ST. LOUIS — A year ago, after the manner in which the St. Louis Blues lost in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, there was a sense of abruptness at their exit interviews.
Saturday, it was absorbing an issue that was months in the making.
General manager Doug Armstrong and coach Jim Montgomery talked about team attitude.
“How we came to work every day,” Armstrong said. “The groups I’ve worked with that have had success, they’ve loved the grind. They’ve loved the challenge. They’ve loved the adversity. They couldn’t wait for it. They thrived under it. They wanted someone to punch them in the mouth so they could respond.
“That’s what you’re seeing — 16 teams playing (in the playoffs) that had that, and we are not one of them today.”
The Blues will seek to change that as they evolve the roster with younger players.
Beginning with the trades of Ryan O’Reilly and Vladimir Tarasenko, which led to three first-round picks in the 2023 NHL Draft — Dalibor Dvorsky, Otto Stenberg and Theo Lindstein — the Blues are sticking to their plan of building for the future. With the trades of Brayden Schenn and Justin Faulk at this year’s deadline, they will have three first-round selections again this June.
“We created space this year and I think we’ll create more space, but we’re not in a total ‘get rid of all the veterans,’” Armstrong said. “The plan that I shared with (Blues chairman Tom) Stillman is still the plan, and we’re just further along in it. I believe in the plan.”
Added Montgomery: “We’re committed to our young core. It’s deep and it’s talented. Those are the guys that we’re going to be building around, along with our first line, our goaltending tandem. We’ve got some really good pieces here that I believe with the right attitudes and a better start, this is a team that’s going to challenge for the playoffs.”
The Blues touched on a lot of topics on Saturday, so let’s find out what we learned from their exit interviews.
Armstrong downplays Thomas trade talk
Robert Thomas, who ended the season on a two-month heater, said health was a “huge factor” in his success down the stretch. After a minor knee procedure, he had 14 goals and 31 points in 22 games.
“I don’t have to get into too much of it, but it was really nice to feel healthy and feel like myself again,” Thomas said. “That was a big thing to just getting back to the level that I’ve been playing at the last couple of years.”
Dylan Holloway, who was the benefactor of Thomas’ performance, reiterated Saturday that “he’s such an elite player in this league. I feel like he doesn’t get the praise that he deserves. Every night, he’s matched up against their top-line center and I feel like he always shuts down their top-line center and then he puts up points, too. To play with a guy of that caliber has been a ton of fun. He’s a big reason our line was going the way it was.”
So will the Blues hang onto Thomas this summer, or rekindle trade talks that occurred before the NHL trade deadline in March?
“Some of these trade talks … are a little bit of fabrication,” Armstrong said. “They start out and all of a sudden they get legs and they go and they go and they go and they never stop. The cost of acquiring someone of Robert Thomas’ talent is extremely high. I don’t think anyone values Robert Thomas more in the NHL than Doug Armstrong values Robert Thomas in the NHL. So, if he was available, the reason he’s here is because I value him higher than anyone else.”
But this summer, the decision will belong to incoming GM Alexander Steen.
“There’s a lot of conversations that need to happen this summer and those haven’t happened yet, so I can’t really speak too much on it,” Steen said. “I guess we’ll kind of see where it goes from there.”
Blues defenseman Colton Parayko was also involved in trade talks in March, nixing a deal to the Buffalo Sabres. He said his response to the question was exactly the same as Thomas’.
“There hasn’t been much time for conversations since the season wrapped up,” said Parayko, who has a full no-trade clause.
Armstrong said he’ll talk to Steen about the future plans for those two players.
“They’re both excellent NHL hockey players,” Armstrong said. “They’ve been foundational players for this franchise for a long time. We just have to cement the direction we’re going to go.”
Keeping Binnington may be the plan
Like Thomas and Parayko, there’s been a lot of speculation about whether goalie Jordan Binnington has played his last game with the Blues. Like the other two players, he said he’ll have a conversation with Steen.
“For me, I’m a competitive goaltender, right?” said Binnington, who has one more season on his contract and holds a 14-team, no-trade clause. “For me, it’s just taking care of what’s in my control. It’s the same old story I give every time, but if I take care of what’s in my control, the rest will unfold.
“I will say, I believe in what Steener has in mind for this group. I’m excited about that and being part of a good, winning, successful hockey team is where I want to be. That’s something you just handle as it comes.”
Listening to Armstrong, it was hard not to take away that the Blues might want to hang onto Binnington to back up Joel Hofer.
“The NHL is a long season and you need two good goaltenders,” Armstrong said. “I think that that tandem can lead a team through dark times. Not every game is going to be great, but we have two goalies that can be great any given night and that gives us great opportunity.”
