Team Canada has named current St. Louis Blues general manager Doug Armstrong as one of three key leaders for its future 2026 Olympic men's hockey team. Armstrong joins former player Ryan Getzlaf, currently director of player development for the Anaheim Ducks, and Scott Salmond, Hockey Canada's senior vice president of high performance and hockey operations.
Mr. Armstrong, 59, lives in Sarnia, Ontario. Her native Armstrong won three gold medals at the world championships in 2007, 2016 and last year, as well as two silver medals in 2008 and 2009. With the Blues, he won the Stanley Cup in 2019 after winning it as an assistant GM for a rival team in the Central Division. He joined Dallas in 1999, and after the 2011-12 season, the Blues advanced to the conference semifinals and ultimately defeated that year's champion Los Angeles, winning NHL GM of the Year.
He also became the 11th GM in NHL history to reach 800 career wins after the Blues won a 2-1 shootout in Philadelphia on March 4. Coincidentally, the next GM with the most wins is Flyers great Bobby Clark with 806 wins, so if Armstrong were to surpass him. This puts him in the top 10 all-time, with Emile Francis, former Blues GM, coach and vice president from 1976 to 1983, in ninth place. He is best known for rebuilding the New York Rangers in the midst of '54. Year cup drought.
Armstrong coached the Blues for about 14 years and appeared in nearly 1,500 games with the team. This makes him the third-highest total in franchise history, behind Ron Caron, who served as general manager from 1984 to 1997, and his successor, Larry Proulx, who served as general manager from 1998 until Armstrong's early days as manager.
He was the winningest GM in Blues history in terms of percentage, holding the position for just two years (1969-1971) and holding a .635 winning percentage, ahead of second-place Scottie Bowman, who had a winning percentage of .584. ing. Again, as mentioned above, Armstrong is the only Blues GM to win a Cup with St. Louis in 2019.
Armstrong was originally scheduled to be named GM of Canada's 2022 Olympic team in Beijing, but chose not to do so after the NHL decided not to send players to the Chinese capital. He was replaced by longtime Arizona Coyotes captain Shane Doan. All three will bring a vast amount of international hockey management experience to Milan in the coming years, but it may be Armstrong's resume that is most impressive.
