It’s NEVER been more clear…

It’s NEVER been more clear…

It has never been more clear the direction the St. Louis Blues are heading in. After Doug Armstrong spoke to the media, revealing key updates surrounding trades and even more on this team, we finally get a clear picture on what the St. Louis Blues plans are heading not only into the Olympic break, but into this year’s trade deadline. We have so much to break down, including quotes coming from Doug Armstrong himself. But before we get into that, I just want to give a huge thank you and a sincere shout out to everyone that helped us reach 5,000 subscribers. We’re going to continue spamming you guys with daily updates around the St. Louis Blues. So, if you haven’t subbed yet, make sure to go down and hit that. And once again, thank you so much. But Darius, with this team, we know they’ve struggled quite a bit. We’ve seen Doug Armstrong do his sitdown interview with a lot of the media. And he goes in to say, “So, yeah, teams are starting to kick tires and we’re starting to ask where we’re at.” And we’re saying, “We’re currently not pleased with where we are. What are your ideas?” Now, with this, the St. Louis Blues of course are sitting 25th in the NHL at the current moment, fourth worst. When looking at point percentage, this is a team that is severely underdoing what we expected going into the year after the playoff run. And we can see Doug continue on. If it made sense today, we would do it today. But a lot of it, well, I’m not there yet, but keep me in the loop. They’re sitting at the table from when we’re actually going to do it. Now, with the two quotes, teams are calling. Doug Armstrong is asking the teams, “What do you want to do? Where do you want to go with this?” And saying that they’re actively sitting at the table and waiting till they do it, not if they do it. What is your thoughts on just Doug Armstrong just admitting that they’re looking at every available option and it seems like a trade is imminent at some point? >> Well, I feel like there is some validation for fans that at least the GM is looking at this and going, “This isn’t good enough.” Instead of being delusional and saying, “Yeah, don’t worry. We’ll get some guys back from injury and then we’ll go on a bit of a run here and we’ll make the playoffs again.” No, all the fans can see it. There’s something wrong with this team. This has not been the results they’re looking for. And Doug Armstrong has come out and said, “Yeah, we are not good and we’re going to make some changes.” And I think that again it just gives some validation to fans and makes them feel maybe a little bit better that at least they’re not going to come out and try and gaslight you and be like, “Yeah, no, no, no. We’re fine. We’re fine.” So they’re not doing that. We also know how Doug Armstrong operates and this is exactly what he’s doing right now. He’s putting some feelers out, right? We we know in the past, you know, he’s done the Braden Shen could be available and then he’ll look around and be like, “Who who said that?” Right? Or, you know, Jordan Kyu, he could be he could be had for the right price. Oh, who said that? Right? He throws these feelers out there in the league that then, you know, you see all these rumors because there’s been feelers thrown out there and he likes to get an idea of what other teams would pay for these players. If it’s Kyu, if it’s Shen and another player I want to mention in a little bit that, you know, we haven’t really talked about that I think could be at the forefront of trade talks as well. But, uh, he throws these feelers out and then other teams come to him. Yeah, we, you know, he could be had for this price. We we we would be willing to part with these pieces for that. and then he can kind of gather everything in his mind, gather everything that’s on the table, go out and make the right trade. Now, in terms of timing, he’s also given us an update on that. And I think that it does actually make a lot of sense that he’s going to wait a little bit. I don’t think this is going to come down right away. If they’re making a significant move, it’s not going to happen right away. You’re going to have to sit through what this Blues team is for a little while longer, but that doesn’t mean that they’re not starting to think of what the future’s going to look like and what these trades are going to be, and that changes are definitely coming. And I think the big thing is too, listen, there’s two ways to look at this. We’ve seen Doug say that a lot of teams don’t want to make a trade, especially in the Olympic years because going into this, you don’t want to have against your cap another player when you can wait till trade deadline, the cap smaller, and of course, you might have to pay a higher premium. But the big thing with this and the two minds, you can look at this. The Blues came off a big win last night. We’ve seen Jordan Bennington stand up. Well, this whole team really just stood up in a sense where you beat the Winnipeg Jets going in with a one- nothing win. But this is a team that we’ve seen turn it around. So waiting after the Olympic break, you have the chance to go out there, maybe turn things around and don’t make a trade. But if you wait till the Olympics as well, and you continue sucking, more teams are going to be buying. So it puts you in the position to go out and maybe get someone with a bigger or smaller capit traded at that point. Now looking at the team, Robert Thomas of course leading this team at the current moment and one guy right behind it which no one could have bet it that Justin Faulk would be second on this team in scoring Darius I know you just alluded to it one player we haven’t spoke on and with Justin Faulk’s production playing a second pairing role a right-handed defensive which is a premium on this open market do you think teams that lost out on the Quinn Hugh sweepstake or someone that’s going after Rasmus Anderson that loses that maybe Justin Faulk is the consolation consolation prize and the value could be through the roof come deadline. >> Yeah, we didn’t talk about him in our last couple videos. We’ve been talking about Kyu because the rumors have been out there. We’ve been talking about Shen because the rumors are out there. I think even Buchad could be had at this point if they want to go younger and I want to talk about, you know, the team getting younger because we saw a flash of what that might look like yesterday and it looked pretty good, especially with some of the ice time and how that was allotted from Jim Montgomery. But, uh, Justin Faulk, I think, should be at the forefront of