Doug Armstrong's MASTER PLAN Revealed...

Doug Armstrong's master plan has been revealed as he speaks to the media revealing his plans heading into the remainder of the summer after making key signings in free agency and drafting a stud in the first round. We're going to break down all his signings, his plan for the remaining of the summer and so much more later on this episode. Before we get into that, we just want to give a huge shout out for you guys subscribing, watching our content. We're trying to reach our goal of 3,000 subscribers, so if you haven't hit that subscribe button yet, make sure to go down and hit it and we'll keep you up to date on everything to do around your blues including prospect updates, rumors, reports, trades, game recaps, anything you can think of you can find right here on Blues Digest, so go down and hit that free subscribe button. But with that, dearies, let's just hop straight into the quote from Doug Armstrong today where he did speak and say, In my 21 years of a general manager, this has been the strangest summer. We have all of our contacts done on July 2nd. We signed Suter and put the Go Fish sign on the door. We'll talk to other teams just to be prepared for August. Now looking at this, this does feel like a weird summer. This is a summer where every other team minus the Pittsburgh Penguins has been buying, but what is your thoughts on this quote from Doug and do you think he's done making moves? Because I think the second the market starts to pick up, this team is going to be very active. I was excited to get into this today because I listened to a little bit of that Doug Armstrong interview because obviously he was doing some media yesterday. So I listened to a little bit of that and I was like, man, the master plan is being executed perfectly. And what that was is beat everyone to the punch, signed Suter, a couple of other free agents on July 2nd, take a month off and then re-evaluate in August. I absolutely love it. If you want to look at it one way, it's not much of a master plan because he's not going to be doing much, but I love it. Patience. You have most of your team locked up and then come August, we know there's been multiple reports around the league that things are going to pick up again and things are going to get actually kind of stupid, I think, around the league with some key players being moved ahead of next season. So really excited to see what happens there. And I love what Doug Armstrong has done so far this season. I mean, does he get full credit for drafting? No, but he does have the final decision, of course, right? But the scouting staff did a great job. They only had three picks in this year's draft. I think they hit on every single one of them. I feel like they're going to turn into a pretty good players, especially Justin Carbono. I mean, we're talking about him a lot and he's going to be in NHL or that's for sure. And a good one at that. So did a great job with that. And then if you look ahead to what they did through free agency, they solidified their entire center depth in Bukestad and Suter. Signing them to, Mark, I don't know how you feel about this too, but pretty low risk contracts. Like I'm actually kind of surprised with the contracts that they got considering the market and some of the other teams that were involved and wanted both of these players. So you solidify the rest of your center core. And you're one of the deeper teams, I think, at center, barring any injuries right now across the league. They're deeper, they're better, they're more skilled, they're continuing to get younger. I love what Doug Armstrong's done so far and he did a good job of doing that July 1st, July 2nd, and then washing his hands clean of it. And now he said, we'll reevaluate in August when things get a little dumb across the league. And yeah, I think that's perfectly said. You're looking at a team that filled out a lot of voids. This was a team that was just, what, three seconds away from advancing into the second round. And Doug Armstrong looked at this team and said, hey, we're going to reward you. We're going to make you better. And we're going to dive into a lot of this right now. Just to recap how good Doug Armstrong has been in his final summer as a general manager. We know Steen's taking over next year. But going into the free agent signs, we've seen Q-Suter coming from Vancouver. 25 goals, which with team leading in 5-on-5, a Swiss Army Knight, someone that can step in and play all roles, power play, penalty kill, center position, or in your top six as a winger. And Bukestad is a sneaky good ad. We're looking at a forward that, yes, had a bit of a down year last year with Utah. But the biggest thing is, the year prior, when playing with a proper playmaker, 22 goals for Bukestad. You're bringing in 220 goalscores into a lineup that's already had a lot of goalscores. And we've seen the runs. This team is going on the franchise record win streak. I think adding both of these guys to the lineup, if they go out to add more, you can still move Suter over to the wing position. But I do really like the way Doug is filling out this roster, making the bottom six not only hard to play against, but very skilled. But I mean, Darius, looking at this, the center position, I know every team in the NHL, including the Blues, are actively looking for a second line center. It feels like a franchise mode. And one team's hoarding it all. We don't know who it is yet. But at the moment, do you think the center core is enough to get it done? Because I'm very, I'm a huge fan of what he's done with this core. I'm very optimistic about this team and the center depth, like you mentioned. I want to go back to something you said earlier, though. Ozzy Osbourne right now is doing his maybe sixth retirement show or retirement tour at this point. Doug Armstrong, this is his retirement going away party. Last concert, if you want to put it that way. And boy, oh boy, is he playing the hits because he is hitting on every single thing he's doing. So he's been fantastic. And, you know, he's about to pass the reins over next summer, I guess. I don't know. We don't know exactly when it's going to happen, obviously, at some point heading into next season. We don't know the exact date, but to Alex Steenan, you know, he's doing a great job. But to get back to what you're saying, obviously, the center depth on this team, it can go with most, I think, teams in the league because, you know, your top two centers are great. Brayden Shen, a lot of people are calling him old, still a lot left in the tank. Right. And we saw him like I was super impressed with him in the playoffs. That is the type of guy you and we all know this, of course, from 2019, but still that guy that you can win with. He shut down. He shuts down other