Veteran, NHL head coach for 18 seasons, brought in by Drew Bannister to "instantly (makes Blues) better coming through the door"

MARYLAND HEIGHTS, Mo. -- Drew Bannister knew he had a spot to fill on his coaching staff moving forward for the 2024-25 season.

The St. Louis Blues coach, with a two-year contract in tow, like any coach doing an extensive and expansive search, kept coming back to one person.

A familiar person.

No, not necessarily someone Bannister has a lot of personal experience with but someone that has one heck of a track record: Claude Julien.

The resume speaks for itself: NHL head coach for 18 seasons (Montreal Canadiens twice, New Jersey Devils and Boston Bruins), Stanley Cup champion coach (2011, Bruins), Jack Adams Award winner (2009), coaching on the international level and being part of championship teams for Team Canada ... the list is long.

The 64-year-old, who who last coached in the NHL in 2021, is 667-445-152 with 10 ties in 1,274 regular-season games for the Canadiens, Devils and Bruins. He most recently was coach of the Canadiens for five seasons from 2016-21. But he has been out of coaching the past three years.

It didn't matter to Bannister.

Julien will join associate coach Steve Ott and assistants Mike Weber, Dave Alexander (goalies) and Michael Babcock (skills).

"Going through the process and what I was looking for in a coach and the vision that I had, not only for our staff but for our players and our team, it just kept coming back to Claude," Bannister said during development camp. "Obviously his experience as a head coach, his path to development, being a major junior head coach and American Hockey League and then the NHL. What I was looking for was experience in the NHL and experience as a head coach in the NHL.

"I talked to a lot of people, I had a lot of good interviews, but I kept coming back to Claude and what he would bring to our staff and to our players. I said this before, he makes us instantly better coming through the door."

Blues general manager Doug Armstrong, as he has done with previous coaches, allowed Bannister the flexibility of finding someone he feels most comfortable with. And bringing on Julien, who has been scouting for the Blues the past two seasons, is something Armstrong feels is good and relates it to something the Blues did in recent past that ultimately helped in the process of winning the Stanley Cup in 2019.

"I think it's really exciting," Armstrong said. "When Drew and I talked, he talked about his staff and I shared my experiences of working with staffs and how they were put together. The experience Larry Robinson showed a young staff, it was really impressive. I think Claude's at a portion of his life now where I think accepting this is easier and seeing the joy of working with young coaches and making them better, sharing his experiences, sharing his experiences with players.

"This guy's got a pretty stacked trophy case. You just can't hide that fact, and I think the players understand that. They're going to Google his name if they don't know him and they're going to say, 'Wow, Presidents' (Trophy), Stanley Cup, international events. This guy's a winner. I think Mike Babcock, one of his terms and I heard Barry Trotz use it, 'There's nothing wrong with having serial winners in your group.'"

The Blues (42-33-6) finished fifth in the Central Division this past season, seven points out of the playoffs and missing it two straight seasons. Bringing in another experienced coach with the pedigree of Julien is something the Blues hope can steer things back to the playoffs.