Blues GM makes some surprising comments on Leafs GM Kyle Dubas
Doug Armstrong, the GM of the St. Louis Blues, joined TSN1050's "First Up" on Friday and two of the things he was was asked about were the Ryan O'Reilly deal and his thoughts on Leafs GM Kyle Dubas. Armstrong entered seller's mode prior to the trade deadline as the Blues were struggling and traded Ivan Barbashev, Ryan O'Reilly and Noel Acciari to recoup some draft capital and begin a rebuild. At the time, Armstrong said when he realized that the Blues' season wasn't going the way they had hoped, he sent out feelers to the league to gauge interest in the aforementioned players, among others.
"Toronto is obviously a top team in the league and I give Kyle a lot of credit. He looked at what he needed. He put a lot of trust in his top six forwards and tried to augment that group and give them support," said Armstrong.
First Up co-host and former Leaf Carlo Colaiacovo then asked Armstrong how negotiating deals with Kyle Dubas differs from other GMs across the league. "I'm a big fan of Kyle, I like him because he's direct. We pretty much end up close to the deals on our third call. We both understand what we're looking for," praised Armstrong. "You want to present a trade that you can see logic in from the other side, and Kyle did that."
That is some very high praise from the 58-year-old Armstrong. Particularly because Armstrong has been in a management position in the NHL since 1992 and has dealt with hundreds of other General Managers over that time. For those that say Dubas does not have respect around the league, Armstrong has just proven them wrong.
