The Biggest Draft Mistake The St. Louis Blues Ever Made

[seattleblue]

The GM is completely blameless!!!!

Look we get it. Some fans, what they do is they overpraise the GM. The GM can do no wrong, it can feel like an unthinking deference to authority. When those same people are also insulting you it can be tough to hold your mud.

You aren't wrong to be skeptical of this. What you DO NOT REALIZE, clearly, is that you are reacting to a smaller group of people than you think. Another thing you don't realize. Let's posit there are about 100 regulars here. The analogy I think of is we are all in the metal-walled hold of a ship or cargo airplane, so all the fights echo off the (bleep) walls and affect everyone.

Your arguments are that of an imbecile and on some level you know it, you're doing it on purpose. You use the word 'mitigating' in a sentence yet somehow 100% of the substantive rebuttals you run away from like a stupid [kittycat], It's a fake sham and it's transparent that's why people just insult you and they aren't wrong to do it.

What you do not realize you are doing is the 80% of people here who are not GM sycophants who do not believe "the GM can do no wrong" and in fact are more than happy to nitpick mistakes, you have made all of these people, the clear main weight of the forum, wonder what the [fork] is going on with this dumb screaming baby who's echoing his screams off the walls because in his (bleep) up little Main Character world, these 80% of people do not exist. What ends up happening, is then those 80% just tend to focus on how stupid the things you're saying are.

So you are a complete failure.

[dr0zombie]

More facts:

When picking at 20, you are picking depth players. 3rd liners. Penalty killers.

Is any fan going to care much that 5 years from now Team X’s 3rd liner gets 5 more goals per year?

Face it. At 20, you are bobbing for apples, and few will care what team they play for.

St Louis is credited with having a great scouting team but rhey never habe to mske a decision that can go wrong. Ever.

Dumb dumbs back!

Just a quick review of the 2010 NHL draft

Tarasenko #16
Kuznetsov #26
Charlie Coyle #28
Brock Nelson #30
Justin Faulk #37
Tyler Toffoli #47

Im sure someone here with more knowledge than me can turn that list into 100 guys, I just dont have the time.

You're not very smart are you?

You could go the other way and show top picks that were just okay or a miss.

Erik Gudbranson #3
Brett Connolly #6
Alexander Burmistrov #8
Dylan McIlrath #10

Outside of maybe the top four players you are not even sure you get an NHL level player without good scouting. Erik Gudbranson isn't "bad", he just isn't the third best in his draft class.

It is just so short sighted when people like the OP here thinks players not in the top 5-10 are depth players. 3rd liners. Penalty killers. It just isn't true.

[SpacemanSpiff]

Worst draft pick was EJ. Worst draft mistake was not attending the 1983 draft. Fabbri really shouldn’t belong anywhere near the top of either list.

Have to strongly disagree with you on the EJ comment (completely agree on the other two).

I look at EJ as the before and after his knee injury, which to this day is the ONLY NHL player that I know of that continued his NHL career (100+ games) after tearing both the ACL and MCL in the same knee, so my assessment below will be that.

As a Gopher he was the top WCHA Rookie (I attended every home game and all away games within driving distance of the Twin Cities), and by the end of the season he replaced Vannelli as Goligoski's pairing mate 5v5. While ND was everyone's bane in the WCHA, EJ had some very memorable shifts against Oshie/Toews, holding them pointless 5v5 in the Frozen Four that year (although they each got an assist on the big PP goal).

His rookie year as a Blue (he was 19) was just as impressive, finishing the season as the top scoring rookie defender (ppg) over names like Niskanen, Yandle, Letang, etc... and he was younger them all of them AND on a terrible team.

Of course AFTER the knee injury, his mobility was greatly compromised and his career would be plagued by countless knee and groin injuries (the latter synonymous with a severe knee injury). But even with that said, the guy played 1000+ games in the NHL, which in IMO is flat out STUD for a player with that initial ACL/MCL injury, and why I will always respect the HELL out of EJ.

My assessment is GREAT pick, the right pick, but just stupid bad luck...

Couldn't agree more. He was the consensus number 1 pick, and only one team stated he wasn't first on their draft board.

In terms of failed picks, my favorite was Osborne over Sakic. Granted, fourteen other teams decided not to pick him either, as he was deemed too small and slow to play in the NHL. Did he make some scouts look silly....

[SameOldBlues]

The GM is completely blameless!!!!

Look we get it. Some fans, what they do is they overpraise the GM. The GM can do no wrong, it can feel like an unthinking deference to authority. When those same people are also insulting you it can be tough to hold your mud.

