Doug Armstrong on the trade deadline: “Why we didn’t get assets for certain things? That’s a legitimate question, and quite honestly, we weren’t offered.”

18 comments

1. [Armstrong on the Blues assets not holding value around the league: “It is what it is. I want to be respectful to all the players, there’s 20% of the league and then there’s a lot of similar-type players. There’s an affection for some and not for others.](https://x.com/mdefranks/status/1766233115964416118?s=46&t=Xn0juU2C4hEaElfmeGb4jQ)[Part of it, too, is we haven’t played very good the last two weeks when people are watching. So if you have an opportunity to acquire a player that you’ve seen play three or four really good games, whatever role you’re looking for](https://x.com/mdefranks/status/1766233117419847839?s=46&t=Xn0juU2C4hEaElfmeGb4jQ) [you’re more likely to give him a positive report. I’m not saying that the guys you’re asking about are playing poor. As an organization, we have played poor. You sort of get sucked into the drain with everybody else.”](https://x.com/mdefranks/status/1766233119521136762?s=46&t=Xn0juU2C4hEaElfmeGb4jQ)

2. Damn, gotta make you feel great about the organization and the way the league thinks about our players.

3. “How come he don’t want me, man?”

4. Lol Can’t tell what hurts the players mindsets more. Getting picked off at the trade deadline or being so unnoticeable that nobody wants you enough to even extend an offer. If I were them I’d be checked out and just collecting my (too high) AAV $$. Which is to say, I’m not as mad at them for phoning it in at times.

5. After watching the last 10 games, I totally understand the lack of interest.

6. Part of me says this is absolutely true and part of me says this is a shot across the bow that these guys get their shit together and have some trade value this summer.

7. cool cool cool awesome

8. Best answer you can give.

9. Lolololololololol this is the most pathetic quote I’ve ever seen

10. Good work signing those albatross contracts you clown

11. So who is responsible for these under valued contracts?

12. It is time to move on from Army. He is overrated and people will continually give him a pass because he won a cup when the reality is he has poorly managed assets, relationships, and blew up a Stanley cup team.

13. Whelp. Buckle up, everyone. It’s gonna be a looonngg rebuild

14. The whole league is getting wise to the fact that trade deadline moves are (outside of maybe landing a top goaltender or a stay-at-home defenseman) usually not worth it. Hockey is a game of team chemistry, and bringing in a new guy just before the playoffs usually does not pan out in the short-term because there’s just not enough runway for them to get integrated into the new team’s style.

15. The team’s in a real bad spot. Before the season, I just wanted the team to make the playoffs so that we could trade aging assets in the offseason. Looks like that’s not gonna happen and that we’re gonna be stuck in the miserable middle for a long time and maybe have to rebuild after this.

    Hold onto your butts.

16. Cap constraints are at play here as well. Currently only 5 teams have more than 5m in cap room to play with, and you bet they know that when other teams approach them asking for them to retain on a deal.

    Buch is really the only player on the team worth anything that the team would even want to move that had a doable cap number (after retention). Seems like every year now there are teams playing with the LTIR mechanic to play cap gymnastics to make deals work.

17. In army’s defense, we didn’t really have the pending free agents to sell. Like who are our pending free agents? Scandella? I don’t think he’s as bad as a lot of people seem to around here, but who’s gonna trade for him and think he’s going to put them over the top for a cup run? No one. And they’re definitely not giving up anything for him. And we don’t need the extra cap space this season.

    There is something very fundamentally wrong with this team. Like they regularly get dominated in certain areas of the game. Sometimes I wonder how they were even able to win a game, much less be a .500 team. Like we constantly get hemmed in our zone while the other team passes and skates circles around us. Then when we do get the puck, we can’t break out and take it to the offensive zone without turning it over most of the time. Then on the rare occasion that we get it in the offensive zone, the other team usually takes the puck away from us so easily and cleanly breaks out up the ice and into our zone. Like we’re severely lacking in fundamentals, or just constantly get beat in puck battles or basic “mano a mano” battles.

    Obviously these guys are in the nhl for a reason, but this team has a serious problem right now. I’m not sure if anyone knows what the problem is exactly, but I’m pretty sure that no one knows how to “fix” it.

    Some people on the radio were saying that this team needs to make some major changes in the offseason. How can they do that? We’re stuck with these guys. No one else wants them. Or, the few guys other teams would want are the few guys we want to keep. When it rains it pours, and the forecast looks grimm.

18. So Berube got fired because he couldn’t coach players that no other team in the NHL has any interest in aquiring. Well that sounds reasonable.