The St. Louis Blues' start to the 2022-23 season can be described as atrocious, among other words. Supposedly a team in 'win-now mode,' the Blues sit idle at the bottom of the NHL leaderboards, tied for dead last with Columbus with 8 points.
Infamously, St. Louis made a rally from dead last to a Stanley Cup championship in 2019, but this isn't that and that isn't this; whatever this is. The Blues' problems aren't much deeper than goaltending, bad luck, sprinkled in with perhaps a little staleness. So what is GM Doug Armstrong to do? Shake things up? Make an addition or two? Embrace his situation and use the season to re-tool?
According to Jeff Marek, the Blues GM has one target in his sights: Arizona's Nick Ritchie.
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Ritchie, 26, shares the team lead with 6 goals and ranks near the top of the league in goals above expected (GAx). The Blues' goal scoring woes are legit, so this move does make sense in a vacuum.
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That said, this is a prime opportunity for the Blues to quickly reset and move out a contract or two, so perhaps trading futures to add further seems like an odd path to take.
With so much high-end talent in the upcoming draft, one would think that a tank-job is in order.
What should the Blues do going forward?
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