You aren't wrong to be skeptical of this. What you DO NOT REALIZE, clearly, is that you are reacting to a smaller group of people than you think. Another thing you don't realize. Let's posit there are about 100 regulars here. The analogy I think of is we are all in the metal-walled hold of a ship or cargo airplane, so all the fights echo off the (drat) walls and affect everyone.

Your arguments are that of an imbecile and on some level you know it, you're doing it on purpose. You use the word 'mitigating' in a sentence yet somehow 100% of the substantive rebuttals you run away from like a stupid [kittycat], It's a fake sham and it's transparent that's why people just insult you and they aren't wrong to do it.

What you do not realize you are doing is the 80% of people here who are not GM sycophants who do not believe "the GM can do no wrong" and in fact are more than happy to nitpick mistakes, you have made all of these people, the clear main weight of the forum, wonder what the [fork] is going on with this dumb screaming baby who's echoing his screams off the walls because in his (bleep) up little Main Character world, these 80% of people do not exist. What ends up happening, is then those 80% just tend to focus on how stupid the things you're saying are.

So you are a complete failure.

Very well said. I just dont get what’s in it for the people who constantly interact with him, especially knowing he’s goin to repeat the exact same talking points/same narrative ad nauseam, no matter what. I just block those people so I dont have to see the same sheeet posted over n over n over n over again.

To each their own, but I just dont see the satisfaction in playin the Romper Room games with turds on here.

[BluesDom]

I dont get it. Why does the guy post this (bleep) all day every day.
If you look at Blues drafts on Hockeydb--we hardly ever drafted in early or mid 1st round. Seems like a whole lot of later 1st rounds.
This guy doesnt even pay attention to the teams past or facts. He seems like a real person. Is he just a fake troll?

Armstrong in my mind is much more enjoyable as GM them the other GMS I grew up following:
Keenan, Pleau and Caron. Although Caron was kind of fun. I prefer Army to Pleau Caron Keenan. I was too young for Francis.


No. Name Tenure Accomplishments during this term Ref(s)
1 Lynn Patrick May 5, 1966 – May 29, 1968
1 Stanley Cup Finals appearance (1968)
1 playoff appearance
[2][3]
2 Scotty Bowman† May 29, 1968 – April 30, 1971
2 Stanley Cup Finals appearances (1969, 1970)
2 division titles and 3 playoff appearances
[3][4]
– Lynn Patrick May 7, 1971 – October 30, 1971 [5][6]
3 Sid Abel October 30, 1971 – April 17, 1973
2 playoff appearances
[6][7]
4 Charles Catto May 7, 1973 – April 7, 1974
No playoff appearances
[8][9]
5 Lou Angotti April 7, 1974 – August 24, 1974 [10]
6 Sid Salomon III August 24, 1974 – April 12, 1976
2 playoff appearances
[11]
7 Emile Francis† April 12, 1976 – May 2, 1983
2 division titles and 5 playoff appearances
[12][13]
8 Ron Caron August 13, 1983 – July 17, 1994
2 division titles and 11 playoff appearances
[14][15]
9 Mike Keenan July 17, 1994 – December 19, 1996
2 playoff appearances
[15][16]
– Ron Caron (Interim) December 19, 1996 – June 21, 1997
1 playoff appearance
[16][17]
10 Larry Pleau June 21, 1997 – July 1, 2010
Won Presidents' Trophy (1999–2000)
1 division title and 8 playoff appearances
[17][18]
11 Doug Armstrong July 1, 2010 – present
Won General manager of the Year Award (2011–12)
Won Stanley Cup (2019)
1 conference title, 3 division titles, and 10 playoff appearances
[1

[DawgDad]

I dont get it. Why does the guy post this (bleep) all day every day.
If you look at Blues drafts on Hockeydb--we hardly ever drafted in early or mid 1st round. Seems like a whole lot of later 1st rounds.
This guy doesnt even pay attention to the teams past or facts. He seems like a real person. Is he just a fake troll?

Armstrong in my mind is much more enjoyable as GM them the other GMS I grew up following:
Keenan, Pleau and Caron. Although Caron was kind of fun. I prefer Army to Pleau Caron Keenan. I was too young for Francis.


