Blues remove interim tag, name Drew Bannister head coach as ‘proper choice moving forward’ (2024)

The Blues didn’t have to look far to find their next head coach after all.

On Tuesday morning, the organization announced it signed Drew Bannister to a two-year contract to be the 27th head coach in Blues history. Bannister finished the season as the interim coach following Craig Berube’s firing in mid-December, compiling a 30-19-5 record.

At the end of the regular season, Blues general manager Doug Armstrong said Bannister remained a finalist for the coaching job, even if there were other candidates on a small list he wanted to talk to.

“It was just more of a feeling-out process of what we had, and we felt very comfortable with what we had,” Armstrong said Tuesday. “I don’t really want to get into the other interviews, it was just more as a group, we were comfortable with what Drew had accomplished here that he was the proper choice moving forward.”

Bannister just finished his sixth season in the Blues organization, having previously served as head coach in the AHL with San Antonio and Springfield.

Under Bannister, the Blues played at a 98-point pace, a record that would have been good enough to qualify for a playoff spot in the Western Conference. The power play also ranked 12th in the league at 8.3 goals per hour, up from 31st (2.88 goals per hour) in the league under Berube.

“I felt, by the end of the year, that I’d done a lot of positive things with the players, with the team, certainly was disappointing the way it ended up for us,” Bannister said. “Overall, I was happy with the strides we made with our players and with our team. I felt at that time, I’d done as much as I possibly could at that time.”

Bannister, 50, began his head coaching career in 2015 with Soo in the OHL, before jumping to the AHL and now the NHL. In the AHL, Bannister took Springfield to the Calder Cup Final in 2022.

The two-year term means Bannister’s contract will expire at the same time as Armstrong’s deal at the end of the 2025-26 season. That gives both Bannister and Armstrong two seasons to prove to Blues ownership the organization is on the path toward contention again.

“Most guys get three-year deals, I look at last year as the first year,” Armstrong said in a conversation with The Post-Dispatch. “It gives him two full years to get his feet wet as an NHL head coach, and I thought that term worked well for him and for us.”

In the meantime, Bannister’s job is two-fold: squeeze better performances out of the veterans on the roster, and inject some youth into the lineup and develop them sufficiently.

“There’s a comfort level because he worked with some of those guys,” Armstrong said. “I just think he comes in with a development path from the OHL to the American Hockey League. He’s worked with younger players, he knows how to communicate with them. There’s going to be mistakes made, and how you teach and learn from those mistakes, he’s got a good balance with that group of players that he’s going to empower and entrust them. In turn, they have to respond. That just comes from where he was coaching before he got here.”

Bannister: “Building trust with them is No. 1, and having those conversation that sometimes may be uncomfortable, but I really believe in getting to know the person away from the rink and spending time not really talking about a ton of hockey until we have to do so. We talk about hockey all the time, so I think it’s more important to build those relationships with players.”

Last year, the Blues received positive steps from younger players like Jake Neighbours, Matthew Kessel, Joel Hofer and Zack Bolduc. Zach Dean figures to push for more playing time in the fall. Dalibor Dvorsky, the No. 10 pick in 2023, could be on the opening night roster out of training camp. Jimmy Snuggerud, Otto Stenberg and Theo Lindstein could arrive the year after this one.

“Our goal is to get the most out of the players that are here now and to have the ability to input younger players like we did last year and moving forward,” Armstrong said. “Quite honestly, the guys from last year’s draft, the only player that we talked about at the end of the year that’s going to be here, that’s really going to push for a job is Dvorsky. That’s going to grow each year.”

In the three weeks between the end of the season and Tuesday’s announcement, the Blues conducted their interviews. Armstrong said he spoke to all the candidates he intended to speak to. His inner circle in the Blues hockey operations department spoke to Bannister, and that included input from Al MacInnis, Scott Mellanby, Peter Chiarelli, Ryan Miller, Tim Taylor and Alexander Steen.

Armstrong still had his short list he wanted to go through, and “if you have it right here, acknowledge it and move forward.” When Bannister first began as interim coach in December — for all intents and purposes, when his real introductory press conference was held — there was doubt he would even last the entire season behind the Blues bench.

That faded in late January and early February, Armstrong said, and then the Blues “just wanted to use the time that we had” after the season ended.

“Drew had done what we’d asked to him to do,” Armstrong said. “We see progression. We see someone that’s earned the right to take the reins and move forward.”

Bannister said he would spend the summer preparing for next season, whether that is building better relationships with the players, or watching the playoffs in order to see what the Blues are able to incorporate into their tactics next year.

“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,” Bannister said.