The Blues have a succession plan in place.
Owner Tom Stillman announced Thursday morning that former Blues forward Alexander Steen would be the future general manager of the team, taking over for current general manager Doug Armstrong following the 2025-26 season.
Steen signed a five-year contract with the team to be a special assistant to the GM for two years and then take over as general manager for the final three years of the contract.
“We see Alex as a very special person for this,†Stillman said. “Doug has really been bowled over by him in the last year. We have an extraordinary person in our midst. Second thing, and this isn’t as important as ability and capability to do the job: It is important that his passion for the Blues, for the city, his dedication. You would think he had Blues tattoos on him. He’s just so devoted to the franchise and the city.â€
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Armstrong will remain in his current role as GM and president of hockey operations for the next two years and will transition solely to president of hockey operations for his final three years on his new five-year contract.
Armstrong, 59, previously had two years remaining on his contract before signing his extension that will keep him part of the Blues front office in various roles through the 2028-29 season. Armstrong has been the team’s GM since 2010, serving as the longest-tenured GM in club history and the current longest-tenured GM in the NHL.
“I love to manage,†Armstrong said. “I’m going to miss it. I guarantee I’m going to miss it. I love the work, but I love the Blues more. It’s my responsibility to do what’s best for the Blues. What’s best for the Blues is to support Alex in two years, but that’s 24 months (away). I’ve got a hell of a lot of work in the 24 months I want to accomplish.â€
Steen, 40, finished his 15-year NHL career in 2020, spending the final 12 years in ºüÀêÊÓƵ with the Blues. He played the fourth-most games with ºüÀêÊÓƵ in franchise history and ranks in the top 10 in goals, assists and points in franchise history. Of course, he was part of the 2019 Stanley Cup-winning team.
He began his management career with the Blues last summer, when Armstrong brought him on board as a European development consultant. Steen gained more responsibility across the past year and was part of Armstrong’s close circle that named Drew Bannister head coach last month.
As Stillman and Armstrong discussed succession plans, Steen’s name kept coming up.
They both pointed to his passion for the sport: “This is what I was meant to do is to be around hockey,†Steen said.
They both pointed to his selflessness and team-first attitude: “His value system has always been related around the team. What’s best for the team? Not what was best for him,†Armstrong said.
They both pointed to his eye for the game: “His hockey knowledge is second to none. That’s going to be the easy part is assessing what we need and how we do it,†Armstrong said.
All that was missing, in their eyes, was experience.
“I’ve been over to Europe on multiple occasions to meet with him, to talk to him and travel with him,†Armstrong said. “It just became clearer and clearer that he had everything you need in a general manager except experience.â€
Stillman said he and Armstrong have spoken about succession plans for years, or, “What happens if one of my beer trucks hits you?†as Stillman said. Armstrong said he thought about it four years ago but instead decided to guide the organization through its retool phase in an attempt to set the next GM in a good position.
At the time, there were decisions to be made in the coming years on veteran, Cup-winning players — Alex Pietrangelo, Ryan O’Reilly, Vladimir Tarasenko, David Perron — and a potential transition period after that.
“I needed to make those decisions for the next guy,†Armstrong said. “You have to cycle down to cycle up. To walk away at that point and let someone else make those decisions and the record isn’t what it was three or four years before, you’re setting someone else up to fail. I wanted to set the next guy up to succeed.
“These four years, making those decisions, now in two years, there’s going to be a runway with young players and cap space. All that could change tomorrow with a phone call, but as of now, I think we’re going to have it in a good spot.â€
Armstrong and Stillman both noted that getting a younger, fresher voice as general manager could help rejuvenate the team that has known only Armstrong since 2010. Armstrong said he spoke with Vancouver’s Jim Rutherford and Vegas’ George McPhee as former longtime GMs turned presidents of hockey operations.
In considering Steen for the GM position, Armstrong said he also drew inspiration from the success younger GMs like Chris Drury (Rangers) and Danny Briere (Flyers) have had.
Stillman, meanwhile, wanted “a balance†between old and new, he said, and became more and more comfortable with the idea of Armstrong’s succession plan.
“I don’t want to lose the best (GM) and all the experience and knowledge (he has),†Stillman said. “That was the interplay. A lot of conversations back and forth, over coffee, over beer, whatever. I think where we landed is what I see as the best of both worlds. We’re going to bring along, groom and teach this young, outstanding candidate who fits what we want. But we’re also keeping the knowledge, the experience and everything that Doug has brought for so long.â€
Steen will learn on the job under Armstrong for the next two seasons, gaining the experience he lacks in an NHL front office. He participated in the team’s draft meetings over the past week and said he was looking forward to the draft at the end of the month.
“There’s only one way of getting the experience, and that’s going through it,†Steen said. “It’s nothing that can be rushed. I think the one thing that I’ve learned growing up around the rinks with my father and playing a long time is that you have to have patience with certain things. Soak up as much information as you can. That’s something that I’m trying to be attentive (to).â€
Even when Steen takes over as GM with Armstrong as president of hockey operations, Armstrong is expected to have a role in assisting Steen. That, however, will likely decline across the span of their three years together, Armstrong said, eventually to the point “he’s going to know what he knows, and he’s going to give me the courtesy, ‘I’m calling you, but I don’t really need your advice on this one.’ â€
“I just didn’t envision myself starting over again somewhere else at that age in my life,†Armstrong said of sticking around as president of hockey ops. “There’s an excitement, too. If we had brought in a manger with 1,000 games experience, quite honestly, he might not need me. I think there’s things I can provide Alex as he’s learning.
“I do view it as a weighted scale. Over time, I’ll become less and less relevant in his decision-making because he’s going to gain that experience. I owe it to myself, I owe it to the fans is to give him guidance. I call them landmines. He doesn’t know where they are.â€
Little is known about Steen’s management style or roster-building tactics. Some GMs prefer a patient draft-and-develop strategy. Some lean more toward aggressive acquisition and immediate contention.
Steen wouldn’t say where he landed on the spectrum other than that, “I believe in the plan that we’ve started here that Doug and his staff (have started) and the future of the team and the organization.â€
Through it all, Steen’s relationship with the organization is the backdrop for his future role.
“When I told some of the players, he actually does bleed blue,†Armstrong said. “To have that in organization, the players feed off of that. They fed off of that when he played, they fed off of it when he came back to training camp last year, they fed off it when he traveled with the team. They know that it’s not just a job. It’s a passion. ºüÀêÊÓƵ is a passion. I’m not sure he signs up for it if it’s any one of the other 31 teams. He’s a Blue, and he wants to be a Blue.â€
Asked if he would have taken this opportunity with another team, Steen responded flatly.
“I would have a hard time seeing myself doing it with anybody else,†Steen said.