LeBrun: Blues GM Doug Armstrong on rare offer-sheet success story, Stan Bowman and more

Doug Armstrong was a headline maker this summer, pulling off the rare offer-sheet success story, and with a double signing no less.

But the St.

Louis Blues general manager has also embarked on an important period wearing his other hat, as Team Canada Olympic GM, his gaze sharpening on early projections for the February 2026 roster that will aim to defend best-on-best Olympic titles from 2010 and 2014.

Advertisement Those roster conversions have already begun, forced in nature by the best-on-best Four Nations event coming this February, which will help answer many of those difficult Olympic roster questions.

So yeah, lots going on for the veteran GM.

In a two-part interview with The Athletic this past week, Armstrong covered both topics.

Lets begin first looking back at the offer sheets.

Then well get to Team Canada.

The twin offer-sheet signings of Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway on Aug.

13 was a firecracker during the NHL s quietest time of year.

They were the first offer sheet since the Jesperi Kotkaniemi signing three years ago.

It happens rarely because the moons rarely align for organizations, Armstrong said.

But once interim Oilers CEO of Hockey Operations Jeff Jackson had a successful and busy July 1 with all his signings, Armstrong felt the Blues could start looking at it seriously as a possibility.

I thought Jeff had a great early July, he brought in some experienced players, to do that he obviously had to use his cap equity to get those players, the Blues GM said.

It created an opportunity for us.

We had cap space and we had a lot of prospects so using future picks didnt seem to be something we should shy away from.

When the moons aligned correctly, it was an opportunity for us to stay true to our core values of what were trying to build right now and thats putting players in that age bracket and it ended up working out, added the Blues GM.

At first blush, when I first saw the offer sheets, I thought the play was trying to ensure getting at least one of the players if the Oilers could only afford to match one.

But Armstrong says that wasnt the intent.

They were trying to get both, 100 percent.

We structured it that way in an attempt to get both players, said Armstrong.

We scouted them, weve watched their development, we thought there was a chance that we could get both when you looked at the Oilers contracts coming up and it ended up working out that way.

It was a big day for the Blues.

It was a long seven days but after speaking with Stan (Bowman) after Day 5, it looked like it was going to happen and we were excited, added Armstrong.

GO DEEPER What led to Blues offer sheets for Broberg, Holloway and why Oilers made themselves susceptible Because the Blues opted not to go for a full rebuild but rather try to stay competitive while getting younger the last few years, the twin signings obviously fit right into that vision.

We now have double-digit players drafted in the first round over a 5-6 year span; now, theyre not all going to make it, but consistently you have 70 to 80 percent of those guys make it, they can actually play together for the better part of 5, 6, 7 years, said the Blues GM.

Building something thats sustainable is what were trying to do here.

Those two players fit perfectly into that.

Really, it was a no-brainer by any measure, especially given that no first-round pick changed hands as part of the total compensation going to the Oilers.

Other than the one potential, traditional by-product: creating ill-will from another franchise.

As we saw from Carolina s regrettable offer sheet with Kotkaniemi, which was revenge against Montreal for the Sebastian Aho offer sheet, well, these things tend to produce sore feelings.

In this case, there was the sense Canes owner Tom Dundon would get his pound of flesh for being pushed in a corner by the Habs on Aho.

Advertisement Offer sheets most often produce these types of raw feelings.

How dare you! Do we need to even mention Brian Burke and Kevin Lowe and the Dustin Penner offer sheet? And a near barn fight between the two GMs in 2007? In this case, at least on the surface, it would appear there isnt that between the Oilers and the Blues.

Or at least not between Armstrong and new Oilers GM Stan Bowman.

Theres no barn fight offer looming.

No, I think things are fine, Bowman told The Athletic this past week.

Ive known Doug a long time.

Hes a very bright guy, a good person.

I think sometimes more is made out of that.

He was trying to do what he could to make his team better.

Once you get past the surprise of it, and you then roll your sleeves up and get to work on what you want to do, I dont think theres any value in holding grudges, added the Oilers GM.

I mean, what good is going to come out of that? So no, for me personally, you have to work with everybody in the league even if you dont like people but thats not the case with Doug anyway, said Bowman.

Hes a good person and I dont have any animosity or issues with Doug Armstrong.

Both GMs know each other well from when Bowman ran the Blackhawks and played the Blues regularly as divisional rivals.

Yeah, Stan and I have a good relationship, we bumped (into) each other when he was in Chicago, our teams played a lot, were friends and its just part of the business that you understand going in, Armstrong said.

Stan and I talked about it, he understood I was trying to do what was best for the Blues and he made the best decisions for the Oilers.

Thats our jobs.

Obviously Stan probably wishes it didnt happen, added Armstrong.

One of the narratives that took shape in the immediate aftermath of the offer sheets is that maybe Armstrong would not have done this if it were his close friend Ken Holland still in charge in Edmonton.

Advertisement People want to add a narrative to a story to make it more compelling, the reality is I work for the Blues and I do whats best for the Blues and I would have done that regardless, Armstrong said.

When I started (in the NHL), I looked at the relationships that Harry Sinden and Glen Sather and Lou Lamoriello and Bob Clarke all had, they would do what they had to do to win.

Thats their job.

This is no different 30 years later.

Speaking of narratives, Bowman disagrees with the notion that the Oilers low-balled Broberg and Holloway in contract talks.

The way its being portrayed is also a little bit unfair, that the Oilers were doing some sort of poor faith negotiating, Bowman said.

If you look at both those players, based on their performance, theres lots of comparable players that have signed this summer and recent years.

Those RFAs coming out of entry-level have very little leverage, unless of course they sign an offer sheet.

But as far as the Oilers looking back and realizing they should have offered more, Bowman isnt buying it.

Not to where those contracts got with St.

Louis.

The players can probably grow into those deals, but as of today, theyre way above their actual performance, Bowman said.

The Blues had to get those contracts to a place where the players would agree to do the entire offer sheet experiment.

What worked for the Blues cap-wise obviously wasnt the case for the Oilers, especially when you now look back in hindsight and understand that the wheels were in motion on a monster extension for Leon Draisaitl .

You cant ignore that part of it.

Right, exactly, theres no question about it, Bowman said as far as the Draisaitl negotiations looming large in the bigger picture.

Thats the reality and that was a priority for us.

It was a very binary decision for us at that point, added the Oilers GM.

Its not like his deal was up in three years and we could figure all this out later.

We had to figure it out now.

Advertisement As far as having two players targeted at once, Bowman sort of lived it back in 2010 after the Blackhawks won their first Cup when the San Jose Sharks dropped an offer sheet on Niklas Hjalmarsson but in the end, signed Antti Niemi away from the Hawks once Chicago was forced to walk away from an arbitration award on the goalie because of the cap money spent on matching the Hjalmarsson offer sheet.

It was a clever play by then-Sharks GM Doug Wilson although getting the defenseman, at the time, would have been better than getting the goalie in hindsight.

It was kind of the same thing when San Jose in 2010 offer sheeted Hjalmarsson, said Bowman.

I think they wanted Niemi knowing that we werent going to be able to keep both of them.

And thats what happened.

But its rare to see it.

Offer sheets arent common.

No way of knowing if the Blues twin bill will change that thinking now.

It doesnt happen more often, I dont know if thats a good or bad thing, Bowman said.

I guess you could make the argument this should happen more.

(Photo: Jeff Vinnick / NHLI via Getty Images).

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