St. Louis Blues president George Armstrong extended his contract by three years, and the club announced Thursday that Alex Steen, a former first-round pick by the Toronto Maple Leafs, would be joining the team as general manager. Three years after making his NHL debut at the age of 21, Alex Steen, a Winnipeg-Swede, was selected by the Toronto Maple Leafs with the 24th overall choice in the 2002 NHL Entry Draft by general manager Pat Quinn. Steen is a second-generation NHLer.
In his first three years with the Leafs, Steen scored 48 goals and had 122 points, showing potential to become a reliable top-six forward. Cliff Fletcher, the renowned general manager who made some fantastic trades in the early 1990s and was reinstated as interim GM in 2008, sadly, lacked the same zeal he had twenty years earlier.Two months after making what was considered his worst transaction with the club—star defenseman Bryan McCabe and a selection for Mike Van Ryn—Fletcher made his second stint with the organization. Fletcher acquired 25-year-old Lee Stempniak in exchange for 24-year-old Carlo Colaiacovo and 24-year-old Steen following a sluggish start to the 2008–09 season.
Both players were past first-round picks for the Maple Leafs and seemed to be more valuable than Stempniak alone, making the move all the more strange. The Phoenix Coyotes acquired Stempniak along with two late selection picks, a prospect who never played a game for the team, and 123 games played by the Maple Leafs during which he scored 25 goals. Meanwhile, Steen would spend the next twelve seasons with the St. Louis Blues, during which time he scored 195 goals (including four 20-goal seasons) and won a Stanley Cup in 2019.
Steen has a career total of over 600 points and 1,000 games played when he retired during the 2019–20 season. Now that he’s 40 years old, the former Maple Leafs player will be taking on his first NHL general manager role, with the chance to turn the St. Louis Blues into a winning team. Despite missing the playoffs by a slim margin of six points last season, the Blues still have roughly $16 million in cap space and five first-round draft picks.
Whether Steen opts to dismantle the Blues and construct his own squad or perform a rapid retooling to reenter the playoffs is something to watch with interest. My only piece of advice would be to learn from Fletcher’s blunder and not deal your two top players for one other player.
