The St. Louis Blues did not make it into the Stanley Cup Playoffs this season, after making it last season on a last-minute record-breaking run. Much of it can be thanks to the hiring of head coach Jim Montgomery.
But, things did not go the way that they planned in 2025-26, as Montgomery was not able to put together a playoff-capable roster. In his first full season as the Blues' head man, this team might have taken a step forward despite not making it into the postseason.
Let's give him a proper grade for his first full season.
Expectations for 2025-26
Going into the 2025-26 season, Montgomery came to the Blues as a savior. He turned them around with a fantastic 35-18-7 record in 60 games. He even motivated this team to nearly knock out the Presidents' Trophy winners, the Winnipeg Jets, before losing to them in the final seconds of game seven.
With a full offseason to think over the roster, fine-tune the lines and stage a plan for his first full go-around, the expectations for 2025-26 were very high. Repeat a trip to the Playoffs, or it is a failure.
The Blues did not make it, but you can't exactly call it a failure.
Performance
Montgomery had a very tiresome season. After making up the opening night roster against the Minnesota Wild, they were knocked out cold, 5-0 on home-ice. What followed was a slot machine of line combinations, as nearly everyone was bounced up and down the lineup.
Even more tiring that, the goaltending situation was dire this season, and Montgomery had to continuously change out Joel Hofer and Jordan Binnington. He had to schedule it out with the matchups, ride the hot hand and overall, was responsible for everyone and everything on the ice.
Grade: C
Where does he go from here?
From here, Montgomery enters his second seaon with the Blues and this time he is doing it without a captain. Without Brayden Schenn, he will have a quartet of alternate captains that will delegate the game and provide leadership to this young team.
Speaking of the youth, the Blues are going to be plugging in as many young players as they can this season, thus sparking a retooling process. With Justin Carbonneau and Adam Jiricek on the horzion, Montgomery has to think of where the best place to put them is.
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