When the St. Louis Blues first hired Jim Montgomery, it was a bit of a surprise. Then-general manager Doug Armstrong had just replaced Craig Berube with Drew Bannister as head coach, and the Blues were off to a sluggish start under the new staff. Then, the Boston Bruins--also starting slow--fired Montgomery; Armstrong wasted no time, firing Bannister after only a handful of games, and installed Montgomery as the new head coach.
It turned the Blues' season around. They were up and down under Montgomery until a torrid back half of the season carried them to a wildcard spot, and they came within seconds of upsetting the Winnipeg Jets.
Things haven't gone so well since then.
Impact in 2025-26
Sometimes, it can be difficult to judge a coach's positive impact on the team he's leading. Negative impacts, on the other hand, are much easier to recognize--think the Toronto Maple Leafs last season under Berube, or the tail end of Greg Cronin's time with the Anaheim Ducks.
Last season, Montgomery's impact was hard to judge. The team floundered and, while most of their struggles can be chalked up to shoddy goaltending, Montgomery didn't seem to have any answers. The skaters needed to play better, and the goalies needed to make a save; a head coach can encourage the former, but doesn't have much control over the latter.
The NHL is a results-based business, though, and the Blues were bad for most of the season and missed the playoffs. They nearly dug themselves out of their problems after the Winter Olympics, and maybe Montgomery deserves some credit for that, but it was still too little, too late.
Expectations for 2026-27
The Blues are going to ice a young, fresh-faced team with a new leadership core this season, and it'll be up to Montgomery to turn these kids into pros. If the Blues start slow again, well...maybe they already have their replacement in mind. As a new general manager, Alex Steen almost certainly has one of the coldest front office seats in the league; he may, however, wish to put his own mark on the team, and another poor beginning would give him the excuse to do so.
Montgomery's a good coach, but he's reaching the point in his tenure where many coaches find themselves out of a job--no league has faster coaching turnover than the NHL. He needs to have this group humming from Day One of the 2026-27 season, or he's going to be looking for a new position by Thanksgiving.
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