from Ken Wiebe of Sportsnet,

Doug Armstrong isn’t afraid to make difficult – or occasionally unpopular – decisions.

Sometimes that’s simply the cost of doing business when you’re a general manager in the NHL.

You can’t please everybody and you usually can’t keep everybody either, especially in this flattish-cap world folks are dealing with these days.

It’s the conviction with which the man running the St. Louis Blues operates with that could make him the individual who has the biggest impact on the NHL trade deadline in the weeks leading up to Mar. 3.

Armstrong has first-hand knowledge of what it takes to orchestrate the biggest turnaround in the history of the NHL, literally a worst-to-first fairytale ending to a season that was in shambles in December of 2018 before the Blues captured the first Stanley Cup in franchise history months later.

Well, the Blues are nowhere near the basement these days, but they’re not exactly in a prime position to be categorized as a legitimate contender to the throne either, which immediately moves Armstrong into the position of needing to retool his roster on the fly.

Given the complexion of the roster and the core pieces under contract moving forward, a complete overhaul is not required - or expected - but major surgery could be on the horizon here, with the Blues currently sitting fifth in the Central Division and 11th in the Western Conference standings, a full eight points out of the second wild card spot (and the Colorado Avalanche holding three games in hand).

As colleague Elliotte Friedman likes to stay, the math isn’t good for the Blues with 31 games remaining in the regular season.

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