The Biggest Draft Mistake The St. Louis Blues Ever Made

[a smell of green grass]

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.

Sure. That can happen, and will continue to happen. However, it is exceptionally rare.

But, you're missing my point.

In this case of a great talent found in Round 12....

Can a single GM be blamed? Think about it. No. Why? Because everybody missed it.

Essentially, the only time a GM can be blamed is when they pick the wrong guy in the TOP 5. Consult history. Check around the league. The DRAFT PICK that fans are mad about it is when their GM picked the wrong guy in the TOP 5.

And herein lies my point.....
Armstrong and his scouts NEVER PICK in the TOP 5. As a result, they have ZERO CHANCE of failing. Of course, this blaming does not include myself. I gripe when Armstrong picked Jiricek, but not many Blues fans will ever agree with me. Jiricek will fail, will leave town on the Perunovich Train, and JIricek will be blamed--Not Armstrong.

[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.

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

I'm afraid to look. How many Seattle Blue teeth are laying on the ice after this fight? Better send in the trainer, and a stretcher for the poor guy.

[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

I'm afraid to look. How many Seattle Blue teeth are laying on the ice after this fight? Better send in the trainer, and a stretcher for the poor guy.

what fight? you're a dog I take for a walk when I choose to

[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.

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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?

Well I think who you are able to get for the guy matters a little bit. Rundblad had enough value that we got Tarasenko straight up for him and Tarasenko obviously went on to be one of the Blues best players for a decade and helped win a cup. Whereas we had to send Bokk and Edmundson to get Faulk who, imo, has been a disappointment since coming to St.Louis.

[SRV1990]

It's so very rare to get a top player later in the draft. For example:

Luc Robitaille
Doug Gilmour
Dominik Hasek
Pavel Datsyuk
Henrik Zetterberg
Brett Hull
Joe Pavelski
Theo Fleury
Henrik Lundqvist
Jamie Benn
Mark Stone
Johnny Gaudreau
Jaccob Slavin
Colton Parayko
Brad Marchand
Anthony Cirelli
Jeremy Swayman
Pekka Rinne
Ryan Miller
Kirill Kaprizov
Connor Hellebuyck

Yep, very rare...

[Hazelwood72]

Thinking 1983 might lead the list...

LOL, and I wonder how many people understand your quip !