Blues GM expresses desire to hire Bouwmeester in near future

With his future playing status still up in the air, St. Louis Blues general manager Doug Armstrong shared he would love to hire Jay Bouwmeester to work with his organization at some point in the near future.

"I would love to work with him. I would love to get him into some scouting for us in the future," Armstrong said on the "Cam & Strick Podcast."

"He's one of those guys, he's got a great hockey mind - and also, retirement's great until you're home all the time. Now I'm not saying that he's going to want to travel like a pro scout and do four games in five nights in five cities, but he can go into Calgary, go up to Edmonton, go to Vancouver, he can come in when we're there."

Bouwmeester suffered a cardiac episode during a game in February and subsequently underwent a heart procedure to install an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, causing him to miss the rest of the 2019-20 season and playoffs.

The Edmonton, Alberta, native spoke to the media late in February while he recovered and stated he didn't make any decisions at the time about his playing future. He's currently an unrestricted free agent and has not retired officially.

Bouwmeester had an illustrious career to date after the Florida Panthers selected him third overall in the 2002 draft. The 37-year-old was named to two All-Star Games, won a Stanley Cup with the Blues in 2019, and won five gold medals with Team Canada in various international tournaments including the 2014 Olympics. He has appeared in 1,240 regular-season games during his 17-year career, tallying 424 points.