Blues have some tough decisions to make this offseason
The St. Louis Blues got into the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs and were mere seconds away from upsetting the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Winnipeg Jets in the first round.
The 2025-26 campaign did not involve the Blues making the sort of push that they found the year prior to get into the dance, and now, it’s time for a succession plan years in the making to unfold, as Alex Steen will take the reins from Doug Armstrong as the general manager in St. Louis.
For a team that nearly moved longtime defenseman Colton Parayko at the deadline, and reportedly strongly considered moving cornerstone forwards Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou, it looks like plenty of major changes to the core could be ahead as Steen looks to put his stamp on the organization.
On Monday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed the off-season that faces the Blues’ organization as they transition from the Armstrong era to the Steen era.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Another disappointing year in St. Louis as they missed the playoffs and listen, I don’t mean to make this a repetitive conversation versus the ones we’ve had about Nashville and Winnipeg and those other Central Division teams, but when we talked about those other teams, it was like, ‘Hey, how are you going to be competitive in a division that has Colorado, Dallas and Minnesota all presumably going nowhere next season?’ Like it’s a lot of teams, even Utah is presumably not going anywhere next year. It’s a lot of teams basically fighting for one potential playoff spot in that division. What I like about St. Louis is that there seems to be a willingness to kind of make some hard decisions here. They were obviously open to trading a Colton Parayko at the deadline. We’ve heard Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou’s names out there for a really long time. Like these are players in the case of Kyrou and Thomas, still in their 20s, in their late 20s, a guy in Parayko who still has good years left… the Blues are going through and making some tough decisions, And I just think that’s the direction they have to go because I just don’t see a window opening up in this division for another handful of years.
Carter Hutton: No, I think that’s the case too is when you look at that division and where the Blues are at. And in Binnington, maybe he’s a case where you still have some value, you can get him out. And some of these guys that have term on their deal that are a bit younger and have a bit of sex appeal to some of these teams trying to push over the top, you know, maybe you move them and get some picks. It will be interesting because there is that transition of power right now. The succession plan is in place, right? Alex Steen is taking over for Armstrong. This is going to be a transition of, you know, where does he see this team going? And yes, I know he’s still involved and there’s a lot of pieces, but it is a change of power, right? And I think for the St. Louis Blues, as you reflect on the run you’ve had with some of these guys and where you’re at, I think it goes back to last year’s first round where you had a great push. You got in, you played Winnipeg. It was a tough loss. And now you see a little bit of a setback. So where do you go from here? Joel Holfer has been good. He’s at a good number, right? He’s got another year left on his deal at 3.4. You got Binnington. You might as well move him now if you can’t lose him in free agency. So there’s a lot of moving parts, I think, to assess, but to your point, this division, right? Like, where are you really going in this division when there’s teams that are here to stay? And I think you’re just really hurting your future if you try to push right now, Ty.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…