Return to first round possible for Blues

Saturday, 06.01.2013 / 10:16 AM

By Adam Kimelman - NHL.com Deputy Managing Editor / Combing the 2013 NHL Combine

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Combing the 2013 NHL Combine
Return to first round possible for Blues

TORONTO -- The St. Louis Blues won't make their first pick at the 2013 NHL Draft until the middle of the second round. At least, that's the plan right now.

"We don't have a first round pick yet," Blues general manager Doug Armstrong told NHL.com. "But the draft's not tomorrow either."

The Blues traded this year's first-round pick to the Calgary Flames as part of the Jay Bouwmeester deal, but Armstrong said getting back into the top round this year remains a possibility.

"We know we're not going to get into that top five or six, but anything after that is always a potential on draft day," he said. "There's a lot of emphasis put on, don't worry about what we don't have, we could acquire something, and make sure we're prepared for it."

Armstrong said he sees the potential for this year's draft, scheduled for June 30 at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., to be an active one on the trade front, and though he certainly would like to move up into the first round, he said it's not imperative. The depth of the draft makes him confident the Blues will find a quality player wherever they end up picking.

"We're not going to rob Peter to pay Paul," he said. "It would be nice to have that [first-round] pick, but we don't want to deplete an area of strength on our current roster to do that. It would have to be the right short- and long-term for us.

"It's a deep draft from what our scouting staff is telling us. … There's going to be players climbing out of the second, third and fourth rounds that are going to play and be good players. Our job is to find one of them."

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