Confirmed with Link: Steen to be GM in 2026

[Stupendous Yappi]

This is extremely well written and puts so many of my thoughts into word.

I listened to the press conference and it alleviated some of my concerns. I'm glad they have a plan to train him in areas he is weak. I'm glad they gave a plan to potentially transition Army out, so Steen's not just a puppet GM. I'm glad Army will be there for next 5 years which are critical to the franchise as opposed to having Steen alone in 2 years

That said, I agree with Celtic's concerns wholeheartedly. Steen is inexperienced. All the positives people are sighting do nit gurantee success like experience and success does. There was no reason to announce it or time table it like they did.

I truly do think people are blinded by his time here as a player. That's fine. It's fine to be excited by his potential. But I don't get how somene can completely ignore the criticism of his lack of experience.

When I look at the list of ‘experienced’ GMs that could be candidates, I get a list of guys that are either successful where they are (and probably not truly available) or guys who have failed to some degree (maybe mixed with periods of success).

Steen doesn’t have that baggage, or a developed method we can extrapolate. I think if him as an Armstrong protege. I agree there is downside. But if I start to compare Steen with an actual name of an experienced GM who might be available, there is plenty of downside there too.
Would you rather have Dubas? Chiarelli?

If Bill Armstrong were a candidate to jump over, would you prefer him? He’s still largely unproven. Asset acquisition phase of a rebuild is easy compared with taking the final steps to round out a contending roster.

I don’t think Steen’s negatives are a concern, due to the way Armstrong will be there to mentor him.

 

[Brian39]

My only concern (a small one) is if this will cause a few hurt feelings from others in the org that have put in a lot of years for Steen to jump in inexperienced and get the big job.

My impression is that Ryan Miller has a huge amount of respect and loyalty toward Armstrong.

Army hired him into the Blues front office when Miller was just a year out of law school. Miller worked at a small hockey agency in his last year of law school, spend a year there after graduating and then became Army's 'contract guy' for the Blues. I wouldn't say it was some huge risk by Army or anything like that, but it was definitely a great career opportunity for a young lawyer with little professional experience. He has risen through the ranks here all the way up to being one of the very top guys for an NHL organization.

All that said, Miller has been a 'business side' guy through and through. He appears to know the hockey side, but his primary skillset is CBA/contract/arbitration/negotiation work. Honestly, if the plan is to permanently follow the separate GM + President of Hockey Operations model that is spreading around the league, he strikes me as a better candidate for President of Hockey Ops. I wouldn't be shocked if he gets a look at that job over Steen when Army steps away.

All things considered, I'm not sure that this really closes a door on Miller. It might create a road block, but I see a path to him still having 1 more promotion in this organization even if Steen is here for the long haul.

I don't know what it means for Taylor, but he did get a promotion too yesterday and I'm not sure that Stillman has a ton of interest in the scout-to-GM progression.

 

[bleedblue1223]

And there are certainly former players where it was obvious it was never actually going to work. Gretzky is always cited as an example of high hockey IQ or ability doesn't translate to coaching or management. He's also just way too nice of a person to do it. He was almost too advanced of a mind to coach players lesser than him, but I think people should've seen that he's personality wasn't a great fit. Hull as another example was always going to be a terrible GM in Dallas, for reasons that I don't think we really need to go into. He's a guy that should be in front of fans and corporate sponsors, but he also doesn't have the personality for coaching or management.

 

[Reality Czech]

When I look at the list of ‘experienced’ GMs that could be candidates, I get a list of guys that are either successful where they are (and probably not truly available) or guys who have failed to some degree (maybe mixed with periods of success).

Steen doesn’t have that baggage, or a developed method we can extrapolate. I think if him as an Armstrong protege. I agree there is downside. But if I start to compare Steen with an actual name of an experienced GM who might be available, there is plenty of downside there too.
Would you rather have Dubas? Chiarelli?

