Multi-team head coach and recent Springfield bench boss Drew Bannister is heading to the NHL as the St. Louis Blues have let go of longtime coach Craig Berube.
In case you missed it, and many of us did since the news broke late overnight, the St. Louis Blues have fired Stanley Cup-winning head coach Craig Berube. Springfield Thunderbirds bench boss Drew Bannister has been named interim head coach.
The final straw for Berube came in the form of a messy 6-4 loss to the shorthanded Detroit Red Wings, pushing the Blues below .500 with a 13-14-1 record and marking the fourth straight loss and fifth in their last six games.
Berube moved from associate coach to head coach of the Blues in November 2018, quickly turning the slumping squad around to an improbable run to capture the Stanley Cup.
The Blues finished sixth in the central division last season, missing the playoffs for the first time since 2011-12. Berube amassed a steady 206-131-44 record across parts of six seasons with the Blues, further coaching another 161 games with the Flyers from 2013-15.
In Bannister, 49, the Blues welcome a 20-year pro who played in 164 NHL regular season games with the Lightning, Oilers, Ducks and Rangers.
Northland Bannister has spent the past three seasons coaching the AHL's Thunderbirds, compiling a 93-58-19 regular season record and leading the team the the Calder Cup final in 2021-22. Through 22 games this season the Thunderbirds, under Bannister, have a 12-8-2 record.
He spent three years coaching in the OHL as an assistant with Owen Sound, with another three punched as head coach of the Soo Greyhounds before moving to the AHL, where he was a head coach for the San Antonio Rampage and associate coach for the Utica Comets.
Bannister is expected to make his NHL coaching debut Thursday when the Blues take on the Senators on home ice.