St. Louis Blues General Manager Throws Previous Coach Under the Bus With Latest Comments
Blues general manager Doug Armstrong explained his decision to fire head coach Drew Bannister and replace him with Jim Montgomery.
The Blues shocked the NHL today when it came out that they had fired their head coach to replace him with Montgomery.
It was not so much a surprise that Montgomery was picked up by another team. After all, he is considered to be one of the top coaches in the league.
His record over the past two seasons with the Bruins does reflect that. However, the Blues were not considered to be in a position where a coaching change was necessary.
Another surprise came when the team announced some of the details of Montgomery's contract.
The team decided to sign him to a five-year deal, which is a very long contract for a coach in this league. Furthermore, most teams don't even reveal the term when signing or extending coaches.
After the announcement, Blues general manager Doug Armstrong explained the move and suddenly everything made sense.
He told us that this move was not a reflection on Bannister. He was satisfied with how the coach was doing, but just could not pass on the opportunity to sign a coach of Montgomery's caliber.
He clearly has a ton of confidence in the former Bruins coach as he said he hopes he remains with the Blues for 'well over a decade.'
This was more of an opportunity to get someone at Jim's caliber than anything else. I'm hoping he's here well over a decade."
This also explains the five-year contract. Should Montgomery complete the deal, he will almost certainly be one of the longest tenured coaches in the league, if not the longest.
We will see how this plays out in St. Louis this season and going forward. They were not expected to make the playoffs this year and this is still likely the case, but who knows, maybe Montgomery can turn things around quickly.
