\u201cThere\u2019s a window of time where everyone is focused on it and if we hadn\u2019t had those picks, I\u2019m not sure if we would\u2019ve been able to use one of these players that we drafted or another combination to find another player that fits into that time frame. So, I think the timing was very important for us to do it and not hope that (we could find a player later).\u201d<\/p>\n
Before the draft, rumors swirled around St. Louis.<\/p>\n
One report suggested that the Blues offered Dallas three first-round picks for Jason Robertson, but Robertson did not want to sign an extension in St. Louis.<\/p>\n
\u201cI called one manager today and I said, \u2018Wow, you and I almost made a big deal\u2019 and we hadn\u2019t talked in two weeks,\u201d Armstrong said without mentioning names. \u201cSo there\u2019s a lot of stuff out there that\u2019s not true, but that\u2019s just the time of year that stuff happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
One report said that the Blues offered the No. 11 pick to Anaheim in the McTavish deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, we were not going to move 11,\u201d Armstrong said.<\/p>\n
McTavish has some holes in his game that have led to criticism. His skating is below average, as he did not have a single speed burst above 22 mph, according to NHL Edge. He had 29 speed bursts between 20 and 22 mph, below the league average 71.4 for forwards.<\/p>\n
Defensively, the Ducks allowed 1.04 more goals per 60 minutes of 5 on 5 with McTavish on the ice than they did without him. That ranked 349th out of the 355 skaters with at least 900 minutes, according to Natural Stat Trick.<\/p>\n
Asked about McTavish\u2019s growth, Armstrong said he needed to be more consistent.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s one thing you always want to strive to have the valley rise up closest to the ceiling,\u201d Armstrong said. \u201cBut he\u2019s just 23 years old, so he\u2019s got such a wide runway ahead of him. I think when you\u2019re drafted in the area that he was drafted to an organization (like Anaheim), he probably got into the league quicker than most. So you\u2019re sort of learning on the fly there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThere\u2019s a window of time where everyone is focused on it and if we hadn\u2019t had those picks,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":381955,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,824,165,164,14994,4629,1721,896,4632,4639,4649,4648,4631,4630,21161,4634,4626,4627,4633],"class_list":["post-381954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-ducks","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-blues","tag-ice-hockey","tag-mason-mctavish","tag-national-hockey-league","tag-national-hockey-league-teams","tag-national-hockey-league-trophies-and-awards","tag-nhl-seasons","tag-nhl-team-seasons","tag-seasons-in-american-ice-hockey","tag-seasons-in-canadian-ice-hockey","tag-st-louis-blues","tag-stanley-cup","tag-stanley-cup-playoffs","tag-top-level-sports-leagues","tag-top-tier-ice-hockey-leagues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=381954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}