The NHL Trade Deadline came and went on Friday, and St. Louis Blues General Manager Doug Armstrong decided to stand pat.
“I thought there might be a little activity, but we were very quiet, quite honestly, the whole time,” Armstrong said. “When you’re (being) heavily scouted the last couple of weeks before the Trade Deadline and we haven’t played very good, it takes a little bit more fortitude for a pro scout to recommend (acquiring) someone. We were coming out of the All-Star break hoping to maybe add a piece at some point. We won two games, and quite honestly, the bottom fell out. We were to listening to potentially adding but weren’t going to go too crazy.
“We charted a course at least year’s Trade Deadline, and we’re going to stay on that course,” Armstrong added. “We’re going to try and acquire assets, try and stay competitive in the NHL. And the waters are going to be turbulent. They were early in the year, they smoothed out for six or seven weeks, and now they’re choppy again. The overall goal is to have a plan for the future, a plan for today. What we weren’t going to do was use some of those assets that we gained last year to use this year unless we were a contending team — and we weren’t — so we weren’t in that type of market.”
Bally Sports’ John Kelly interviewed Armstrong soon after the deadline passed. Watch the complete interview below.
