ST. LOUIS -- Drew Bannister exuded the necessary confidence when the St. Louis Blues were conducting their exit interviews three weeks ago. It had nothing to do with arrogance; it was just a simple task of feeling good about the job Bannister did as interim coach that ultimately removed that tag from his job title on Tuesday when the Blues announced Bannister was hired as the 27th coach in franchise history, getting a two-year contract. Bannister, who was 30-19-5 after taking over for the fired Craig Berube on Dec. 12, 2023, spoke in terms of 'we' and 'us' when speaking about the future of the Blues, as if he knew, or at least had the confidence he would ultimately land the job. Interim tag removed from Bannister, who receives two-year contract In the end, even after general manager Doug Armstrong said Bannister was a finalist for the job, the 50-year-old got the job. "I believe in myself and the process that I've gone through for almost nine, 10 years now as a coach and continue to grow and continue to be better," Bannister said on Tuesday. "When I talk about 'we' and 'us,' I think it's important for a coach to at the end of the day, we're a little bit in the background for the coaches and the staff and it's about the players and it's about the organization, it's about the fans. It's not about me. It's something that I learned not only as a player but as a coach. I think it's important to point out the fact that it is 'we' and 'us.' That being said, for my development and process, I'm proud of where I am, but certainly there's a lot of work to be done moving forward and I continue to grow as a coach." Armstrong had a short list of candidates and even said he wanted to hold off on naming Bannister immediately for the chance to speak to everyone on that list, including some that were still employed due to being in the Stanley Cup playoffs. It is believed that one of them would have been Boston Bruins coach Jim Montgomery, who even with one year remaining on his contract there, could have been let go had the Bruins blown a second straight 3-1 series lead in the opening round. But the Bruins won Game 7 against the Toronto Maple Leafs this past Saturday and quite frankly, ended that speculation. Montgomery was an assistant coach in St. Louis under Berube before being hired as Bruins coach in 2022. "When Drew got here, I hadn't really worked with him a lot in the American Hockey League and then getting to watch him, how he runs a practice, how he treats and commands respect from the players in general, how our team played a little bit differently and then you're just looking to say, 'Is there anything better out there? Is there something different that we're missing,'" Armstrong said. "We just came back to our group that Drew had done what we asked him to do. We see progression. We see someone that's earned the right to take the reigns and we move forward. Bannister met with several of Armstrong's inner circle in management, including Alex Steen, Scott Mellanby and Peter Chiarelli. "That process was over a day, about a seven-hour interview with all those three people and the continuing conversations with myself and Doug over the last month or so leading up to the offer of the job," Bannister said. "Doug and I have been talking over the last week or so when he was over in Europe and this past weekend," Bannister said. "He had offered me the job. Obviously for me, an exciting moment. Something that I had been working towards and something that I wanted for myself, for my family moving forward, and certainly to be a part of the Blues organization. When I came in and took over on an interim basis, that was something for me, not only having success while I was there in an interim basis but also the process of going through that process and giving myself the opportunity to be interviewed and looked upon as the head coach of the St. Louis Blues." Under Bannister, the Blues climbed from 23rd to 12th in goals-against per game (2.87), 31st to 13th in power play (22.8 percent) and 20th to 13th in penalty kill (79.4 percent), The Blues finished 43-33-6 this past season, good for 92 points, an 11-point improvement from a season ago but missing out on the playoffs for the second straight season. "When you come in under the circumstances I did, it can be difficult," Bannister said. "I felt I managed that very well. Luckily for me, I did have relationships with a lot of the young players that I continue to build on. Certainly building relationships with the veteran players, the leadership group was a key part for me. Moving forward, that's going to be a big part of my summer plan is reaching out to those guys and continue to build on those relationships. That's extremely important as a coach to have those relationships with your players, with your leadership group. I think that's the main focus for me right now. Obviously tactically, we're going to sit back here and watch the playoffs, and I think it's important to be able to digest that while it happens. I look at our deficiencies within our game, thinks that we can continue to improve on. We'll meet back end of June, early July and start to get to work on those things that we find out." When Berube, who was the interim coach when the Blues won the Stanley Cup in 2019, was fired following a 6-4 loss against the Detroit Red Wings, the Blues' fourth straight loss dropping them to 13-14-1. Bannister was brought up from Springfield of the American Hockey League and implemented his style as best as he could, and Armstrong said after the season the 50-year-old "was expending on his resume." "I would say the last couple days, since the season ended, I got with my inner circle of guys that I make these decisions with," Armstrong said. "We talked about different people, to different people and came back to Drew as being the proper candidate to move forward with. We're excited to have him here. I thought he did a good job in a difficult situation last year and now having a full training camp and two-year term to put his stamp on this team, we're looking forward to that." As for assistant coaches Steve Ott, Mike Weber, David Alexander and Michael Babcock are all expected to return. "When I was going through this process with Drew, he told me he was excited about working with these guys again, and all indications are they will all be back," Armstrong said. "That's his recommendation to me, and that's my goal. They all have contracts, so that's going to be easy to do. I did say that we're open to adding someone if he wants. I want him to work with his staff and know exactly what he needs. We want to bring the right person in if we add somebody, and that's something he and I can work on now moving forward. "Again, you want to do things in the proper, chronological order. One was to hire the head coach and now the next thing is, he likes his co-workers, and if he wants to add to that, we're certainly open to that as an organization." Image [https://thehockeynews.com/.image/c_fit,h_600,w_600/MjAyODg2ODQ2NzgxMzM0NTQw/img_6511.jpg]
