Blues GM Armstrong on Hitchcock's future: 'We're talking again now'

It's back to square one for the St. Louis Blues.

General manager Doug Armstrong has resumed talks with Ken Hitchcock after a failed pursuit of new Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Mike Babcock, but the GM said there's no set timetable on determining Hitchcock's fate.

"We're not going to put a specific date on when we'll have a decision," Armstrong told Tom Timmerman of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

"Ken and I have had really good communications since the end of the season. When I was in Europe we talked quite a bit. We're talking again now. We're both still discussing what we need to do (to) get better and going through the process."

Hitchcock's contract is set to expire next month. He remained the Blues head coach throughout the team's reported participation in the Babcock sweepstakes over the last few weeks.

"I certainly can say we're a lot closer to the finish line now than we were two or three weeks ago but we're not there yet," Armstrong said.

"Ken and I are going to keep working towards having good communication and making sure we're both in the same vein, taking (the) same path as we move forward. It's something that we're working on every day, we're trying to do it behind closed doors and away from public scrutiny."

St. Louis finished the regular season on top of the Central division with 109 points, but lost to the Minnesota Wild in the first round of the playoffs.

The Blues have failed to make it past the first round in three straight seasons and lost in the second round to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles Kings in 2012, Hitchcock's first season in St. Louis.

"I'm aware that people want answers," Armstrong said. "Unfortunately, or fortunately for us, we have a strong ownership group that understands that this is a process. We're going to make use of our time and when a final decision has been made, we'll announce it."