Blues considering moving up in draft

The St. Louis Blues are hoping to be picking higher than their current spot at 20th overall in Friday's draft.

General manager Doug Armstrong spoke to stlouisblues.com where he was adamant the team is open and hopeful of swinging a deal to improve its placement in the draft.

"We are considering moving up," Armstrong said, according to NHL.com's Chris Pinkert. "We've talked to some teams that are in an area where they think they might want to move back and grab either two first-round picks or one of our firsts and our second-round pick, depending on how far we move up.

"There are a couple of players we have our eye on."

The Blues have two first-round picks, the 20th overall selection as well as the 28th pick, which was acquired from the Washington Capitals in the Kevin Shattenkirk trade.

Looking at this year's draft, Armstrong believes the field isn't as strong as in years past, but remains confident that there will still be quality players to be had.

"(This draft) doesn't have the (Sidney) Crosby, (Alex) Ovechkin or (Auston) Mathews-type players at the top end, but we're still excited," Armstrong said. "It doesn't look like it has the depth of Robby Fabbri's draft where you might get a guy to fit in your top six. But that being said, someone is going to outperform the draft, they always do. It could be someone in the late first round or the fourth round.

"There's going to be a great player coming from this draft, and our job is trying to find one of them."