No. Name Tenure Accomplishments during this term Ref(s)
1 Lynn Patrick May 5, 1966 – May 29, 1968
1 Stanley Cup Finals appearance (1968)
1 playoff appearance
[2][3]
2 Scotty Bowman† May 29, 1968 – April 30, 1971
2 Stanley Cup Finals appearances (1969, 1970)
2 division titles and 3 playoff appearances
[3][4]
– Lynn Patrick May 7, 1971 – October 30, 1971 [5][6]
3 Sid Abel October 30, 1971 – April 17, 1973
2 playoff appearances
[6][7]
4 Charles Catto May 7, 1973 – April 7, 1974
No playoff appearances
[8][9]
5 Lou Angotti April 7, 1974 – August 24, 1974 [10]
6 Sid Salomon III August 24, 1974 – April 12, 1976
2 playoff appearances
[11]
7 Emile Francis† April 12, 1976 – May 2, 1983
2 division titles and 5 playoff appearances
[12][13]
8 Ron Caron August 13, 1983 – July 17, 1994
2 division titles and 11 playoff appearances
[14][15]
9 Mike Keenan July 17, 1994 – December 19, 1996
2 playoff appearances
[15][16]
– Ron Caron (Interim) December 19, 1996 – June 21, 1997
1 playoff appearance
[16][17]
10 Larry Pleau June 21, 1997 – July 1, 2010
Won Presidents' Trophy (1999–2000)
1 division title and 8 playoff appearances
[17][18]
11 Doug Armstrong July 1, 2010 – present
Won General manager of the Year Award (2011–12)
Won Stanley Cup (2019)
1 conference title, 3 division titles, and 10 playoff appearances
[1

Nothing wrong with Francis. He was set up for a successful rebuild and he pulled it off. Problems at end of his tenure were due to Corporate "disownership".

[seattleblue]

Quite the bold statement!

[Harold_Melvin]

Eric Johnson was a fly ball down the line that curved foul, when all the Blues needed was a fly ball to center to get the fans back in the stands.
1983 wasn't a wiff because the Blues didn't even step to the plate.

[a smell of green grass]

The GM is completely blameless!!!!

Look we get it. Some fans, what they do is they overpraise the GM. The GM can do no wrong, it can feel like an unthinking deference to authority. When those same people are also insulting you it can be tough to hold your mud.

You aren't wrong to be skeptical of this. What you DO NOT REALIZE, clearly, is that you are reacting to a smaller group of people than you think. Another thing you don't realize. Let's posit there are about 100 regulars here. The analogy I think of is we are all in the metal-walled hold of a ship or cargo airplane, so all the fights echo off the (drat) walls and affect everyone.

Your arguments are that of an imbecile and on some level you know it, you're doing it on purpose. You use the word 'mitigating' in a sentence yet somehow 100% of the substantive rebuttals you run away from like a stupid [kittycat], It's a fake sham and it's transparent that's why people just insult you and they aren't wrong to do it.

What you do not realize you are doing is the 80% of people here who are not GM sycophants who do not believe "the GM can do no wrong" and in fact are more than happy to nitpick mistakes, you have made all of these people, the clear main weight of the forum, wonder what the [fork] is going on with this dumb screaming baby who's echoing his screams off the walls because in his (bleep) up little Main Character world, these 80% of people do not exist. What ends up happening, is then those 80% just tend to focus on how stupid the things you're saying are.

So you are a complete failure.

Why do my points always go over your head? I can tell by your reply that you are not understanding what I am saying.

My point is that NO GM WILL BE BLAMED FOR A PICK after 15 or so. Not Army, not any GM.

Show me a "biggest mistake" made by any GM, and I"ll show you a GM that botched a TOP5 pick.

Why is this true?
1) Big mistakes require that you miss out on a great talent, and great talents are almost always within the TOP5. Certainly TOP10.
2) Big mistakes also require that a single GM can be blamed for the bad thinking. Consider a great talent that is picked in the 2nd round? Should all GMs be blamed for missing that one? No.

HERE ARE MY 2 POINTS... Please follow carefully.
1. Armstrong always selects 15-25. In so doing, he is in the GM group that will NEVER BE BLAMED for making a mistake. It's impossible for ANY GM to make a mistake when you pick that late.

2. The Blues are often credited with having a great scouting staff. In reality, no NHL staff is LESS TESTED than the Blues. They NEVER pick high in the draft. Dvorsky was the first top 10 in many years. Calling them a great scouting staff is akin to calling a 5-year old a great NHL player.

[bstpete11]

It's the dog days of the off-season and real Blues news is scarce.

Just something to spark a little debate or conversation.

---------------------------------------

The biggest draft mistake the St. Louis Blues ever made

Sometimes it's picking the wrong player, sometimes it's trading up or back, but this was the worst decision the Blues ever made regarding the draft.