If Bill Armstrong were a candidate to jump over, would you prefer him? He’s still largely unproven. Asset acquisition phase of a rebuild is easy compared with taking the final steps to round out a contending roster.

I don’t think Steen’s negatives are a concern, due to the way Armstrong will be there to mentor him.

Just listening to Spittin Chiclets and Matt Murley (who lives in Sweden) was talking about how he's become close to Steen in the past couple of years and said Steen's basically been running a team over there in Sweden. I think it's safe to say he's been getting prepped for this opportunity for some time now. Murls said Steen had been traveling back and forth from STL and meeting with Army a lot, so he should have known something was up.

 

[STL fan in MN]

Just listening to Spittin Chiclets and Matt Murley (who lives in Sweden) was talking about how he's become close to Steen in the past couple of years and said Steen's basically been running a team over there in Sweden. I think it's safe to say he's been getting prepped for this opportunity for some time now. Murls said Steen had been traveling back and forth from STL and meeting with Army a lot, so he should have known something was up.

Yes, Steen’s been the Sports Manager of HC Sundsvall the last 3 years. They play in HockeyEttan, one level below HockeyAllsvenskan.

I can only assume Sports Manager over there is similar to being a GM. Not a super high level but he’s been doing that and then added working for the Blues on top of it this season.

 

[Spektre]

I don't think a succession plan is generally a good idea. Anyone remember the succession plan of Mike Yeo?

 

[SirPaste]

I don't think a succession plan is generally a good idea. Anyone remember the succession plan of Mike Yeo?

Meh apples to oranges. I remember the Pleau to Army succession plan, that worked out pretty well

 

[Spektre]

Meh apples to oranges. I remember the Pleau to Army succession plan, that worked out pretty well

It was pretty much impossible for Army to do a worse job than Pleau.

 

[STL fan in MN]

Meh apples to oranges. I remember the Pleau to Army succession plan, that worked out pretty well

I’d agree. It’s a good idea if you pick someone good. It’s a bad idea if you pick someone bad.*

*Today’s business advice brought to you by Captain Obvious

 

[BlueDream]

It was pretty much impossible for Army to do a worse job than Pleau.

Don’t think that is fair to Pleau. He certainly wasn’t a terrible GM and kept the team competitive.

Anyone absolutely could have done a worse job than him pretty easily.

 

[TK 421]

I've dreaded this announcement for a long time but now that it's here I'm not worried as much as I am sad to know that this era is coming to an end. Actually......I'm still incredibly worried about anybody else steering this ship but the uncertainty spices things up a bit. I'm left with a feeling of gratitude for what Doug has done here in St. Louis even if I haven't agreed with every decision he's made during his long(and continuing) run with the Blues.

I have zero idea of how Steen will do in the GM role, he gets a couple seasons with Doug to figure it out though so fingers crossed.

 

[ezcreepin]

When I look at the list of ‘experienced’ GMs that could be candidates, I get a list of guys that are either successful where they are (and probably not truly available) or guys who have failed to some degree (maybe mixed with periods of success).

Steen doesn’t have that baggage, or a developed method we can extrapolate. I think if him as an Armstrong protege. I agree there is downside. But if I start to compare Steen with an actual name of an experienced GM who might be available, there is plenty of downside there too.
Would you rather have Dubas? Chiarelli?

If Bill Armstrong were a candidate to jump over, would you prefer him? He’s still largely unproven. Asset acquisition phase of a rebuild is easy compared with taking the final steps to round out a contending roster.

I don’t think Steen’s negatives are a concern, due to the way Armstrong will be there to mentor him.

I don't cringe like others when I think of the situation at hand. Dubas was groomed to be GM for 3 years, and despite how others may feel about it, he did a pretty damn good job in Toronto all things considered. He might be less shrewd at knocking down numbers for a contract, but it's foolish to say he did a bad job when this iteration of the Leafs is by far the best team they've ever had, and it was built by Dubas. The biggest trait Dubas had going was generally how intelligent he was and his ability to scout well to surround the cast. He got handcuffed a bit with how many large contracts he had, so there's a knock on him for that.

