ST. LOUIS — Every time the inner circle of the St. Louis Blues management staff talked about what it wanted to accomplish this week, outgoing general manager Doug Armstrong and incoming GM Alexander Steen ended the conversation with the same self-warning.“We can’t force anything,” Armstrong said late Friday night, relaying the mantra.With the Blues having four first-round picks in the 2026 NHL Draft and reported to be involved in trade talks for multiple players, Armstrong acknowledged the possibility of doing nothing and the optics that would have.“As you move toward a deadline, the anticipation grows,” Armstrong said. “The excitement of your fan base grows. Everybody’s wanting something to happen, and they’re expecting something to happen. If you’re not careful, you can get caught on that wave.“If we don’t do anything, people are not going to be happy, so we just kept saying to ourselves, ‘Is this what we started out to accomplish?’”And what did they accomplish?A week that began Tuesday with the trade of Jordan Kyrou to the Washington Capitals for a package that included Connor McMichael continued Friday with a deal that sent two first-round picks to the Anaheim Ducks for Mason McTavish.The Blues also came away with two center prospects in the draft, taking Boston University’s Tynan Lawrence at No. 11 and QMJHL’s Quebec’s Maddux Dagenais at No. 16.Armstrong indicated earlier this week that the Blues might use their arsenal of first-round picks on a combination of established players and draft prospects, and that’s exactly what they did.And the Blues don’t feel like they forced anything.“We were excited about the Washington trade. We were excited about the Anaheim trade,” Armstrong said. “We weren’t going to trade for the sake of trading and not do something that fit a vision the St. Louis Blues organization shares, from ownership down to the coaches down to the players. There’s a core group of guys that we’d like to build around, and we’ve added a couple of players into that group.”There are some outside the organization, however, questioning the decision to trade for McTavish, 23.That’s because Anaheim’s No. 3 pick from 2021 is coming off a season in which he missed the start of training camp due to a contract holdout, and then after signing a six-year, $42 million ($7 million average annual value) contract, he was a healthy scratch twice in the regular season and two more times in the playoffs.After the season, McTavish admitted that he needed to be better defensively and improve his foot speed, and Ducks GM Pat Verbeek added that his consistency was an issue.So why McTavish? What do the Blues see in him?“Pedigree for sure,” Armstrong said. “He’s a top-three overall pick recently, captain of Team Canada in the past. Playoff performer in the (OHL). This year was a down year for him, and he understands that. We talked to him — obviously we do our research on this — and I know what he’s been doing back home, what type of training and how he felt about his season. He’s taken that head on and wants to come back (strong).“When you’re drafted (No. 3) to an organization (like Anaheim), he probably got into the league quicker than most, so you’re sort of learning on the fly. We’re excited for all the gray matter he’s picked up in such a short period of time, and it’s our job to give him the platform to be the best he can be. When I talked to him, he’s extremely excited about a new opportunity and solidifying his position in the league and certainly on this team.”St. Louis and Anaheim had been talking about a deal for McTavish, and the New York Rangers were also in the mix for him. But Friday, the Rangers acquired the Vegas Golden Knights’ Pavel Dorofeyev, who then signed a seven-year, $77 million contract ($11 million AAV) with them.That left the Blues.Talks with the Ducks had progressed to the point that Verbeek knew what was on the table. Armstrong had Nos. 11, 15, 16 and 29, but said, “We were not going to move 11.” The offer was Nos. 15 and 29, and shortly before the Blues were scheduled to be on the board, Verbeek called and said: “Would you still do that deal?”But there was still a possibility it wouldn’t happen.The Ducks wanted to use the No. 15 pick to take right winger Nikita Klepov, so if he was still on the board, they were going to agree to the McTavish deal.“I just sat there to see if the team picking No. 14 (the Columbus Blue Jackets) called that name, and they didn’t, so I knew we had a trade,” Armstrong said.In McTavish, the Blues are adding a 6-foot-1, 219-pound forward who played center and left wing in Anaheim. Armstrong said the Blues’ plan is to start him out in the middle, joining a group of centers that includes Robert Thomas, McMichael, Dalibor Dvorsky and Pius Suter.“My experience is you can never have too many centers,” Armstrong said. “Centers can go to the wing easily. Wingers can’t go to the middle very easy. So it’s going to give (Blues coach Jim Montgomery) and his staff some opportunity to tinker and play with it. But we see him as a centerman.”They believe McTavish will be a player, too, who will go to the hard areas in front of the net.“He has that ability, and that’s one of the things that excites us,” Armstrong said.The team’s recent hiring of Greg Cronin as an assistant coach helped in evaluating McTavish. Cronin was the Ducks’ head coach for two seasons in 2023-24 and ’24-25, and in the second season, McTavish scored 22 goals and 52 points in 76 games.“He had a very good year under Cro,” Armstrong said. “We all have contacts in the league that we can call, but you’re able to scratch a little bit deeper under the surface when you have somebody that you’re actually paying. We talked to him, and that was an added benefit, for sure.”The time to strike on McTavish was now, Armstrong said, and not wait.“If we (make) all four selections, which we would’ve been excited to have, how were we going to acquire players after this point?” Armstrong said. “Like, where do you get a McTavish in July? Where do you get one in August?“There’s a window of time where everyone is focused on it. I’m not sure if we would’ve been able to use one of these players that we drafted to find another player that fits into our time frame.”There was a report on Thursday that the Blues were also interested in Dallas Stars restricted free agent Jason Robertson and that Armstrong was willing to send multiple first-round picks as part of a package for the forward.Armstrong didn’t definitively shoot that down on Friday, but when asked about all the trade rumors, he did say he called one GM to joke about a rumor that was unfounded, seemingly referring to Stars GM Jim Nill.“I said, ‘Wow, you and I almost made a big deal, and we hadn’t talked in two weeks,'” Armstrong said. “So there’s a lot of stuff out there that’s not true, but that’s just the time of year that stuff happens.”Also, two days after essentially begging GMs with a pick in the top five of the draft to call him about a trade, Armstrong said it was fairly quiet on that front Friday.“There was no way we were getting to four,” Armstrong said. “I called five. ‘No, we’re picking.’ I called six. ‘No, we’re picking.’ I called seven. ‘No, we’re picking.’ I called eight. ‘No, we’re picking.’“There was a team near us — I don’t want to say the number — and they said, ‘OK, if my guy’s not there, I’ll take it.’ But I never got the call that their guy wasn’t there.”So the Blues came up at No. 11 and selected Lawrence (6-foot, 185), a player who projects as a two-way second- or third-line center. He’s a good skater, a strong puck handler and has a solid work ethic.Tynan Lawrence goes No. 11 to St. LouisThe Athletic Hockey Show“‘Dog on a bone’ is the term that our (scouting) guys kept saying,” Armstrong said. “I think we have a primary line right now if (Montgomery) decides to use it that way with (Dylan) Holloway, (Jimmy) Snuggerud and Robert Thomas, then I think you need six forwards who can make the balance of the next two lines. I think Lawrence is going to slide in there like all that group of players.”Then at No. 16, after making the McTavish trade, the Blues took Dagenais (6-4, 196). He had 30 goals and 62 points in 62 games for Quebec last season.The St. Louis Blues draft capable scorer Maddox DagenaisThe Athletic Hockey Show“He’s a big man,” Armstrong said. “A player that has multi-positional talents — center to left wing. His runway might be a little bit longer as he grows into his body, as he adds muscle, as he adds strength. But we think the finished product, when he totally matures, he’s going to be a handful that can score.”