centers, whoever he's line matched against. And he can still add a little bit offensively. Obviously, we know what Robert Thomas brings to the table. But then, you know, you got like you mentioned, you're bringing in a 20 goal score on your fourth line right now. Is he going to score 20 goals on the fourth line? I don't know. Probably not. But when you head into the playoffs, you have that depth, you have that experience that can bring you to another level. And, you know, when you're rolling a guy like that, that some teams don't even have, you know, that skill, that size, the experience on their third lines, you're going to eventually wear other teams down. And that's kind of the game that the Blues were playing to a degree against some teams. Right. So I really like what they've done. Again, the games that were at home in the playoffs this year, you know, you saw the offense shine. But then when I was on the road, they could really slug it out as well. And I feel like they're just going to outlast other teams because of this center depth, because, you know, it's probably the most important position, besides, of course, goaltending in the entire sport. Right. And if you have a lot of it, then you're going to find success. So I love what they did with this. I mean, Suter is probably a second line center on most teams in the league. And I mean, the thing with Suter, too, is if you're bringing in another center, if you move Shen down, he can still slide very well into a winger position. We've seen him do it with teams throughout his career. So it is very intriguing. They do have cap space to work with with the contract of Kroob going out. We do know 8 million in cap space. They have a lot of room to acquire another big name. They have draft capital to continue. But we've seen even more this summer from Doug Armstrong going out to, yes, moving out a fan favorite, but bringing in a very promising defenseman in Logan Mayhew, who's going to fill out this back. And we know we've seen the quotes from Doug Armstrong. It seems like he's set to join in. But looking at the defense from the final game of the playoffs going into this year, yes, getting a seventh defenseman, that's a little older that can step in when they need to. But other than that, I'm very pumped for having this youth movement in the defense, but still haven't solidified guys in Fowler, Parako and even Folk. Yeah, absolutely. And again, when you look at the defense heading into this season, I think I don't know. Again, I'm curious for your thoughts on this, Mark, and everyone's comments in the down below in the comments and their thoughts as well. But I do pretty confident going in with even just this. I think Mayhew is ready to take that step. I feel like he can be an everyday NHL or although on the channel when they made the trade, I did say I was a little critical, but I have to say, I think I'm pretty sure 99 percent sure I saw the worst game he's ever played live. So bad sample size, of course, to view live. But I feel like he is ready to take that next step. He has the size. He plays with an edge. We know what he can do offensively. He took the foot off the gas a little bit offensively last year because he was actually working on some other aspects of his game to be more dynamic out there, right, especially at the NHL level. So I can appreciate that as well. So I do feel pretty good, even if it's that huge Tyler Tucker fan. I think Montgomery, as well as we covered in another video, is a big Tyler Tucker fan as well. Can he be an everyday NHL? I believe that is it this year. No remains to be seen, of course. But like you were mentioning, adding one more, because Nick is out the door. He brought that experience. Adding one more like seventh defenseman that maybe is a little bit older, does have some experience, could do, you know, could bode well for this team. Not that he has to play all the time, but I do think that you need to show up maybe one more defenseman with this team because, you know, it is getting a little bit weaker. We know this is a position probably of need for this team as we head into not just this season, but the next couple seasons. So it's going to be interesting to see. I don't think they're done. They don't have that much cap space, but I have a weird feeling that they're not done. I feel like Falk is definitely in play, especially when it comes to Bowen Byron, because that's not settled yet either. Of course, they're going to arbitration, but I feel like that's definitely in play. So it's going to be interesting to see what they do with the defense, because, you know, out of all the positions they have, the forward group, I think, is pretty solidified. I think everyone feels pretty confident going into the season with this. A lot of guys have a lot of things to prove as well. Some of the younger guys like Snuggaroo, can he continue to play as well as he was? I feel like he's going to, but you never know. You want to see that. Obviously, the goaltending, completely solidified for the next two years. Love what they've done with that. It's just the defense core. I feel like you could do maybe one more thing with it that could really push it over the top. And I mean, you could even go out to get a guy like Mark Edward Vlasic. We've just seen the buyout with the San Jose Sharks. A great seventh defenseman that could step in. Not your everyday guy. He might be getting up in age, but Pickles is someone that could fill in, help with mentorship. He knows what it takes to win in the playoffs, not winning the Stanley Cup, but at least going on deep runs. Blame Martin Jones on that one. That team was pretty stacked. But overall, this is a team that's very good, and we're not going to touch on Carvano too much. A bull in the china shop. You can look at about the 10 videos we've done on him, and if you want another one, we will do that happily because Carvano is outstanding. But Blues fans, what is your overall thoughts on how Doug Armstrong has been handling it? I mean, quotes coming from him said that they're going fishing right now, but August is just around the corner, 20 something days away. He'll be back active, in office, getting ready to maybe solidify this team even more. Go down and leave a comment on everything down below, what you want us to cover, anything at all. We love reading it. The support has been incredible. Once again, shout out Blues fans, and thank you so much for making this possible. You guys are awesome, and the community is great. This is an awesome Blues team. We're so excited for next season, and we're going to keep you up to date on that. But make sure to go leave a like, subscribe, share this with your friends. We'll be back in another episode, so keep your eye out for that, but I've been your host, Mark, with my co-host Darius, and take care.