Inside look at St. Louis Blues

NHL.com is providing in-depth roster, prospect and fantasy analysis for each of its 32 teams from Aug. 1-Sept. 1. Today, the St. Louis Blues.

The St. Louis Blues are not deviating from a multiyear plan of building from within and doing so with a younger core group, but they will be doing it with a shift in the management group.

Doug Armstrong stepped aside as general manager July 1, a post he has held since 2010, and in the role now is former Blues forward Alexander Steen. Armstrong, who now works as president of hockey operations. had spent the past two years preparing Steen for his new role.

"Hockey's been my biggest passion since I was young," said Steen, who won the Stanley Cup as a player with St. Louis in 2019. "I've always seen hockey being a part of my life but was unsure what that would look like after my (playing) career. ... I knew that I wanted to have it part of my life after I retired. I'm extremely passionate about the St. Louis Blues.

"... Quite simply put, we want to be a hockey team. We want to conduct ourselves and operate like a hockey team. Team comes first obviously. We want to be competitive, we want to have a blue-collar ethic. I think that's a staple here in St. Louis. I think that's something that our fans and our community really connects with well.

"When I look at successful hockey teams, they compete all over the ice in all three zones. Five guys attack, five guys defend, and it goes quick. You play with pace, execution at a high level. What I do think is one of the more important elements to a team is conditioning, both physical conditioning and mental conditioning. Got to have that engine."

The Blues, who went 37-33-12 and missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the third time in four seasons, are looking to get back there again in what will be a tough challenge going through the Central Division and Western Conference.

"I think we're a different team than the night before the last trade deadline," said Armstrong, who was 682-427-132 in 1,241 regular-season games as St. Louis GM. "I think we have a different element. We're a younger team, we have different assets. ... I think that what we've tried to do is make sure that we're being competitive to that core group starting with someone like (forward) Robert Thomas, who's been here. ... I believe he wants to see that we're trying to be competitive sooner than later and I'm hoping he and his teammates reflect that we expect to be back in that competitive position.

"The difference between last year and this year is we expect to be back in that competitive position with younger players than the veteran players that we wanted to replicate that short window from. This group is not replicating anything. They're creating their own thing."

St. Louis has been focused on acquiring players in the early to mid-20s age range to join to its plethora of young first-round picks. The Blues added 23-year-old forward Mason McTavish in a trade with the Anaheim Ducks on June 26, for two first-round picks in the 2026 NHL Draft, and three days earlier acquired 25-year-old forward Connor McMichael, 19-year-old forward prospect Milton Gastrin and the No. 16 pick in the 2026 draft for forward Jordan Kyrou, 28, the Blues' leading goal scorer from 2022-25 (104 goals in 243 games).

"The way this business works, you do it today and you get back and you try and do it again tomorrow," Armstrong said. "I think we've added NHL young players in that age bracket. That was important. If you go back to the trade deadline and you look at the assets ... what has gone out and what has come back in and the age of what has come back in, I think you would have to say whether you like the plan or you agree with the plan, it is a plan and we stayed within the plan.

"... For a team like St. Louis, it's important to get players that we can grow and build with."

The Blues also added a veteran presence on defense in acquiring 29-year-old Brandon Carlo in a trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs on June 27 for two third-round picks in the 2026 draft.

"We’re excited that he’s got size (6-foot-5, 227 pounds) and length, his ability to kill plays, his experience I think," Armstrong said of Carlo. "It allows us to have four experienced players right now (on defense) in (Philip) Broberg, (Colton) Parayko, (Cam) Fowler and Carlo now, and then we have those younger guys that are going to push and prod and try to work their way in there (Logan Mailloux, Theo Lindstein, Adam Jiricek)."

Coach Jim Montgomery has two new assistants after Claude Julien and Mike Weber were not brought back; the Blues added former Ducks coach Greg Cronin, who was coach of Iowa of the American Hockey League last season, along with Vaclav Prospal, who was an assistant coach with Rochester of the American Hockey League the past three seasons.

"Greg is a skilled teacher of defensive habits and the penalty kill with experience as a head coach and assistant that will benefit our vets and young elites equally," Montgomery said. "'Vinny' brings a creative offensive mind honed by his success as a player on the power play and 5-on-5, providing valuable expertise to our forward group and power play."