NHL.com's Q&A feature called "Five Questions With …" runs every Tuesday. We talk to key figures in the game and ask them questions to gain insight into their lives, careers and the latest news.

The latest edition features St. Louis Blues general manager Doug Armstrong:

St. Louis Blues general manager Doug Armstrong was on his way home from a long day -- more accurately a long couple of weeks -- when he was reached by phone Monday afternoon.

Armstrong seemed relaxed and satisfied, calm and measured. He also was very willing to put his feet up and let other people dissect what he and his fellow general managers did before the NHL Trade Deadline.

"Now you guys have got to make sense of it all," Armstrong said to NHL.com. "This is the fun time of the year now. My experience shows that when the players have their first practice after the deadline there is more heightened awareness. This is their team. This is what it is. Let's get our game in order now. You're past the dog days and you're into really why we played the game as kids and why we follow the game. You're into the most enjoyable time."

Armstrong was busy Monday bolstering the Blues roster for what he hopes will be a long run in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

He acquired defenseman Zbynek Michalek and a conditional third-round draft pick from the Arizona Coyotes for prospect Maxim Letunov. Michalek is out with a concussion, which is why the Blues got the conditional pick. The pick goes away once Michalek plays a game for St. Louis.

Armstrong also swapped defensemen with the Pittsburgh Penguins, bringing Robert Bortuzzo to St. Louis for an element of size and toughness while sending Ian Cole to the Penguins.

Armstrong acquired center Olli Jokinen from the Toronto Maple Leafs for forward Joakim Lindstrom and a conditional sixth-round draft pick in 2016. Jokinen is insurance in case of an injury to any of the Blues' top-nine forwards.

While making all of those trades, Armstrong was obviously tuned in to what his fellow general managers were doing. For the most part, he was not surprised.

"A lot of the guys that moved [Monday] were being mentioned [in trade talk]. A lot of the depth players, I'm not surprised they moved," Armstrong said. "There were a couple trades that were bigger. Personally I didn't see the one between Pittsburgh and Anaheim [Simon Despres for Ben Lovejoy]. Those weren't names I heard before. But the majority of the trades that were made, you saw the logic in those guys moving from one team to another."

Before Armstrong pulled into his driveway he was able to explain some of the logic in the moves he saw and the moves he made in a conversation with NHL.com.

Here are Five Questions with … Doug Armstrong:

You've been involved in many of these trade deadlines, so the prices this year, how did you see them? Were they high? What was the chatter amongst you and your fellow general managers about the particular prices that were being paid, even for rentals, as it came down to the wire?

"My experience tells me that if you live in a glass house, you better not throw stones. They're high if you're not involved, but last year we were involved and they didn't seem too high. I think it's the ebbs and flows of your own organization. You look at where your team is at; making the playoffs is one thing and pushing to go deep in the playoffs is another. You're willing to pay at different times. Obviously the last two years our approach was different than this year. Two years ago and last year, we were bringing in marquee players that were going to go in and change the balance in the locker room. This year we were bringing in support players to lend a hand to the guys that are in the locker room. Where we were in our maturation and really what we were willing to give up and looking to do we weren't in the heavy lifting that some other teams were in."

When you talk about going to get marquee players such as Jay Bouwmeester two years ago and Ryan Miller last year versus going out to get Michalek, Bortuzzo and Jokinen this year, does that mean you feel that the Blues are ahead of the game at this time in the season compared to the last two seasons?

"Yeah, but we're a different team. A perfect example is what happened in our game (Sunday) night. We feel more comfortable with our offensive push now that we can come back in games that we probably didn't have the firepower to come back in before. With that being said, we get involved in higher scoring games than we have in the past also. So we're at a different point, but our team is a year more mature and the guys that are leading our charge right now, there was no player out there that was going to come in and supersede our top-four defensemen and our top-nine forwards so we weren't involved in that market."

Obviously when you acquire a player like Michalek, who is dealing with a concussion, there is a risk in doing so. Why did you feel the reward for acquiring Michalek outweighed the risk?

"Well, we got the protection if he doesn't play. We gave up pick 52 from last year [Letunov] and if he doesn't play a game for us we get pick 61 or 62, or depending on where Arizona finishes we get their third. So there is some protection there if it is a lingering concussion and he doesn't play, we're basically getting the same pick back, just obviously assumed half of the contract for Michalek. [Coyotes GM] Don [Maloney] was really forthright in his condition. He allowed our medical staff to talk to their medical staff. He gave me updates over the past 10 days about what he was doing and what steps he was taking in the concussion protocol. There is a really good feeling that he's going to be able to return and have enough games under his belt before the playoffs start to be in top game shape.

"Michalek now has played the last six years against the other team's top players on a nightly basis, so he's not going to have to do that in our group but he gives us another player that's done that. So when you have an injury, you have a guy who can come up and absorb those minutes and when you're playing on the road in the playoffs you're very comfortable with all three pairs on the ice. If you get a defensive zone faceoff and you throw your guys out and they throw out (Jonathan) Toews and that group, or they throw out (Anze) Kopitar and that group, Michalek is not going to say, 'Oh, I haven't seen this matchup very often.' He just gives us that experience. It's a stupid term, but that been there, done that … he has that. And I really like the idea if possible to have three righty-lefty pairs."

Why? There are teams that survive without that righty-lefty balance on defense. What are the reasons you feel it's so important to have that balance?

"I think it makes your breakouts cleaner and crisper. In the offensive zone, on rims you're not dragging it off your backhand. It's obviously a simpler game in that area. A lot of guys have played their offside. Jay Bouwmeester played his offside quite a bit before he got to us. Dion [Phaneuf] does it. It's not like it can't be done, but for us in a perfect world the righty-lefty works. We made a decision last summer that it was important to get a top-four player and to do that we eliminated our right-lefty situation by trading Roman [Polak]. So it's an ideal world, it's not a necessity to have that."

Did you go into the deadline looking to make moves thinking that the Blues are going to face the Blackhawks in the first round and you have to prepare for that?

"I think with the divisional matchups now it's much clearer and cleaner to pick who you're going to play. We have to look and say we're trailing Nashville by so many and we're up only so many on Chicago, so there is a strong likelihood that those points are difficult to make up. That being said, we would love to grab Nashville's attention with a couple more wins here and finish first, but the reality is that you finish first and the luxury might be able to play L.A., Minnesota or Winnipeg in the first round. It's pick your poison, they're all good teams. Our goal is to win four rounds and we're just putting the best players on the ice. That sort of goes from experience I had in Dallas, when starting in the mid-to-late 90s Detroit was the team we were all focused on playing. We played the Red Wings one year and lost, so you're looking at what the Red Wings are doing, but we only played them that one time. You just never know. With the divisional matchup it's a little more likely to know, but you do what's right for your team and you don't try to find a player to play against a player."

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