Each coach will not have their contracts renewed as head coach Jim Montgomery will implement his own assistants for 2026-27
The St. Louis Blues have started the process of reshaping their coaching staff.
On Friday, they announced that assistants Claude Julien and Mike Weber will not be brought back.
“I would like to thank Claude and Mike for their contributions during their time with the organization,” Blues general manager Doug Armstrong said in a statement. “With their contracts set to expire this summer, we wanted to give them the opportunity to move on to the next chapter of their coaching careers while we work to building a coaching staff that is best suited to lead our team moving forward.”
Julien, 65, joined the Blues as an assistant coach in the summer of 2024. The Blind River, Ontario, native helped guide the Blues to an 81-63-20 regular-season record during his tenure, along with a postseason appearance in 2025. Julien has more than 20 years of coaching experience, including NHL head coaching stints with the Montreal Canadiens from 2002-06 and 2016-21, New Jersey Devils in 2006-07 and Boston Bruins from 2008-17, winning the Stanley Cup in 2011.
Weber, 38, joined the Blues as an assistant coach in the summer of 2023. During his tenure, the Blues posted a 124-96-26 regular-season record and made a postseason appearance in 2025. The Pittsburgh native previously served as an assistant coach with the American Hockey League's Rochester Americans from 2020-23 and the Ontario Hockey League's Windsor Spitfires from 2018-20.
When Blues coach Jim Montgomery was brought in to replace Drew Bannister in November of 2024, he kept the assistants in place until now and will have the opportunity to bring in someone that he's had previous experience with, perhaps, or someone new that he hasn't worked with before but has some sort of experience with.
The Blues (37-33-12) concluded their season on Thursday with a 5-3 win against the Utah Mammoth, their fourth straight win, and fell four points short of reaching the Stanley Cup playoffs.
There will be more on these moves on Saturday when Armstrong, Montgomery and players address things at locker room cleanout for the and the start of the off-season.
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