Blues fire head coach Bannister, hire Montgomery on five-year deal

Drew Bannister is out as coach of the St. Louis Blues after less than a full calendar year on the job. Jim Montgomery is back behind the bench of an NHL team five days after he was fired by the Boston Bruins.

The Blues fired Bannister on Sunday and hired Montgomery as his replacement, a stunning move a quarter of the way through the NHL season that puts a seasoned coach in charge of shepherding St. Louis through a retooling period and into the potential re-opening of the organization's Stanley Cup-contending window.

President and general manager Doug Armstrong said he did not anticipate making a change until Montgomery became a free agent.

“This was more of an opportunity to get someone of Jim’s caliber than anything else,” Armstrong said on a video call with reporters. “When I talked to Drew today I told him this was more of a decision based on the availability of someone I think is a top NHL coach, someone that we have experience with, someone I really do believe can coach this team and also coach the team when it reaches its ultimate level of competitiveness."

Armstrong showed no hesitation in cutting ties with Bannister, who had the interim tag removed from his title and became the full-time coach in May. Bannister was promoted from Springfield of the American Hockey League to replace 2019 Cup-winning coach Craig Berube last December, and the Blues missed the playoffs despite winning 30 of their final 54 games.

The Blues lost 13 of their first 22 games this season. Only two teams have scored fewer than their 2.36 goals a game, and they rank in the bottom third of the league on the power play and penalty kill while ravaged by injuries.

“It wasn’t an easy situation for him to walk into,” Armstrong said, adding he felt Bannister was learning on the fly as a first-time NHL head coach. “He was making mistakes. We were all making mistakes. ... I was more than willing to go through the peaks and valleys with Drew until Monty became available.”

Montgomery, 55, is tasked with getting the most out of the talent available, something he has accomplished elsewhere. Every team he has coached for a full season has qualified for the playoffs, and his .659 points percentage ranks among the best in NHL history.

“He’s got a wealth of experience, and he’s at really the prime of his coaching career,” Armstrong said. “He’s the full package, or at least we hope he’s the full package.”

The Bruins opted to move on from Montgomery after their rough start, going 8-9-3, with the final defeat being a 5-1 home loss to Columbus. Boston won 120 of 184 regular-season games with Montgomery running the show, including setting the league records for victories and points in 2021-22 when he was the obvious choice for the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year.

His second act as a head coach in the NHL came after Montgomery's first ended abruptly. Hired by the Dallas Stars in 2018, he led them to the second round and then was fired in December 2019 for unprofessional conduct.

Montgomery called his dismissal appropriate, entered rehab and began putting his life back together.

“He’s obviously gone through things at the rink and away from the rink that defined who he is today,” Armstrong said.

Montgomery got his re-entry into hockey from the Blues, with Armstrong hiring Montgomery as an assistant on Berube's staff in September 2020. That was the first sign of the longtime executive's affinity for Montgomery, and the latest comes with job security. St. Louis signed him to a five-year contract.

Montgomery is the latest coach to be fired and re-hired midseason, a more common occurrence in the NHL than most professional sports leagues. Being out of a job for mere days is reminiscent of Bruce Boudreau's experience in 2011, when he was fired by Washington on a Monday morning and replaced Randy Carlyle in Anaheim later that week.

This is the 23rd coaching change among the league's 32 teams since January 2023, with the Blues among those making multiple moves in that time.

“A coach that I believe is a difference-maker became available, and we reacted to it,” Armstrong said. “We have a top-level NHL coach, and now it’s time for all of us to do our jobs and support him.”