that list as well. We haven’t mentioned him. He’s a right shot defenseman like you talked about. Uh you know he can put up a lot of points. There’s a lot of teams that wanted Quinn Hughes didn’t get Quinn Hughes. There’s a lot of teams we’ve heard since that trade went down want Rasmus Anderson. If they don’t get Rasmus Anderson they might want a Justin Faulk. He could be had and he could be one of the hottest commodities in the league. A right shot defenseman that can put up points. So uh he’s a little bit older. Maybe you do start to move off of him. Logan Mayu’s, you know, hopefully going to fill that role at some point for this team. So I think you’re okay with moving off of him. I think that he’s another piece that could be moved. And in talking about, you know, Buchad, a couple of these other guys, even guys who were injured, we’ll get to that in a second, too. Uh they could be had as well because like we seen yesterday, you just signed somebody to a contract. You just uh claimed somebody off waiverss and you just called somebody up from Springfield in Stenberg that hasn’t played in the NHL yet, and they probably look like your best players last night in a one- nothing win. And you know, we know where this team is going at this point. your players that you just signed, you just brought up, they’re your best players. You only won one- nothing. Every win that you get, you’re just scraping by. Every loss is a blowout. We know what this team is at this point, right? So, they are maybe a little bit worse than mid at this point. So, uh we know the direction they’re going in. We know that there’s going to be some changes coming. It’s just a matter of when and who exactly, but we do have an idea of when because of Doug Armstrong’s comments and that it’s probably going to be some of the older players like Abukstad, maybe even Braden Shen, could be Kyu. That one’s going to be a little bit harder to pull off, I think. And then obviously Justin Faulk as well. >> And I think the big thing is looking at the capit on this team, you have a lot of guys locked up to term. We know the three-headed monster when it comes to the capit. Of course, BC is not a part of the top of the team, but this is a team that has a lot of contracts locked up. You have young guys that you want to retain and build around. He said this himself that guys like Snugru, Jake Neighbors, they want to get to that age where you’re in your mid or low 20s when you’re looking at guys you want to add and inject into this lineup. So, it’s going to get interesting. This is a team that of course has the first round pick. Thank god they did not trade that during their run last year. They have a third. They don’t have a second. They have multiple fifths. This is a team that’s going to go out and maybe land someone like Gavin McKenna or Steenberg, Otto’s younger brother that is dominating in the SHL. Darius, do you think going out real quickly and getting one of these young guys, Gavin McKenna, Steenborg, or someone else could be the complete momentum shift of this team when you look at the youth movement? >> Yeah, I mean there this team is not notorious and it’s no surprise for signing like bigname free agents, right? So, you’re going to have to build your team not necessarily through the draft. They have to be smart with free agency signings as well. But to get a big name like that, like somebody who could come in and be the next face of the franchise, I mean, that would be huge, right? So, uh I’m not saying too tank at this point. I’m not like putting on the tank uh you know, the helmet or anything like that like some other people do. I’m not doing that yet, but I do think we know the direction that this team is going. You have to be smart about the next couple of moves. I’m not looking that far because again, you could finish last and there’s still a draft lottery. You might not even get it. Look at last year with the Islanders, right? So, I’m not going that far, but I do think you have to start looking towards, you know, how do we be smart about this? Can we get something for some of these players that we signed to contracts that are a little bit older and then start handing off the keys to guys like Stenberg that, you know, they already have the the older brother in the system and obviously D’Vorski looks pretty good. Like, we know that he’s winning board battles and stuff like that even in last night’s game in a tight game. So, um you know, maybe you start moving in that direction. And the last thing I want to mention too in terms of injuries, uh, obviously the Blues are dealing with a lot of them as you can see here, but there’s a couple of guys nearing a return, Buchad is nearing a return as well. And from, uh, you know, Vince Marco and Lou, who we, you know, use on the channel all the time, his coverage of the Blues is fantastic. They’re at the morning skate this morning because obviously the Rangers are playing the Blues. And Jordan Kyu, Jimmy Snugru, and Nathan Walker on the ice and they’re getting some work in. So, it looks like they’re nearing a return, which is good news for the Blues because it’s hard to first of all trade players who are injured and second of all, you could use some of these guys back in the lineup as soon as possible if you are actually trying to win games. So, some good news on that front, too. But fans, what is your thoughts on this? Go down, leave your comments down below. While you’re down there, leave a like, subscribe, share this with your friends. We’ll be back another episode. So, keep your eye for that. But, I’ve been your host Mark with my co-host. And listen, thank you once again for 5,000. And we’re going to continue giving you guys content for the

The St. Louis Blues General Manager, Doug Armstrong spoke to the media revealing key updates on where this team stands, trade updates and where they are going after a disappointing start to the season. Mark Pye and Darius Domingues break down all this and more on this episode of Blues Digest.

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Blues Digest is a YouTube channel dedicated to covering all the latest news, trades, reports, and rumors about the St. Louis Blues. We provide in-depth coverage of game highlights, player performances, and analysis of team strategies. Our channel features discussions on key players like Robert Thomas, Jordan Kyrou, Pavel Buchnevich, and Jordan Binnington, along with insights from Head Coach Jim Montgomery and General Manager Doug Armstrong. Stay tuned for all the exciting updates and engaging content on everything Blues!

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