Doug Armstrong has been the General Manager of the Blues for years. He joined the Blues in 2010 after a stint with the Stars. Among his 31 counterparts, he has the most experience in the NHL with his current team.
At 59 years old, the 2019 Stanley Cup winner and Team Canada GM will surely want to slow down someday. And that brings us to today’s press conference.
The Blues have announced in detail the succession plan for the next five years. Armstrong had two years left on his contract as GM and President of Hockey. He has now signed a three-year contract extension (2026-2029) but not as GM, only as President. He will be the GM from 2024 to 2026 and President from 2024 to 2029.
The plan is for Armstrong to step down as GM in 2026 and become only President. The next GM, who will take over in two years, has already been found. Alexander Steen, a former key player with the Blues, will become the GM in 2026. He has signed a five-year contract, and from 2026 to 2029, he will be the GM under Armstrong, who will only be President from 2026.
From 2024 to 2026, Steen’s contract stipulates that he will be a special assistant to Armstrong, who will still be the GM of the club. It is assumed that the veteran executive will retire in 2029, but by then, he may well sign another contract to remain President and support Steen.
The Blues have decided not to leave anything to chance. They seem to have taken a page from the Predators’ book, who brought in Barry Trotz as an assistant to David Poile last year with the goal of eventually making him GM. Trotz has just finished his first year as GM of the Preds.
In both cases, Trotz and Steen were trusted individuals for Poile and Armstrong but did not have experience as GMs per se. They learned/will learn on the job as right-hand men before taking on the role.
Steen won the Stanley Cup in 2019 as a player with the Blues, a memory that will not be forgotten.
In the 2023-2024 season, Steen was a development consultant in Europe for the Blues. The Winnipeg native, who represented Sweden internationally, will apparently become the second European GM in history after Jarmo Kekalainen.
The Blues have also announced that Tim Taylor will become an assistant GM, so they are shaking things up in a good way with a clear plan. The only question now is whether Steen will be a good GM.
In other news, he was an assistant in San Jose for two years. Clearly, the position must not have been the most coveted.
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