As far as Steen is concerned, we've heard for a while now that Steen is primed to take on a manager role. I think he has the character to do it when I think of the interviews he would give after games. He seemed like the only player able to give clear answers and reflect on what happened during the game, and didn't sugar coat what he thought the issues were. Didn't have a filter in a media sense and didn't give the typical "hockey answers" when asked difficult questions. Personally, I think he's one of the most impressive players I've watched played the game. He never was particularly amazing at any one thing, but he managed to carve out important roles in every facet of his game. Could play wing and played center, dominant defensive forward, played pk and powerplay, scored 30 goals, multiple 20 goal seasons, scored over 60 points twice, prolific 50 point pace player, assistant captain, and at the end of his career took on a 4th line role because that's what the team needed. He's done and played every role you can imagine and has been scouting and managing in Sweden for a minute now. I'm sure there will be hiccups for a 1st time GM, but that's the benefit to having Armstrong on for the ride. I have a hard time seeing Steen fail miserably like some others, and I think his skillset and knowledge of team structure is too good to see him build a bad team. My hope is high for how well he can do.

 

[BrokenFace]

The fact is that it takes years to evaluate how someone is doing in a front office role. How long has Bill Armstrong been gone and we can't say he's good at anything except for the easy, first half of a rebuild. I'm rooting for Steen and glad he'll be around but I have no way of knowing how he'll perform as a GM and won't until he's been in the role for years. I'll say I think this is an ideal way to change GMs, by grooming them in a successful (even if that's debatable here right now) front office rather than firing one guy and hiring a new guy, which is the most common situation.

 

[Spektre]

Don’t think that is fair to Pleau. He certainly wasn’t a terrible GM and kept the team competitive.

Anyone absolutely could have done a worse job than him pretty easily.

Pleau was a nice guy with no idea how to be a GM. Spending money before the salary cap kept the team competitive.

One big glaring example of his incompetence was letting Hull walk for nothing. Both sides knew way before the trade deadline he wasn’t returning.

 

[A Real Barn Burner]

Pleau was a nice guy with no idea how to be a GM. Spending money before the salary cap kept the team competitive.

One big glaring example of his incompetence was letting Hull walk for nothing. Both sides knew way before the trade deadline he wasn’t returning.

True they should have traded Hull; the writing was on the wall as they say. However, Pleau was barely a year into his job at the time. Keep in mind this was after the craziness of the Keenan years with the Shanahan trade and Gretzky walking. The front office was trying to win back fans and didn’t want to trade another superstar and face of the team. Woodward was there trying to make Kiel center less like a Barbie dream house and more like a hockey arena. They spent half a million dollars ripping out all the pink seats in the lower bowl trying to get season ticket holders back.

I don’t know if Brett Hull had a NTC( I remember there was tons of speculation he would be traded after he was stripped of his “C” by Keenan) but logically Brett Hull had a no trade clause enforced by the Blues front office and marketing department. If Keenan was not able to trade Hull with all the press feuds and public spats the two of them had, how you can hold it against Pleau that he was not able to get permission to trade Hull is beyond me. Hull was untouchable here.

As far as Pleau’s tenure; well we had worse GMs lol! When you consider all the changes he went through here (multiple ownership changes, Pronger trade, lockout, the new Salary Cap, Tanking…etc…) it’s hard not to say he didn’t do a decent job. The choke job in the playoffs in 01-02 I can’t place fault on the GM for. I wish we would have drafted better in 06 but EJ was considered BPA and that’s all hindsight anyways.

His highest mark is he chose Armstrong to succeed him eventually bringing the Cup. Hopefully, Steen is just as successful if not more so! Although, I agree with a few here and wish they would have kept the succession plans private.

