MARYLAND HEIGHTS, Mo. — Part of Doug Armstrong wanted to be selfish and keep goalie prospect Colten Ellis in the St. Louis Blues organization.
But the Blues’ GM also understands — and is happy — that the 25-year-old gets a crack to be on an NHL roster, something that may or may not have happened in St. Louis after Ellis was claimed off waivers by the Buffalo Sabres on Monday.
The Blues are locked in with Jordan Binnington and Joel Hofer as their 1-2 punch in the NHL, and Ellis would have been the organization’s No. 3 goalie on the depth chart and starter in Springfield of the American Hockey League, but the Blues needed waivers in order to put Ellis back in Springfield, and with the Sabres’ starting goalie, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, out week-to-week with a lower-body injury, and despite the Sabres having Alex Lyon, Alexandar Georgiev and Devin Levi available, Ellis is an intriguing option for Buffalo. Georgiev was put on waivers Tuesday and Levi was sent to their AHL affiliate in Rochester.
Still, Armstrong was taken aback a bit to lose Ellis.
“I’d say somewhat surprised,” Armstrong said. “Only because he doesn’t have that NHL resume. When he gets put into that first contest with the Sabres, it’s his first contest (in the NHL). Sometimes when you’re dealing with injuries, you’re looking for stability of someone that’s got a proven track record that the players can see. But he had a great year last year (22-14-2, 2.62 goals-against average, .922 save percentage). He’s progressed very well.
“When I called him yesterday, I said, ‘I’m really happy for you and really disappointed for the organization because you’ve done everything you could to put yourself in a great spot.’ He was clearly our No. 3 going into the year. Now he has the opportunity to take whatever Buffalo gives him and carve out an NHL career quickly. He wasn’t going to get that obviously here with Hofer and Binnington.”
Blues coach Jim Montgomery echoed those thoughts.
“It’s a tough loss for our organization,” Montgomery said. “A young man that … he’s a guy you cheer for. He started in the East Coast League, he just kept on working, kept on building his game and he’s established himself as a premier goalie in the American League and had a really good camp. Every time he was in the nets, he’s battling, he’s making difficult saves look easy. So he’s right on the cusp. It’s unfortunate. We’ll see how everything else develops from there from the goaltending aspect in our organization.”
Once the Sabres do get Luukkonen back, they could always carry three goalies, which isn’t likely, but then they will have to put someone on waivers to assign them to Rochester, and if it’s Ellis, the Blues could always reclaim him if given the chance and assign him right to Springfield.
In the meantime, it does take away from Springfield’s strengths, and the Thunderbirds would have gone with a tandem of Ellis and Vadim Zherenko, but now it will be Zherenko and Will Cranley for the foreseeable future.
“Right now we’ll go with ‘Z’ and Cranley,” Armstrong said before joking. “It’s a great business. The agents are always looking out for the St. Louis Blues. My phone is ringing off the hook on potential guys to help us. It’s great to see everyone care about us.”
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