Doug Armstrong isn’t seeking any media attention and will be the first to point out there’s still lots of work to be done.

But when The Athletic reached out to do an interview with the veteran general manager, he understood his St. Louis Blues are fashioning the kind of story right now that’s become the talk of the league, whether he wants a stoplight or not.

Nine wins in a row and a playoff spot in reach — it’s been one of the more remarkable events of the NHL season.

“The last six weeks have been a lot of fun to be part of,” Armstrong said Sunday. “We’ve become a really strong team, in the sense of emphasis on team. We’re getting really good balance from our veteran players, from our younger players, from the players in the middle, and that’s quite honestly the way that we’re going to have success today and moving forward, is in a team atmosphere and a team belief.”

What’s so rewarding for the Blues organization is how this validates the retooling that’s been happening over the past couple of years. The Blues have kept adding younger players and changing the mix around the veteran core guys.

It was an experiment that didn’t have any guarantees attached to it, and for the longest time this season, it was also looking like a third straight year out of the playoffs.

But then it all hit over the past six weeks, just in time to salvage this season. Armstrong sees a team that’s finally found its identity after floundering for a couple of years.

“From 2011 to the end of ’22, we were a strong team year in and year out — had some good teams, had some bad teams, but always a strong team,” Armstrong said. “We sort of lost our way for a bit. Really, the last six weeks, it feels like we’re back to having a real strong team foundation.”

That stretch from 2011 to ’22 saw the Blues make the postseason 10 of 11 seasons, taking multiple swings at the Stanley Cup and winning in 2019.

That was the scariest part for Armstrong as he pulled the levers on roster moves the past few years trying to reshape the lineup without bottoming out into a full rebuild: Was the revamped roster going to find its team-first identity again?

It looks like it finally has.

“I really credit the understanding from everybody that we need each other,” Armstrong said. “It was so foreign to the group that had been here. … We had never experienced like we did the last two years until about six weeks ago — where we couldn’t find something bigger than ourselves.

“When you’re not performing well as a unit on the ice, it’s just natural instincts to try and do more and, quite honestly, make sure you’re taking care of yourself.”

So what’s been so great to see, the Blues GM added, is how the veterans and the next wave of guys in their prime and the younger guys beneath them are all “bonding together.”

“Hopefully this is something that, whether we make the playoffs or not, or the amount of success, is something that’s foundational, that we can build off for the next five, six, seven years,” he said.

What’s wild is how different the trade deadline could have been had the Blues not started to find their mojo just in time. Armstrong has a well-earned reputation as someone who would not have hesitated to shake things up had his team been floundering. And truth be told, it was obvious from talking to other teams around the league before the 4 Nations Face-Off break that the Blues were at least listening on some core players to see what the market was.

But the team going on a run post-4 Nations shelved all that.

“We had to go on a run immediately coming out of the 4 Nations or else we had to explore gaining future assets or just changing the mix of our team,” Armstrong acknowledged. “Because we had brought in a new coach, we brought in different players around our core, but we weren’t changing — just how we were playing wasn’t changing.”

Armstrong credits head coach Jim Montgomery, hired in November, for how he prepared the Blues coming out of 4 Nations, having a mini training camp of sorts. The team took off from there.

Which shelved a lot of those trade conversations Armstrong was having.

“In all honesty, that’s our job is to say (to other teams), ‘If we don’t win some games, these guys are going to be available’ — because you don’t just do the same thing over and over again and expect it to change,” he said.

But with every win in that two-week period between 4 Nations and the trade deadline, Armstrong was telling teams he was less likely to move ahead on some of those trade conversations. His players were impacting his deadline by getting back in the playoff race.

“Then we beat L.A. on the Wednesday before the deadline, we had flipped to the only trade we would make was a hockey trade, not a futures trade,” Armstrong said. “Had we lost the three games prior to the deadline, then yeah, everything could be different.”

It’s crazy to think about.