 

[Celtic Note]

I can understand your hesitation to fully embrace this move, I guess. The thing is, you never have experience until you have experience. You pick someone who has the background, ability and drive to undertake the required learning and execution of duty required for the position and you teach them the things they don't know and run them through the process until they understand and are ready to take the reins themselves. That's all that's going on here and DA and the ownership group have determined that they have full faith and confidence that Steen is that guy.

No one really knows if someone will succeed in a new area of work / life until they are thrown into it. A great example comes from my younger years where I was a very good engineering design guy and really good at communicating to people and talking through concepts and ideas and drafting from concept to reality. Someone in management thought it would be a good idea to make me a sale engineer and fly me all over the country to sell our product. lol. They couldn't have been more wrong!! A salesman, I am not. I had all the right attributes for what they wanted me to do but it didn't work at all.

All this being said, you never really know but I believe Steen can grow into a GM and it seems so does the front office. Lots of players have taken this path in the past. Some have met with success and some not so much. For every Wayne Gretsky you can name, I can give you a Steve Y. It's that simple. I 100% support giving Steener a try.

To clarify, I am not saying we shouldn’t give him a try. I think training him up is a smart move. I just don’t know that anointing him before he has truly begun is the best move.

I don’t disagree that you don’t have experience until you have it. A bit of a tangent here, but I have beaten the drum professionally that experience doesn’t mean a thing if you don’t do anything with it or if it isn’t the right experience. When people talk about years of experience, I just shrug internally. Did they do a lot in these years? Did they do extraordinary things? Did they help people become something greater? If they did, then awesome. If they didn’t, then all that experience didn’t mean a whole lot.

A person’s capabilities turn into their experiences and their experiences help them expand their capabilities.

But like your example, even talented people who seem alike good fits for different roles don’t always fill those roles well or they may just not like them when they see what it really entails.

The reason I would have liked to have Steen have more experience is so I could have a better read on his capabilities as a manager, because it is quite different then being a player. Maybe others feel differently, but being in leadership group for different teams I played on is much different then the managerial responsibilities I have now. Some skills are translatable, but there is a lot that is different between the two.

 

[Blueston]

To clarify, I am not saying we shouldn’t give him a try. I think training him up is a smart move. I just don’t know that anointing him before he has truly begun is the best move.

I don’t disagree that you don’t have experience until you have it. A bit of a tangent here, but I have beaten the drum professionally that experience doesn’t mean a thing if you don’t do anything with it or if it isn’t the right experience. When people talk about years of experience, I just shrug internally. Did they do a lot in these years? Did they do extraordinary things? Did they help people become something greater? If they did, then awesome. If they didn’t, then all that experience didn’t mean a whole lot.

A person’s capabilities turn into their experiences and their experiences help them expand their capabilities.

But like your example, even talented people who seem alike good fits for different roles don’t always fill those roles well or they may just not like them when they see what it really entails.

The reason I would have liked to have Steen have more experience is so I could have a better read on his capabilities as a manager, because it is quite different then being a player. May be other feel differently, but being in leadership group for different teams I played on is much different then the managerial responsibilities I have now. Some skills are translatable, but there is a lot that is different between the two.

I think having him anointed as GM-in-waiting rather than just the new guy changes how people view him, how they treat him. Around the league mostly, but in the building too. And that I think will ease his transition, imbue him with credibility because people will know he speaks for the team.

This is actually how many even larger businesses are run, where a successor is anointed and groomed well in advance of taking the top spot. I think many of us have been scarred by the Mike Yeo experience, but did that fail because of the process or because Yeo never became the quality of head coach we thought he could? It's not like anyone else has found a way to make Yeo a successful head coach.

This seems like a fantastic way to set up Steen (who many of us have long thought possessed potential to be a GM) with the best chance to succeed.

 

[ChicagoBlues]

I’ll betcha that Steen takes over a year sooner than expected.

 

[Davimir Tarablad]

I’ll betcha that Steen takes over a year sooner than expected.