Kyrou wants to stay in St. Louis
Jordan Kyrou, who scored half as many goals this season (18) as in 2024-25, acknowledged that he didn’t put up the numbers he would’ve liked.
“As a group, when we get off to a tough start, it’s kind of just hard to bring it back and for everyone to kind of get going,” Kyrou said. “I’ll just reflect and try to focus on next year, coming in and having a great start and a competitive camp and get going.”
That’s what the Blues are hoping.
“You take the last three years, he’s a 30-goal scorer that had a bad year,” Armstrong said. “He’s in a time of his career where he wants to be successful and how he’s going to go about doing that is something that he’s going to have to wrestle with (Montgomery) and (Steen) on making sure this doesn’t happen again.
“If you’re going to play in this league for 15-16 years, like he could, not every year is going to be a Rembrandt. But if I’m him, I’m excited to get up tomorrow morning to go to work and prove to everybody that the 2025-26 season was an aberration and that’s not going to happen again. I believe that’s what he will do.”
Kyrou, who also has a full no-trade clause, said Saturday he wants to stay with the Blues.
“I’ve loved my time here in St. Louis,” Kyrou said. “The team has been amazing to me. I love the city. I love playing here. We’ve got a lot of good, young players coming in right now and there’s a really great future coming up here for this team.”
Holloway’s health a factor with contract
Holloway, who will be a restricted free agent this summer, sounded as if he would’ve signed a long-term contract with the Blues on Saturday.
“I’m very thankful to be a Blue and I want to be a Blue for a long time,” he said. “So it’s exciting, but it’s kind of out of my hands. It’s up to my agent and ‘Army’ and ‘Steener.’ But I’m confident that we can get something done.”
Armstrong didn’t sound opposed to that, but was clear that Holloway needs to stay healthy for an extended stretch of time before the Blues can commit to a long-term deal.
“Dylan Holloway has to prove to himself and the league that he’s an 82-game player to that level that he played at the end,” Armstrong said. “I think he is, but what I think is really irrelevant — it’s what he does. That’s just an honest answer that we need consistent, 82-game play.”
Hiring new assistants will be a process
The Blues announced Friday that they will not be renewing the contracts of assistant coaches Claude Julien and Mike Weber.
Armstrong said Saturday that the Blues will begin the search for their replacements by making a checklist of what the team needs.
“We’ll come up with the criteria that’s needed before the names,” Armstrong said. “What I don’t want to do is just start throwing out names. I want to find out what we want and then what names fit that — more than just putting a guy in here because he’s got a name and hope it works out.”
Montgomery, of course, will have a heavy say.
“We’re going to need someone that has high energy,” he said. “You’re going to need someone that’s a cerebral thinker. But the most important thing is that they’re intelligent and they teach. They know how to teach defensemen how to pivot the right way, stick on puck.
“That’s what I’m going to be looking for — some specialties in coaches that are going to be able to come in and make our players individually better and understand the team concept in those things that they do and why it’s important to get them to habitually do it.”
Captaincy may not be filled
With Schenn being dealt to the New York Islanders, the Blues have a vacancy with the ‘C.’
As with everything else, filling that role will come after a conversation between management and Montgomery.
“I don’t think it’s necessary to have a captain if you don’t have a captain and I don’t know if we do or not,” Montgomery said. “I don’t think we necessarily have to have one next year. Boston hasn’t had one this year and they’re a playoff team and significantly improved. Now if you think you have the right person, you should name a captain. That’s the way I feel about it.”
Blues may trade up in draft
Before the Olympic break, the Blues had the second-lowest point total in the NHL, which at that time would’ve earned them the No. 2 overall pick in the draft. However, they went 17-5-3 in the final 25 games, so their own selection will be No. 11.
“Once the season is over, you wish you had the high pick,” Armstrong said. “I did talk to the players after the trade deadline and I told them, ‘We’re going to bring up younger players and put them in positions that reflect what we want to see from them. We have a plan and your job is to disrupt the plan,’ and they did. Yeah, we could have picked No. 2 or 3, but there would be less belief in our group if we had just rolled over and got door-matted the last seven weeks of the season.”
The Blues will also have the No. 15 pick in the draft, which they got from the Detroit Red Wings in the Justin Faulk trade. They’ll have a third first-rounder, too, from the New York Islanders, but that pick is via the Colorado Avalanche, so it will be slotted where the Avs finish.
Armstrong acknowledged the possibility of trading up.
“Yes, we would — we can use the picks, we can use prospects, we can use players,” he said. “We’ll give it our best chance. But you also have to have someone that wants to move out of that pick and that’s where the fly in the ointment sometimes comes in.”
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