By Joe DeMarini
Jul 28, 2025

Earlier this month, we looked at the worst draft pick in Blues franchise history--and to be honest, it's hard not to pick the same thing for this broader exercise.

The good news: the Blues don't make many mistakes at the draft, whether it's the picks themselves, swapping picks in the order, or moving players on and off the roster in larger transactions. The bad news: not everyone gets it right all the time, and this is one instance the Blues sorta whiffed.

Honorable mention goes to the 2009 draft, where the Blues selected David Rundblad 17th overall, and Chris Kreider went two spots later; on the bright side, Ryan O'Reilly (who went 33rd that year) wound up on the Blues at the right time.

That means we're going to look at the 2014 draft as the organization's worst draft mistake--at least in recent memory.

https://bleedinblue.com/the-biggest-dra ... -ever-made

I don't think Rundblad should be included in this. Obviously, his career didn't pan out. But for the Blues purposes, they got great value out of him. He had a good draft+1 year and the Blues flipped him at the 2010 draft for the 16th overall pick that was used to take Tarasenko. It was a good enough pick that Rundblad essentially had the same value a year after being drafted as he did when he was selected.

Jordan Schmaltz, Shawn Belle, Marek Schwarz, and Dominik Bokk were all worse picks for the Blues than Rundblad was.

[BluesDom]

The GM is completely blameless!!!!

Look we get it. Some fans, what they do is they overpraise the GM. The GM can do no wrong, it can feel like an unthinking deference to authority. When those same people are also insulting you it can be tough to hold your mud.

You aren't wrong to be skeptical of this. What you DO NOT REALIZE, clearly, is that you are reacting to a smaller group of people than you think. Another thing you don't realize. Let's posit there are about 100 regulars here. The analogy I think of is we are all in the metal-walled hold of a ship or cargo airplane, so all the fights echo off the (drat) walls and affect everyone.

Your arguments are that of an imbecile and on some level you know it, you're doing it on purpose. You use the word 'mitigating' in a sentence yet somehow 100% of the substantive rebuttals you run away from like a stupid [kittycat], It's a fake sham and it's transparent that's why people just insult you and they aren't wrong to do it.

What you do not realize you are doing is the 80% of people here who are not GM sycophants who do not believe "the GM can do no wrong" and in fact are more than happy to nitpick mistakes, you have made all of these people, the clear main weight of the forum, wonder what the [fork] is going on with this dumb screaming baby who's echoing his screams off the walls because in his (bleep) up little Main Character world, these 80% of people do not exist. What ends up happening, is then those 80% just tend to focus on how stupid the things you're saying are.

So you are a complete failure.

Why do my points always go over your head? I can tell by your reply that you are not understanding what I am saying.

My point is that NO GM WILL BE BLAMED FOR A PICK after 15 or so. Not Army, not any GM.

Show me a "biggest mistake" made by any GM, and I"ll show you a GM that botched a TOP5 pick.

Why is this true?
1) Big mistakes require that you miss out on a great talent, and great talents are almost always within the TOP5. Certainly TOP10.
2) Big mistakes also require that a single GM can be blamed for the bad thinking. Consider a great talent that is picked in the 2nd round? Should all GMs be blamed for missing that one? No.

HERE ARE MY 2 POINTS... Please follow carefully.
1. Armstrong always selects 15-25. In so doing, he is in the GM group that will NEVER BE BLAMED for making a mistake. It's impossible for ANY GM to make a mistake when you pick that late.

2. The Blues are often credited with having a great scouting staff. In reality, no NHL staff is LESS TESTED than the Blues. They NEVER pick high in the draft. Dvorsky was the first top 10 in many years. Calling them a great scouting staff is akin to calling a 5-year old a great NHL player.
[/q

Your ridiculous. Make no sense. The team drafts in similar positions in its history. Team has been very successful--hence higher draft picks. All Blues GM's experienced similar draft positions.

[moose-and-squirrel]

It's the dog days of the off-season and real Blues news is scarce.

Just something to spark a little debate or conversation.

---------------------------------------

The biggest draft mistake the St. Louis Blues ever made

Sometimes it's picking the wrong player, sometimes it's trading up or back, but this was the worst decision the Blues ever made regarding the draft.

By Joe DeMarini
Jul 28, 2025

Earlier this month, we looked at the worst draft pick in Blues franchise history--and to be honest, it's hard not to pick the same thing for this broader exercise.

The good news: the Blues don't make many mistakes at the draft, whether it's the picks themselves, swapping picks in the order, or moving players on and off the roster in larger transactions. The bad news: not everyone gets it right all the time, and this is one instance the Blues sorta whiffed.