Hard to imagine Army stepping out of the GM role a year early and plopping Steen into the deep end earlier than anticipated. It's even harder to imagine Army being fired after next season given he'll still have 4 more total years under contract.

 

[Majorityof1]

I think having him anointed as GM-in-waiting rather than just the new guy changes how people viewi him, how they treat him. Around the league mostly, but in the building too. And that I think will ease his transition, imbue him with credibility because people will know he speaks for the team.

This is actually how many even larger businesses are run, where a successor is anointed and groomed well in advance of taking the top spot. I think many of us have been scarred by the Mike Yeo experience, but did that fail because of the process or because Yeo never became the quality of head coach we thought he could? It's not like anyone else has found a way to make Yeo a successful head coach.

This seems like a fantastic way to set up Steen (who many of us have long thought possessed potential to be a GM) with the best chance to succeed.

Is being treated different because you were anointed better than having to go in and earn that respect because you are a capable leader?

I've worked for and with fortune 500 companies. They do not announce their new leaders 2 years in advance. Succession planning is not about pre-tabbing a candidate and locking in. It is about nurturing potential in multiple candidates and having a plan in place to choose and onboard the next leader when the time comes.

 

[Blueston]

Is being treated different because you were anointed better than having to go in and earn that respect because you are a capable leader?

I've worked for and with fortune 500 companies. They do not announce their new leaders 2 years in advance. Succession planning is not about pre-tabbing a candidate and locking in. It is about nurturing potential in multiple candidates and having a plan in place to choose and onboard the next leader when the time comes.

Steen has earned that respect over the past 15 years.

 

[kimzey59]

I’ll betcha that Steen takes over a year sooner than expected.

I seriously doubt that happens.
Having said that; I would not be at all surprised if he pulls off a few "unofficially orchestrated" trades/signings before he actually takes over(similar to Army with Halak), if only to get his feet wet in that arena.

 

[Majorityof1]

Blueston:

Steen has earned that respect over the past 15 years.

Also Blueston:

I think having him anointed as GM-in-waiting rather than just the new guy changes how people view him, how they treat him. Around the league mostly, but in the building too. And that I think will ease his transition, imbue him with credibility because people will know he speaks for the team.

Which is it? Did he need to be anointed GM-in-waiting rather than the new guy to change the way people view him or did he already have that respect based on 15 years? Because if the first one I quoted is true, than he didn't need to be anointed GM-in-waiting and your argument for why he needed to be was just hot air.

If he had earned the respect as an executive by being a player, then they could have brought him in as AGM, not announced he would take over, This would let him develop his skills at the pace he needs, not according to a timeline. Let him earn respect as an executive on his own not because the boss said so,. It would let him transition into power when and if he was ready. It also would give us an out if he did not take to the literal dozen of different areas they said he needs to learn in the press conference.

 

[Blueston]

Blueston:


Also Blueston:


Which is it? Did he need to be anointed GM-in-waiting rather than the new guy to change the way people view him or did he already have that respect based on 15 years? Because if the first one I quoted is true, than he didn't need to be anointed GM-in-waiting and your argument for why he needed to be was just hot air.

If he had earned the respect as an executive by being a player, then they could have brought him in as AGM, not announced he would take over, This would let him develop his skills at the pace he needs, not according to a timeline. Let him earn respect as an executive on his own not because the boss said so,. It would let him transition into power when and if he was ready. It also would give us an out if he did not take to the literal dozen of different areas they said he needs to learn in the press conference.

Does your opposing everything Blues feel as tiresome for you as it often does for the rest of us?

 

[Majorityof1]

Does your opposing everything Blues feel as tiresome for you as it often does for the rest of us?

You are better than that. We often disagree but you never resort to insults. I enjoy discussions, and I tend to question everything. But that is me. I do not get tired of it. If you do, don't engage. You know my stance. I've laid it out. You obviously contradicted yourself. When I point it out, you could have clarified your stance. Instead you resort to insulting me.