[1] Ornest was born in Edmonton, Canada, the son of immigrants from Eastern Europe.
Although the Blues maintained consistency in making the Stanley Cup playoffs since 1980, financial troubles had racked the team.
At the time, it was owned by Ralston Purina, a pet food giant based in the city.
He would run the team with a shoestring budget while utilizing deferred salaries to meet costs, which included having less players on contract than other teams and trading players when dealing with salary pinching; Mike Liut was the most notable case of this, as he was traded in the middle of the 1984-85 season to the Hartford Whalers despite the Blues leading the division.
In his three seasons of ownership, the team went 106-106-28 while reaching the postseason all three years, which included making the Campbell Conference Finals in 1986, something they would not accomplish again until 2001.