Honorable mention goes to the 2009 draft, where the Blues selected David Rundblad 17th overall, and Chris Kreider went two spots later; on the bright side, Ryan O'Reilly (who went 33rd that year) wound up on the Blues at the right time.

That means we're going to look at the 2014 draft as the organization's worst draft mistake--at least in recent memory.

https://bleedinblue.com/the-biggest-dra ... -ever-made

I don't think Rundblad should be included in this. Obviously, his career didn't pan out. But for the Blues purposes, they got great value out of him. He had a good draft+1 year and the Blues flipped him at the 2010 draft for the 16th overall pick that was used to take Tarasenko. It was a good enough pick that Rundblad essentially had the same value a year after being drafted as he did when he was selected.

Jordan Schmaltz, Shawn Belle, Marek Schwarz, and Dominik Bokk were all worse picks for the Blues than Rundblad was.

Runblad was a bad pick. just because they were able to get out from under it before everyone found out, doesn't make it a good 'pick'. with that reasoning, Bokk wasn't a bad pick either, right?

[seattleblue]

The GM is completely blameless!!!!

Look we get it. Some fans, what they do is they overpraise the GM. The GM can do no wrong, it can feel like an unthinking deference to authority. When those same people are also insulting you it can be tough to hold your mud.

You aren't wrong to be skeptical of this. What you DO NOT REALIZE, clearly, is that you are reacting to a smaller group of people than you think. Another thing you don't realize. Let's posit there are about 100 regulars here. The analogy I think of is we are all in the metal-walled hold of a ship or cargo airplane, so all the fights echo off the (drat) walls and affect everyone.

Your arguments are that of an imbecile and on some level you know it, you're doing it on purpose. You use the word 'mitigating' in a sentence yet somehow 100% of the substantive rebuttals you run away from like a stupid [kittycat], It's a fake sham and it's transparent that's why people just insult you and they aren't wrong to do it.

What you do not realize you are doing is the 80% of people here who are not GM sycophants who do not believe "the GM can do no wrong" and in fact are more than happy to nitpick mistakes, you have made all of these people, the clear main weight of the forum, wonder what the [fork] is going on with this dumb screaming baby who's echoing his screams off the walls because in his (bleep) up little Main Character world, these 80% of people do not exist. What ends up happening, is then those 80% just tend to focus on how stupid the things you're saying are.

So you are a complete failure.

Why do my points always go over your head? I can tell by your reply that you are not understanding what I am saying.

My point is that NO GM WILL BE BLAMED FOR A PICK after 15 or so. Not Army, not any GM.

Show me a "biggest mistake" made by any GM, and I"ll show you a GM that botched a TOP5 pick.

Why is this true?
1) Big mistakes require that you miss out on a great talent, and great talents are almost always within the TOP5. Certainly TOP10.
2) Big mistakes also require that a single GM can be blamed for the bad thinking. Consider a great talent that is picked in the 2nd round? Should all GMs be blamed for missing that one? No.

HERE ARE MY 2 POINTS... Please follow carefully.
1. Armstrong always selects 15-25. In so doing, he is in the GM group that will NEVER BE BLAMED for making a mistake. It's impossible for ANY GM to make a mistake when you pick that late.

2. The Blues are often credited with having a great scouting staff. In reality, no NHL staff is LESS TESTED than the Blues. They NEVER pick high in the draft. Dvorsky was the first top 10 in many years. Calling them a great scouting staff is akin to calling a 5-year old a great NHL player.

Your mentally handicapped rage masturbation does not go over my head.

"Nobody criticizes Doug Armstrong because it violates the tules of criticism and only I see"

you absolute simp

[HighStick]

Didn't Scott Stevens come from the 5th or 6th round?
There's been all kinds of guys who were NHL staples that came from deep in the draft.

[Red7]

1983, everything else pales in comparison. Worst (most wasted) pick might have been Scott Campbell in 1977.

Agree with both evaluations. Campbell had chronic headaches and never played. Scary how close that the Blues went to Saskatoon. Ornest was a vulture, but he saved the franchise when NO ONE wanted to take the risk.

Campbell played very well for several years in the WHA after the Blues couldn’t sign him. The headache issues didn’t really manifest until the Blues traded for him after the WHA teams were absorbed by the NHL.

[Red7]

Didn't Scott Stevens come from the 5th or 6th round?
There's been all kinds of guys who were NHL staples that came from deep in the draft.

1st Round 5th overall…