your-own-adventure assets like draft picks available, they do own about a dozen half-baked prospects in the pipeline. And other teams know Armstrong is open to wheeling and dealing.

鈥淎rmy is not shy,鈥� a Western Conference evaluator said. 鈥淗e is not shy. Even before the offer sheets, he was really aggressive.鈥�

There are potential pitfalls along the way.

What if the Blues underperform and miss the playoffs again, resulting in next year鈥檚 draft capital becoming more valuable than anticipated? What if Snuggerud鈥檚 or Bolduc鈥檚 development stalls? What if Jiricek鈥檚 injury history is an ongoing concern? What if the former Oilers don鈥檛 adjust to bigger roles?

These are risks the Blues and Armstrong have to be willing to take in order to whip around a tight U-turn back into contention, and they鈥檝e put themselves in a position to win big on the right bets.

Armstrong compares the current state of the Blues to the teams in 2010-12, teams that were incubating a young nucleus that included Alex Pietrangelo, David Perron, Jaden Schwartz, T.J. Oshie, Kevin Shattenkirk, Ian Cole, Chris Stewart and Tarasenko.

鈥淲e like the depth of our group now,鈥� Armstrong said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e going to continue to try and add to that, but we鈥檙e at that point now where we were in 2010, 鈥�11, 鈥�12 where we鈥檝e accumulated assets.

鈥淣ow we have to build a team and I鈥檓 excited about the opportunity to build a team.鈥