The St. Louis Blues came out of free agency and the 2026 NHL Draft with a grade that sits above most of the league, and The Athletic’s B+ says plenty about how their offseason has gone so far.
For a team trying to get back into that Stanley Cup contender window, the work has been steady and targeted rather than flashy. The Blues identified what needed fixing after last season’s struggles, and the front office moved with purpose. General Manager Doug Armstrong laid the groundwork, and current GM Alexander Steen has carried it through.
That approach showed up in the moves themselves. Ross Johnston and Mason McTavish were both described as solid additions, the kind that fit the franchise’s style because they bring a rough, physical edge. The draft also helped solve the center depth issue in short order, with McTavish’s trade, Tynan Lawrence going at No. 11 and Maddox Deganais selected at No. 16 all coming together in a 20-minute stretch.
The Blues also made a pre-draft move that sent Jordan Kyrou to Washington in exchange for the No. 16 pick and Connor McMichael.
On the blue line, St. Louis may have quietly built out a top four without making a ton of noise.
The club gave up two third-round picks to land Brandon Carlo, who now has a chance to contribute in either a second-pairing or third-pairing role. If he ends up in the latter spot, that would leave Philip Broberg, Logan Mailloux, Colton Parayko and Cam Fowler forming the top four, with Adam Jiricek also in the mix.
Taken together, the offseason has been efficient for the Blues. Not a fireworks show, but not a mess either. Armstrong set the table, Steen has followed through, and the roster heading into training camp should look a lot different than the 2025-26 version.
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Blues Offseason Aggression Leaves One Huge Question Hanging
The Blues have spent the offseason acting like a team determined to change its own shape, not just tweak around the edges. Jordan Kyrou is gone, Jonathan Drouin was bought out, and the front office has kept moving pieces in and out while adding Connor McMichael, Mason McTavish, Brandon Carlo, Ross Johnston and Dillon Dube to a roster that looks very different from the one it started with.
It is an aggressive retool, and the ambition is obvious. St. Louis has already paid a steep price in draft capital and made some bold bets on present-tense improvement, but the bigger issue now is what all of it is meant to solve. With a full roster and plenty of cap space still sitting there, the Blues have made themselves harder to read, not easier, and the next move may tell the real story of where this is headed. [Read more 🡒]
Jim Montgomery Faces A Blues Roster Crunch That Could Define Next Season
Jim Montgomery enters his second season behind the Blues bench with a 72-51-19 record since taking over on Nov. 24, 2024, but the bigger story now is less about what happened last year and more about how crowded things have become. St. Louis is moving deeper into a youth-focused phase, and that means a growing list of players will be chasing a shrinking number of jobs as the roster takes shape for next season.
Training camp is going to matter, and the preseason may matter even more, because Montgomery has to sort through new additions and prospects while figuring out who is ready for NHL minutes. For a team trying to balance development with competitiveness, the next few weeks could go a long way toward defining the lineup the Blues carry into opening night and beyond. [Read more 🡒]