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“That will open up some space for different
players that I’d like to see get in the lineup and see where it
goes," Armstrong said, referring specifically to younger
Alexandre Texier.
The 32-year-old Saad has been held without a goal in 40 of his
43 games this season. He has a total of 16 points on seven goals
and nine assists and was not garnering much, if any, trade
interest around the league.
“Obviously the production’s not there,” Armstrong said. “Right
now the cap is tight, and obviously statistically he’s not
having a great year and he’s got another year left. If we could
find a match, we would try.”
The Blues are languishing on the edge of the Western Conference
playoff race past the midway point of the season, five points
back of the second and final wild-card spot. Armstrong made his
first big move in November by firing Drew Bannister 22 games
into being the full-time coach and hiring Jim Montgomery as his
replacement.
St. Louis has gone 14-12-3 with Montgomery behind the bench. The
organization is trying to build for the future but also attempt
to win now, and there are plenty of questions about why that is
not happening.
“I don’t know why our home record is under .500,” Armstrong
said. “I don’t know whey we didn’t embrace the opportunity of a
three-game homestand to make hay. But my job is to not react to
it but to observe it and then say, ‘OK, well what do we need to
do moving forward?’ Part of the retool is we’re finding out
positives and negatives about a lot of different situations in
our group.”
Saad is in his fourth season with the Blues. During the prime of
his career, he helped Chicago win the Stanley Cup twice: in 2013
and then in 2015.
Putting him on waivers comes a day after trading defenseman
Scott Perunovich to the New York Islanders for a conditional
2026 fifth-round pick.
“I talked to the coach over the last little while and he didn’t
see a future to get him in the lineup here,” Armstrong said.
“So, when an opportunity came to give him a chance to play and
the Islanders were interested, it seemed like something that
made sense for us to help him along and wish him nothing but the
best.”
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