Best And Worst Moves Of The Doug Armstrong Tenure

[TBone]

The Pat Maroon discussion (one of the few Armstrong mistakes, albeit low level) got me thinking about DA's entire tenure with the Blues.

What would you include as his best and worst decisions in his time with St. Louis? Players, coaches, scouting, etc.

[TAFKAP]

The biggest mistake IMHO is hard to call a mistake because it worked out in the end. The whole "Coach In Waiting" thing with Yeo. I never understood that hire. He was a tool before, during, and after his tenure here.

I know people are going to say Petro, but, I think that was Stillman's call in the end.

I'll say Krug, there was really no upside on that deal.

[dhsux]

The biggest mistake IMHO is hard to call a mistake because it worked out in the end. The whole "Coach In Waiting" thing with Yeo. I never understood that hire. He was a tool before, during, and after his tenure here.

I know people are going to say Petro, but, I think that was Stillman's call in the end.

I'll say Krug, there was really no upside on that deal.

TAF I'd bet Stillman listens and listens well to DA on a decision like that.

Just my opinion it was a line neither wanted to cross.

[Bluesfan1978]

I don’t mind they moved on from Petro. I do wish they traded him if they knew it was going to be hard to agree on a contract. As far as trades I think the worst one would have been the Ryan Miller trade but I don’t think it had any long lasting impact on the team.

[netboy65]

The biggest mistake IMHO is hard to call a mistake because it worked out in the end. The whole "Coach In Waiting" thing with Yeo. I never understood that hire. He was a tool before, during, and after his tenure here.

I know people are going to say Petro, but, I think that was Stillman's call in the end.

I'll say Krug, there was really no upside on that deal.

It just didn’t work out, but the idea wasn’t for a 1-1 replacement Krug for Petro. 55 was supposed to move up to the first pairing, and Krug was brought in to help offset some of the missing offense. Nice in theory but as we’ve seen, it didn’t happen that way.

[netboy65]

I don’t mind they moved on from Petro. I do wish they traded him if they knew it was going to be hard to agree on a contract. As far as trades I think the worst one would have been the Ryan Miller trade but I don’t think it had any long lasting impact on the team.

Sure it did. It brought us Ott who’s still wrecking our pp to this day!

[John Cocktoastin]

Best: Holloway and Broberg

Worst: might not be a popular pick, but the one that sticks out to me is Dunn. Others sting, but, man, he was always the best mix for a Dman for me. Scores, hits and throws down.

[Aesa]

Best: Holloway and Broberg

Worst: might not be a popular pick, but the one that sticks out to me is Dunn. Others sting, but, man, he was always the best mix for a Dman for me. Scores, hits and throws down.

Agree John, on both choices.

[DawgDad]

Best: Holloway and Broberg

Worst: might not be a popular pick, but the one that sticks out to me is Dunn. Others sting, but, man, he was always the best mix for a Dman for me. Scores, hits and throws down.

I tend to agree with this for impact on the team, magnitude of the get, shock value, and recency bias. A slew of his moves leading up to the Cup at least deserve honorable mention:

1. ROR
2. JBo
3. Schenn
4. Perron III
5. Moving on from Sastny
6. Bozak
7. Sundqvist
8. Maroon

[sdaltons]

Best: absolutely nothing


Worst: every single transaction he was ever involved with



[/bomac]

[netboy65]

Best: Holloway and Broberg

Worst: might not be a popular pick, but the one that sticks out to me is Dunn. Others sting, but, man, he was always the best mix for a Dman for me. Scores, hits and throws down.

I tend to agree with this for impact on the team, magnitude of the get, shock value, and recency bias. A slew of his moves leading up to the Cup at least deserve honorable mention:

1. ROR
2. JBo
3. Schenn
4. Perron III
5. Moving on from Sastny
6. Bozak
7. Sundqvist
8. Maroon

You have to add, not only did we get Schenn, but we subtracted Lehtera. That’s the common theme with Army deals, what exactly did he give up to get ROR or JBo? Not much!!

[Army's Mom]

Best: absolutely nothing


Worst: every single transaction he was ever involved with



[/bomac]

Without a reference to Army's:
Nuthuggers,
BBQ boys, or
Ring kisses?

The best we can give this impression is a C+, for effort.

[somni]

Best: absolutely nothing


Worst: every single transaction he was ever involved with



[/bomac]

Obviously, trading DJ King tops the list.

[TAFKAP]

Best: absolutely nothing


Worst: every single transaction he was ever involved with



[/bomac]

Without a reference to Army's:
Nuthuggers,
BBQ boys, or
Ring kisses?
Army's Oilmen
The best we can give this impression is a C+, for effort.

Now it's B-

[JoshInFenton]

Army typically wins out the most on the cost of acquiring talent. He has commonly bought lower than most of his competition has on players, a prime example to be had this year with Fowler's price tag in comparison to just about every other defensemen moved, most of which i'd argue have lower overall impact than him as well. His worst moves are when it comes to resignings/signings of higher profile players. Part of that is that they just stand out more with higher dollars.

Jay Bouwmeester to me remains near the top of the list in terms of the trades made. In terms of value, we gave up a 1st round pick. Getting a top pairing defensemen for a single first round pick that is still in his late 20's is ridiculous. Reto Berra and Mark Cundari combined had about 80 games in the NHL as the other pieces. People can also be hit or miss around here on Buchnevich, but that deal was also pretty wild in hindsight. He cost what essentially amounts to the price we paid to get Broberg this offseason. Buch even when playing with marginal linemates in terms of talent at times can still produce well enough. I don't know about the contract that we agreed to on the extension, but for the trade itself it was criminal. Honorable Mentions for deals he straight-up won would be the Elliott Trade (turned into a 2nd, turned into Kyrou specifically but the win is moreso because Elliott began to falloff in about 2 years, so he got out before it went bad). and the Brewer trade (again, got out before Brewer fell off. He had awful stats here, but he was a 2nd pairing defensemen being asked to play top minutes against top opponents instead. we traded him with about 2-3 good seasons left before he was no longer NHL caliber. The 3rd ended up being the pick we used on Binnington).

I'd say even more than the trades, the biggest thing that goes under-the-radar is that most every GM has a significant role in constructing the scouting team, and in particular i'd point at the amateur scouting team. And for about the last decade, our team has consistently put out solid NHL talent in the depth picks and has been reasonably strong at keeping the top picks successful. DA gets them some solid picks with some of his deals, and then lets them go to work. Just line up the blues to most every other team in the NHL, and you'll get a good glimpse as to how this has likely kept them from bottoming out again since the mid 2000's.

The worst moves Army makes are typically contract related. I think he is below average at negotiating contract extensions on players on that age 28-31 range deal. He missed out on a reasonably long peak era of Pietangelo, opting into other options that have not been as good. I'm looking at both Krug and Faulk as examples, Faulk moreso because he appears to be losing a bit of pace which used to make up for some questionable decisions (though maybe it's a lower body injury at fault). What saves army from being poor in this department is he is fairly decent at finding the low hanging fruit in the market and making the most out of some of the depth signings, as evidenced with Sutter, Pitlick, Walker, Accari, Upshall, Brodziak, and the list goes on. Most teams depth signings end up a bit worse for ware, but not his.

I'd rate him pretty easily as a top 10 GM in the league, probably 6th or 7th best. So overall, we're pretty fortunate to have had him, and he will always have what no blues GM before him had attached to their time as a blues GM specifically, a stanley cup. I may not agree with all he has done, but am not dense enough to look past the good 10-11 seasons we've had in comparison to the 3-4 bad ones in his tenure.

[smilinjoefission]

Army's problem are his contracts.