ST. LOUIS — It finally got to a point for Jordan Kyrou and the St. Louis Blues that perhaps it was best for both sides to get a fresh start.
That’s what Blues general manager Doug Armstrong and Kyrou, who was a second-round pick in the 2016 NHL Draft, both acknowledged on Wednesday, a day after the Blues shipped Kyrou, who has five years remaining on a contract that pays him $8.125 million per season and a full no-trade clause, to the Washington Capitals for a package that brought forward Connor McMichael, 2025 forward prospect Milton Gastrin and a 2026 first-round pick (No. 16) back to St. Louis.
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“Jordan and his agent and I, Dave Gagner and I go way back to Minnesota,” Armstrong said. “We’ve become friends over the years.
“It just felt the last little while, he wasn’t getting the role that he had probably wished some nights. (Jimmy) Snuggerud had taken a little bit over. We talked and they talked about a change might be good for everyone at this point. You want to make work so we waited and tried to find different avenues where everyone could get what they want out of it, but in the end, both sides just felt potentially exploring different options would be in everyone’s interests, so we started down that process and got comfortable in putting Jordan in a spot … because of his no-trade clause, he had the opportunity to make sure he was going to a team that he felt like he could have success in, and we felt we were getting a return we believe is equivalent is to the player that I believe that Jordan is, which I believe is a 30-plus goal scorer that’s got excellent speed. It was just something everybody was comfortable with at this time.”
Kyrou was a healthy scratch under Jim Montgomery multiple times at points last season, with the coach usually citing he needed more from the 28-year-old winger who has three straight 30-plus goal seasons under him and is one of the faster skaters in the league. And with the emergence of Snuggerud, and other players with a similar skillset in the pipeline, likely made it more of the likelihood that at some point, Kyrou would be asked to waive his NTC.
“I don’t want to say we try and take longer than necessary, but I’m a big believer, I’d rather work through ups and downs with people,” Armstrong said. “… The value I put in my mind on Jordan and the organization … he’s a three-time 30-goal scorer in this league. He’s under contract in a league where contracts are starting to increase exponentially. He’s a fixed cost. There was a lot of boxes that I thought Jordan checked and if I was another manager, I would think he has a lot of boxes that checked. He’s a dynamic skater, he can score, he’s got a contract, so we wanted to make sure we were hopefully getting a value in return of what we think he is and can be. As we were doing that, you always hope that things can change, and it works out here. There becomes a point where if both sides feel that to explore something, you should do it. That’s our last avenue, not our first avenue.”
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Kyrou acknowledged himself a fresh start was probably best but in no way shape or form was he looking to get out of St. Louis.
“Not really looking,” he said. “I’ve loved St. Louis and have loved playing there, I’ve said it before. I’ve had a great time there and a lot of great memories in my career. Sometimes just people need a fresh start and a change of scenery.
“Definitely a crazy day for me. This is my first time getting traded, so I didn’t really know what to expect. But a couple of days prior, I was hearing a couple of things. Then the day of, it was kind of just ‘be by your phone.’ My agent was calling me and there were talks back and forth. It took me pretty much all day to make a decision. It was definitely a tough decision. I’ve been in St. Louis for eight years and I’ve had an amazing time there. It was definitely a tough decision, but I’m excited to be joining Washington and having a fresh start here.”
The Blues, who were 24th in the NHL averaging 2.8 goals per game a season ago, now must find out who can pick up the slack of Kyrou, who had 378 points (168 goals, 210 assists) in 488 games with the Blues; he dipped to 18 goals and 28 assists in 72 games last season.
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“People are going to get the opportunity to pick it up,” Armstrong said. “It’s hard to replace. One of the things we’re looking to build and organization, I’m bullish on (Justin) Carbonneau and on (Dmitry) Buchelnikov, the player we think will come over next year too (acquired from the Detroit Red Wings in the Justin Faulk trade). You’re sometimes dealing from surplus too. Will we score as much this year, I don’t know, but we also expect McMichael to come in and score. We think he’s a good player. We think given an opportunity, he can be back to that 20-plus goal scorer. We expect him pick up and grow with some of these other guys that didn’t have good years last year and need to play better. Maybe we can add some form of NHL players that can contribute with some of the assets that we have. I go back to the number of assets that we have added to our group over the last three trades, with all of them being except one, being a third-round pick or higher. The other one I think is the goalie that can go anywhere and still turn out well. It’s not like we just added assets. I think we’ve added valuable assets and I think it gives this organization a great opportunity to get creative.”
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