Blues assign Logan Mailloux to AHL for what GM Doug Armstrong calls ‘a reset’ – The Athletic
ST. LOUIS — General manager Doug Armstrong has decided to hit the reset button with St. Louis Blues defenseman Logan Mailloux, which is sure to cause much consternation with the team’s fan base following the rookie’s summer trade from the Montreal Canadiens.
The club announced Sunday morning that Mailloux has been re-assigned to the Blues’ American Hockey League affiliate, the Springfield (Mass.) Thunderbirds.
Defenseman Hunter Skinner, a fourth-round pick of the New York Rangers in 2019 who was acquired in the trade that sent Vladimir Tarasenko to the Rangers in 2023, has been recalled to replace Mailloux.
“Obviously the season for the Blues and Logan hasn’t started the way we want it to, and I think it’s important for him to go down and play a number of games to get his game back in order and to unlock his mind,” Armstrong said. “Right now, he’s playing like he’s locked up a little bit, where he’s playing not to make a mistake and you can’t play in the NHL at that level. When we talked earlier in the year, we were hoping it was going to go smoothly. It hasn’t gone smoothly for him, and it hasn’t gone smoothly for us.”
Mailloux, 22, was Montreal’s first-round pick (No. 31) in 2021. In two seasons with the Canadiens, he played just eight games in the NHL, while spending 135 games with the team’s AHL affiliate, the Laval Rocket.
Then last July, the Blues dealt young forward Zack Bolduc to Montreal for Mailloux, and Armstrong said at the time that a job among the team’s top-six defensemen would be his to lose.
In training camp, Blues coach Jim Montgomery deemed Mailloux “NHL ready,” and he opened the season in the third defensive pair. However, in his first four games, he was a minus-7, including a minus-4 in an 8-3 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks, and had just two shots on goal.
Mailloux has been bouncing in and out of the lineup ever since and was a healthy scratch for the seventh time in 16 games this season in the Blues’ overtime loss to the Seattle Kraken Saturday night.
The Blues have had Hall of Famer Al MacInnis, a senior advisor to Armstrong, spend some time with Mailloux, who also recently heard from Hall of Famer Chris Pronger on how to handle the pressure of being a young defenseman off to a slow start with a new team.
In nine games played, Mailloux has no points and just five shots on goal. In 111 minutes, 24 seconds of five-on-five ice time, he’s been on for one goal for and 13 against, per Natural Stat Trick.
After starting Mailloux out this season in a pairing with Tyler Tucker, 25, the Blues have partnered him with well-established defensemen Cam Fowler and Philip Broberg, but nothing has worked.
“We’ve been a pretty poor team,” Armstrong said. “He started the year not with a veteran partner, and then with our team not playing well, we didn’t stack the odds in his favor with our play. As you watch him now, he’s playing not to make a mistake. You go through cycles in hockey where you get good breaks or bad breaks, and it seems that no matter what he does, it ends up as a bad break.
“I’m not making excuses for him, but he needs a reset. To sit out and go in, on a team that’s not functioning at a high level right now like we are, we’re not supporting him when he’s in there. So it’s not fair to him and we have a long-term plan. We have to make sure what we’re doing is not only fair to the Blues’ organization today, but our players for tomorrow.”
In other words, it’s time for Mailloux to just go play.
“I don’t want to say ‘stress free’ because he’s not going down there to play pond hockey,” Armstrong said. “But going down and just breathing, not having that anxiety every day of ‘my next shift.’ I don’t think he’s going to gain that right now by sitting here watching, then going in and not using him correctly. We have to share the responsibility to make sure we’re putting him in a proper environment.”
The Blues don’t expect the move to be long term. The plan is to play Mailloux in “a few games” in Springfield. The Thunderbirds have three games scheduled next week and six before Thanksgiving.
“There’s a finite time he’s going down, with the understanding that things change depending on play,” Armstrong said. “We expect to go play well and come back up here with a clearer mind. That’s why I say it’s a finite time, unless things don’t go well, meaning he doesn’t take the bait. But I think he’s going to.”
Mailloux will get some power-play time with Springfield, but the priority is to work on his 200-foot game, skating and physical tools.
“We believe in Logan,” Armstrong said. “It’s something that I’ve talked to him about: We’re in it for the marathon, not the sprint. I’m sure he’s not happy about going down, but I think he understands the process when he gets back up.”
Skinner, 24, is a 6-foot-3, 198-pound right-shot defenseman. In 11 games this season with the Thunderbirds, who are 1-8-2, he has one goal, one assist and is a minus-6.
“He had a good training camp, (plays with) a physical edge, and he’s earned the right,” Armstrong said.
The move will likely be met with criticism, given that Bolduc is playing on Montreal’s second line with Kirby Dach and Brendan Gallagher and has four goals and six points in 15 games.
“I certainly respect and read and understand the angst of the fans,” Armstrong said. “But our goal is to do what’s best for (Mailloux) and the organization, and while there could be support for him to go down and play well, there could be negativity. But you can’t really make your decisions based on public perception. I think this is best for him and the Blues and that’s why we’re doing it.”
