By Jason Fink | June 27, 2026
With a few days left before general manager Doug Armstrong rides off into the sunset and hands the reins over to Alexander Steen, Army orchestrated one final blockbuster for the St. Louis Blues at the 2026 NHL Draft on Friday night. With the Blues on the clock at pick number 15 of the first round, they dealt the pick and their pick at 29 for Anaheim Ducks center Mason McTavish.
With the draft being short on elite players and more dependent on middle-round depth, the Blues decided that taking the chance on the 23-year-old McTavish was worth the risk. McTavish, who was the third overall pick of the Ducks in the 2021 NHL Draft, is six-foot-one and 219 pounds. Last season for the Ducks, McTavish scored 17 goals and had 41 points in 75 games. The point total was an 11-point decrease from the season before, when McTavish notched 22 goals and 52 points.
The Blues needed to shore up the center position, and they strengthened it dramatically over the past week. With McTavish now in the fold, he joins newly acquired centerman Connor McMichael, who figures to slot as the number two center for the Blues. McTavish projects to be an ideal third-line center with young wingers Dalibor Dvorsky and Jonatan Berggren.
With McTavish locked into a six-year $42 million contract he signed with the Ducks last September and not meeting the expectations they had when they drafted him, Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek made McTavish expendable to free up financial space to extend restricted free agents Cutter Gauthier and Leo Carlsson. The Blues aren’t strangers to bringing out the best in former first-round draft picks. Do the names Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg ring a bell?
The Blues will be rolling out four solid, hardworking lines in 2026-’27. They continue to build for the future and are right now sitting at a team average age of 27 and a half. They also have some potential pieces they can move later down the road for assets. If goaltender Jordan Binnington can rebound from a subpar 2025-’26, the Blues could ask for a nice ransom in return from a playoff-bound team come the trade deadline. Center Pius Suter might also be a piece the Blues could deal to free up room for six-foot-six, 227-pound center Jack Finley, who played quite well when given the opportunity.
With the addition of McTavish, McMichael, and defenseman Brandon Carlo, Blues fans shouldn’t start preparing for a second Stanley Cup parade down Market Street just yet. But they are rebuilding with building blocks that will make them a contender in the next two to three years. The Blues have young prospects Justin Carbonneau and Adam Jiricek on the horizon, and they could potentially make an impact in 2026-’27, depending on how they do in training camp.
Whether McTavish becomes what the Ducks envisioned him to be when they selected him third overall remains to be seen. But with Doug Armstrong’s track record of tapping into undeveloped talent, the Blues may have added another gem to their display case. If this was Army’s final swan song before taking his name off the general manager’s door, he left the Blues in the same spot as when he took them over in 2011; young and on the verge of being a top team in the NHL.
Thanks for everything, Doug.
Jason Fink is a writer, husband, and dad of two based in St. Louis. A sports fan for over 40 years with a tremendous love for the St. Louis Blues and St. Louis Cardinals, he writes with the perspective of someone who’s lived every high and low. His work blends insight, storytelling, and the kind of opinions every fan has—but doesn’t always say out loud
