{"id":280922,"date":"2025-11-13T03:23:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T03:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/280922\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T03:23:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T03:23:10","slug":"nhl-rumour-roundup-is-this-the-year-the-blues-shake-things-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/280922\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL Rumour Roundup: Is this the year the Blues shake things up?"},"content":{"rendered":"

St. Louis Blues<\/a> general manager Doug Armstrong knows how to send a message. So does his head coach \u2014 Jim Montgomery\u2019s bold decision to scratch veteran forward Jordan Kyrou ahead of the Blues\u2019 game against Buffalo last week certainly got everyone\u2019s attention.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Armstrong\u2019s time in St. Louis has seen him send more than a few powerful messages to his players, and the roster always seems to respond. The most notable case was around Christmas 2018, when the GM reportedly put out a memo to his NHL peers that the Blues were ready to sell. (As Sportsnet\u2019s Elliotte Friedman described in Monday\u2019s edition of\u00a032 Thoughts: The Podcast<\/a>, Armstrong\u2019s language was a little more creative \u2014 and festive \u2014 than that.) Of course, we all know what happened afterwards: The Blues climbed from worst to first and completed their historic ascent by hoisting the Stanley Cup.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last season, as the Blues again found themselves near the bottom of the league standings late into fall, Armstrong\u2019s squad was again the subject of much trade speculation. Blues players were well-represented in rumour mills and reports, with captain Brayden Schenn<\/a> the most popular target. But Armstrong gave his players the opportunity to climb back into relevance and let their play dictate the GM\u2019s deadline approach. What followed was a double-digit win streak coming out of the 4 Nations Face-Off, a quiet trade deadline for the Blues, and a wild card berth.<\/p>\n

Now, as the 2025-26 season nears the quarter-mark with St. Louis sitting seventh in the Central Division with a 6-8-3 record, the Blues are once again at a crossroads and in the crosshairs of the rumour mill, so we can\u2019t help but wonder\u2026 will this year be different?<\/p>\n

\u201cFor teams that have called general manager Doug Armstrong as the Blues have struggled, the message is, \u2018the Blues are open for business,\u2019\u201d reported NHL insider Frank Seravalli\u00a0during a Prime segment last week<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When breaking down the Blues\u2019 situation on Monday\u2019s podcast, Friedman said Schenn\u2019s name has \u201cbeen out there\u201d again already this season. It\u2019s easy to understand why. The captain is a strong leader, a productive playmaker, and is still under contract for two more years at a very reasonable $6.5-million AAV. This year also ushers in a change in his contract, shifting from a full no-trade clause in the first five years of his deal to a modified no-trade clause that kicked in this season, which states he can submit a 15-team no-trade list.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Another point of interest differentiating this year from previous seasons: This is Armstrong\u2019s final year as Blues GM before handing the reins to Alexander Steen.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that Armstrong wants to leave the team in a good place for Steen,\u201d said Friedman. \u201cI just cannot believe for a second that Armstrong would do anything that he thinks would leave Steen in an overall worse position as he enters GM of the Blues. It just doesn\u2019t strike me as the way that he\u2019s wired, and he has really worked hard to put Steen in a position to be successful once he takes over.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Added Friedman, \u201cI would be really surprised if he did something that he didn\u2019t think long-term was beneficial for the new manager, who\u2019s basically his right-hand guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"3232 Thoughts: The Podcast<\/p>\n

Hockey fans already know the name, but this is not the blog. From Sportsnet, 32 Thoughts: The Podcast with NHL Insider Elliotte Friedman and Kyle Bukauskas is a weekly deep dive into the biggest news and interviews from the hockey world.<\/p>\n

Latest episode<\/a><\/p>\n

Making the case for an early coaching change in Nashville<\/p>\n

The Blues aren\u2019t the only team in the Central Division off to a slow start. In fact, no team has generated less offence than the last-place Nashville Predators<\/a>, who for the second straight season have fallen completely flat out of the gates despite obvious star power on the roster.\u00a0<\/p>\n

General manager Barry Trotz took a patient approach with his squad last season, but considering just how bad the roster has performed so far he likely cannot afford to do the same this year. Through 18 games, the Predators have strung together back-to-back wins just once and are currently riding a five-game losing streak straight to the bottom of the standings. Seravalli spoke Monday of a \u201ctoxic energy\u201d around the team, and we\u2019ve heard the frustration from players during media availabilities \u2014 most notably, Ryan O\u2019Reilly last week, who\u00a0provided a brutal assessment<\/a>\u00a0of his own play (and one that, if you\u2019ve watched his career, is far too harsh.)<\/p>\n

O\u2019Reilly is one of the few stars on this team who doesn\u2019t have a protection clause on his contract \u2014 though Trotz\u2019s respect for the veteran had him handling his position with the club last year as though he did. Considering all three of the team\u2019s highest-paid forwards (Filip Forsberg, Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault) all have no-move clauses tied to their contracts, Trotz\u2019s hands might be otherwise tied should he decide to try to shake things up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One obvious area where Trotz can take immediate action is behind the bench. Head coach Andrew Brunette coached the Predators to a 47-30-5 record and a playoff spot in 2023-24, but the club finished with only 30 wins last season and so far is on track for most of the same at 5-9-4 so far.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After standing by Brunette last spring despite an uninspiring season, could we see Trotz make a change? Now would be an interesting time to do so, as Seravalli points out, considering their schedule around the NHL Global Series. The Predators take on the Pittsburgh Penguins in Sweden Friday and Sunday, after which they don\u2019t suit up again for nearly a week while traveling home and settling back in.<\/p>\n

\u201cLoads of extra practice days, time overseas to bond, maybe hear a different voice,\u201d suggested Seravalli. \u201cMaybe that\u2019s a galvanizing change, a shot in the arm, that they might need as they try and turn their season around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Where do Panarin and the Rangers go from here?<\/p>\n

Three goals in three games, including two against Nashville on Monday, ended Artemi Panarin<\/a>\u2019s career-high six-game pointless skid \u2014 and, apparently, justified his decision to shave his head.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Maybe his hair was weighing him down, but it wasn\u2019t the only thing. While Panarin seems to have rediscovered at least a little bit of his scoring touch since speaking with\u00a0The Athletic\u2019s Vincent Mercogliano<\/a> last week, there\u2019s still the fascinating matter of his contract. As Mercogliano wrote in the piece (which was published just prior to Panarin\u2019s skid-breaking game against Detroit), \u201cPanarin admitted the uncertainty surrounding his future is weighing on him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sportsnet’s Nick Kypreos also reported<\/a> on Panarin\u2019s situation earlier this month, writing that Panarin \u201chas made it clear to the Rangers that he is not interested in a pay cut from his current $11.642 million, and that has shut down any chance of negotiations.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Rangers, noted Kypreos, don’t want him at that same rate again. Where that leaves talks will likely depend greatly on where the team sits in the standings by the midway point of the season. The 8-7-2 club has plenty of ground to make up if they\u2019re to jump back into contention in Mike Sullivan\u2019s first year at the helm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"St. Louis Blues general manager Doug Armstrong knows how to send a message. So does his head coach…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280923,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-280922","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}