ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) – In a whirlwind move Sunday morning, Drew Bannister is out as the St. Louis Blues head coach.
And this time, no interim tag will be required for his replacement.
The Blues have replaced Bannister with Jim Montgomery as the new head coach on a five-year contract, the team announced Sunday following Saturday night’s loss to the Islanders. The announcement comes as the Blues have won only two of their last nine games.
Montgomery becomes the third head coach for the Blues in less than a year, with the Note previously firing Stanley Cup-winning coach Craig Berube and naming Bannister as his replacement after he served in an interim role to close out last season.
Although the on-ice product has struggled this season, with the Blues sitting just three points above the cellar of the Central division standings, Sunday’s move is arguably more about Doug Armstrong taking advantage of an unexpected opportunity than anything else.
The Blues made the decision to remove the interim tag from Bannister after last season only after it became clear that Montgomery wouldn’t be an option to replace him at the time.
Rumors of the Blues’ interest in Montgomery had swirled as his status as the head coach of the Boston Bruins came under scrutiny toward the tail end of last season. But when the Bruins won their opening round series against the Maple Leafs in last year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs, it was enough to secure his role in Boston through the summer.
However, when the Bruins fired Montgomery this week, that ostensibly spelled the end for Bannister.
Montgomery has been signed to a five-year contract and becomes the 28th head coach in the franchise history. Previously, Montgomery spent two seasons with the Boston Bruins, where he broke the mark for the most wins by a coach in their first season with a team and won the 2022-23 Jack Adams Award for coach of the year.
As a player, Montgomery appeared in 122 NHL regular-season games, including 67 with the Blues during his rookie season.
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