Blow it up.I hate watching this team now.
Blow it up.
Outside observer and neutral fan, I’ve followed stlouis pretty closely since they’re cup run. I regard Doug armstrong a top 10 likely top 5 GM in the league. It’s almost impossible to bat 1.000 as a gm in the nhl under a cap system. It’s kind of like baseball, you hit one out of 3 pitches as a baseball and your a hall of fame.
here is my critique:
drafting under Armstrong looks strong AF:
- Snuggerud, Neighbours, bokk (helped you get Faulk), R.Thomas and T.Thompson (helped you get RoR)
Trades
- Schenn trade was good, Buchnevich trade was awesome. I don’t see any glaring bad trades maybe small losses
Signings
- had to let go of Piet he was outbid by Vegas, I didn’t like the 3rd contract to binnington 6x6 as typically goalies decline fast once they get that 3rd contract but your in a bind when he helped you get a cup. hard to fault D.A. The kyrou and Thomas contracts seem overpriced based on play atm, but based on the seasons they had last year and they’re importance moving forward as key players, the contracts seem appropriate to me. Some onus lies on the players here to deliver.
D.A. Managed to put out the Tarasenko fire of wanting to be traded and retain a productive winger.
in conclusion he has done a very good job imho. He has made mistakes but like I mentioned above some mistakes are unavoidable.
I hate watching this team now.
Blow it up.
Same. Very unlikeable team. I supported losing years worse than this because the team was likeable. This team is not that.I hate watching this team now.
Blow it up.
If covid did not happen, that team probably wins the west in all honesty. Why the league decided to resume the season 6 months later is beyond stupid and the bubble was boring hockey.I was thinking about team trajectory since the Cup win in 18/19. I can't say it has been all downhill. But the window is pretty much closed.
18/19 - Cup
19/20 - Started well, JBo illness, COVID, bubble playoffs, the team was ILL PREPARED, Petro leaves
20/21 - Playoff loss in 1st round to COL??? Tank wants OUT.
21/22 - High scoring season, sign Leddy, playoff loss in 2nd round to COL. Binny got hurt and COL was very good. No shame. Best season since the Cup win.
22/23 - Perron not re-signed, Leddy signed, big contracts for 18 and 25. Bipolar season start. Team psyche is fragile like an egg. Misery. I hate watching this team right now.
lol. hes completely jeopardized our future and in the present he ruined team chemistry by dumpster diving and shafting perron
this dude needs to be fired.
Absolutely agree with this.he ruined team chemistry
Also, reflecting back over this time period, i can't remember another general manager who dismantled the roster of a cup team quite so fast and methodically. Our current roster is a shadow of the 18/19 cup run.I was thinking about team trajectory since the Cup win in 18/19. I can't say it has been all downhill. But the window is pretty much closed.
18/19 - Cup
19/20 - Started well, JBo illness, COVID, bubble playoffs, the team was ILL PREPARED, Petro leaves
20/21 - Playoff loss in 1st round to COL??? Tank wants OUT.
21/22 - High scoring season, sign Leddy, playoff loss in 2nd round to COL. Binny got hurt and COL was very good. No shame. Best season since the Cup win.
22/23 - Perron not re-signed, Leddy signed, big contracts for 18 and 25. Bipolar season start. Team psyche is fragile like an egg. Misery. I hate watching this team right now.
Also, reflecting back over this time period, i can't remember another general manager who dismantled the roster of a cup team quite so fast and methodically. Our current roster is a shadow of the 18/19 cup run.
Your right Xerloris, DA had nothing to do with our current situation:Ya man, I can't believe Armstrong forced Jbo to have a heart attack and retire, then he forced Steen to get a back injury and retire, then he forced Gunnerson to get a knee injury and retire, then he forced Bozak to get f***ing old and useless and retire and then he told AP that we were not going to even offer him the biggest contract in team history and to go f*** himself in free agency. f*** that guy for doing all of that to this team.
I'm going to say this as someone who both agrees and disagrees with decisions Army has made.Your right Xerloris, DA had nothing to do with our current situation:
Alex Petrangelo - #1 D-man, walks for nothing
Joel Edmundson - #3 D-man, traded to Car. with a first
Vince Dunn - #3 D-man given to the Kraken
Pat Maroon - 4th line grinder - heart & soul guy - Let walk for nothing - won two more cups
David Perron - 1st line sniper - Let walk for nothing
Zach Sanford - Traded for Brown who is a waste of ice time (and shouldn't have a spot on an NHL roster)
Jaden Swartz - Top 6 forward - Let walk for nothing
And here is the thing that gets me. When looking at UFA's that he let walk, there wasn't much salary difference or term difference in price/years. And DA made other moves that could have covered the difference. Also, I didn't want to give Petro a FNT but when you hand them out like candy to lesser or inferior players, i got a problem with that. All these moves / non-moves did not work out in our favor.
100%.I wouldn't fire Armstrong. I think people are forgetting that our cup win came at the tail end of our window, not the start. We were an older team that won a cup then correctly made compete-now decisions. I don't like that AP wasn't resigned, but we all have our opinions about that. We were doubling down on an older core right as covid stalled the cap. Now we're at the end of that window and need to adjust, and I think that was inevitable by now no matter who was running things. Despite all this, we've still been drafting and developing well and we haven't been dealing 1st round picks every year for half-solutions. I also look around the league and see a lot of incompetence from a lot of front offices. Who would we all even feel happy with as a replacement for Army?
The normal cycle is for teams to suck, get better via the draft and extra cap space, commit cap money to the better players while contending, then regress as those players get older and the draft picks get later/traded. No team is immune to this and firing a successful GM because older players on big contracts are finally regressing is a mistake IMO. Especially when that GM has been doing well adding young players with late 1st round picks.
The only teams that contend nearly every year for a decade have multiple future HoFers on their roster. Army made us one of those teams, and got us a cup, with Pietro being the closest thing we had to a HoFer. My preference would be to give him a chance to do some rebuilding rather than someone else. Lots of GMs can't even get the suck and improve through the draft part right.
I have been highly critical of several Armstrong decisions. I have been very concerned about how he left Dallas in a huge hole. I am still concerned about that. I have never wanted him fired though. He definitely earned a ton of slack for the cup win.
However, given where we are now, he has to have a short leash. He has never needed to fully rebuild, or severely retool a team. He is great at pushing a good team to great. He is unparralleled at extending the window of a good team. However, those type of moves eventually catch up to you. He left Dallas in a piss poor stater by doing so. I am very, very worried about what he does with this team.
We are not a good team that needs a little push to become great. We are an ok team that is too severely flawed to become great without a serious re-working. I have never seen Army do that. He has earned his chance to try, but we have to be mindful of the possibility that it just isn't in his skillset to do so. I don't want to give him 3-4 years to dig us into a deep hole because he won the cup once here.