Armstrong Isn't Bothered Montgomery Is Third Blues Coach In Less Than A Year

Doug Armstrong got his man, finally, but one of the questions the St. Louis Blues general manager was asked on Sunday after hiring Jim Montgomery as the 28th coach in franchise history if he was OK with how things progressed knowing this was the third coach behind a Blues bench in less than a year.

Armstrong fired Stanley Cup-winning coach Craig Berube on Dec. 12, 2023 and immediately replaced him with Drew Bannister, who was coaching the Blues' American Hockey League affiliate in Springfield, Mass. on an interim basis before signing him to a two-year contract extension after finishing last season 30-19-5.

All this was done with Montgomery off the board because he was in the final season of a three-year contract the 55-year-old had signed with the Boston Bruins after leaving the Blues, where he was an assistant under Berube from 2020-22.

But when Montgomery came back on the board once he was fired Tuesday by the Bruins at 8-9-3 to begin this season, the wheels were set in motion for another change.

It was an easier move with the Blues off to a less-than-expected 9-12-1 start.

"I think the one with Craig, it was a heck of a run and a change was needed," Armstrong said. "I think Drew coming in and doing a good job as the interim was positive. We went through the process last year of thinking about other coaches and I came back that Drew had done enough to warrant the opportunity to learn on the job here in the NHL and work through that.

"As I said, I woke up Wednesday morning and I had no plans of doing this type of a news conference at all. Except a coach that I believe is a difference-maker became available, and we reacted to it. So I certainly understand if that's how people are viewing it. But having a five-year deal with Monty ... I go back to when [Ken] Hitchcock came in: coaching is not an issue. Coaching, if there's an off ramp of inexperience, that is no longer there. We have a top-level coach and now it's time for all of us to do our jobs and support him."

So what could be the expectations for Montgomery, who will make his debut as coach Monday against the New York Rangers?

Can he get this group as it is constructed right now turned around? Asking for a Berube-like turnaround may be a bit much when he replaced Mike Yeo in 2018.

"I think when Craig came in, that was perceived on paper to be a really good team," Armstrong said. "People were picking us to win the championship prior to that season starting. We were under-performing to a large level that year and he got us organized and then we became the team that we thought we were going to be. That was a mature team, an experienced team. You look at the players we brought in that summer, from [Ryan] O'Reilly to [David] Perron to [Tyler] Bozak, the 'Big Rig' [Pat Maroon] came in, that was a team that was focused on competing for a championship. I think when Ken [Hitchcock] came in, the parallels were a little closer: young players, defining players. He was going to work with them and show us the guys that we wanted to move forward with. That's what 'Monty' is going to do, and like Ken, when we get the proper pieces in play, he can coach them up to compete with the top teams.

"I think it's very important for me to say that our vision of where we're at has not changed. When we said that we were going to retool, bringing in 'Monty' today doesn't put [Dalibor] Dvorsky, [Jimmy] Snuggerud, Theo [Lindstein], Otto [Stenberg] any closer to playing. That comes with maturity. What it does, it gives us a really good coach for today and tomorrow."

Armstrong mentioned that the team is not even at the halfway point into the retool -- not rebuild; he won't use that word -- and that Montgomery's hiring won't alter the course.

"I think when we first talked about the retool, we used the L.A. model: three, four years and we're a year and a half into it," he said. "One of the things that we're doing is we're waiting on Dvorsky and Snuggerud and Stenberg and Lindstein and [Adam] Jiricek. These are five first-round picks that we're excited about having. They get here when they're ready to get here. What we're trying to do is put a competitive team and do what we did last summer, go out and try and bring players in without giving up top, top picks, top assets to do it and relying on our veteran players. Having Jim here now goes back to my previous answer. He can coach a team that's evolving and then coach a team that's evolved and ready to win. He has that ability to do that. It reminds when we brought Ken in over a decade ago, an experienced coach coming into a team that was learning and working to grow and he was able to maximize that group. I think that as we continue to learn how to win and learn how to be competitive on a nightly basis, 'Monty' can push us all to get better and then when we get there, he can take us to the promised land."