Instead, the team finally came together — the veterans and the kids.

Armstrong’s bold decision last summer to target Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg in offer sheets from cap-strapped Edmonton is paying off handsomely. Holloway, 23, is tied for second in Blues scoring with 62 points (26 goals) while Broberg, also 23, is playing north of 20 minutes a night on the blue line.

How often do you get to add two 23-year-old players who can have that kind of impact?

“We added two players in that age bracket that we felt were finding their way,” Armstrong said. “Good players that were drafted in the first round. It’s one of the things that you look at — when you acquire players, you look not only at their recent history but also their overall history. To go in the first round, they had something that attracted a team to draft them there.

“We wanted to add as many players as we could the last few years into that age bracket.”

It was all part of trying to add to that next wave of players in that age group, fueling the roster transition.

“It expedited my internal belief that we could do it a little quicker because of those two guys coming in being added to the Jake Neighbourses, Tyler Tuckers, Joel Hofers, Zach Bolducs,” Armstrong said.

And now, it’s the very next wave entering the fray, with Dalibor Dvorsky (2023 first-round pick) and Jimmy Snuggerud (2022 first-round pick)suddenly joining the group. There are more prospects coming in the next couple of years, too.

“We’re starting to get that group that’s going to jump in with these guys over the next 12 to 24 months, so hopefully there’s a little bit of future left for the Blues as we try to stay as competitive as possible in the present,” Armstrong said.

Where does the recently signed Snuggerud fit into things in the middle of this crazy late-season push?

“It’s really up to the coach,” Armstrong said. “He’s in town today. He’s going to have his first practice tomorrow. He’s a gifted goal scorer. Most players have a calling card as they enter the league, and his calling card is the ability to shoot the puck. Goal scorers are at a premium, and he’s a goal scorer. Now whether he can find that quickly, we’re not asking him to come in and save our season or do something like that.

“We’re just trying to build, and he’s a building block for us. I think he’ll get an opportunity if Monty feels he’s ready. We’re playing for today and still building for the future. We’ve asked Monty to really walk a tightrope of doing both, and he’s done a hell of a job of that.”

The coaching change cannot be overlooked in all of this. Hiring Montgomery five days after he got fired by the Boston Bruins in November is now looking like a major event in this franchise turnaround. A coaching change wasn’t something Armstrong had planned for. He liked Drew Bannister. But he simply felt he couldn’t pass up the chance to get a guy of Montgomery’s pedigree.

“I wasn’t even considering a coaching change this year,” Armstrong said. “I knew where we were at and I thought Drew was doing a good job of building that foundation, but I view Jim as an elite coach, and when someone like that becomes available, we felt we had to change our outlook. I think that’s the job of all managers, to have a plan but to be flexible and adjust that plan depending on what’s happening around you.

“And when Monty became available, and knowing him from his time in St. Louis, it gave me the comfort level that if we decided to go down that route, it wasn’t with a total unknown. I knew the person, and I felt what we were trying to accomplish as an organization of building a foundation but staying competitive — I thought he could walk that tightrope. And I think he’s done a great job.”

As Armstrong pointed out, veteran center Brayden Schenn is playing some of his best hockey under Montgomery, and youngsters like Bolduc and Holloway are also thriving under the coach, so the impact from Montgomery has connected with different age groups.

“That’s something that attracted the Blues to Monty when he became available,” Armstrong said.

In his closing comment, Armstrong, one of the longest-tenured GMs, made a point of saying what a privilege it was to be associated with the core players on his team who found a way to get things back on track.

He’s been around a long time, and he’s a Stanley Cup-winning GM, but to see this retooled roster find its way has been a gratifying experience because, as Armstrong says, it starts with the core guys making it happen.

As he said, there’s still so much to prove this season, but it’s hard not to look at the bigger picture, as well, and think they might have turned a corner.

“We’re building a foundation that we hope is sustainable,” Armstrong said.

Sure looks like it.