ST. LOUIS – If the Boston Bruins hadn’t fired Jim Montgomery on Tuesday, Drew Bannister would still be the St. Louis Blues head coach.

That’s how Blues general manager Doug Armstrong explained his decision to fire Bannister Sunday morning after just 22 games this season and replace him with Montgomery.

“There was no inclination whatsoever to make a coaching change,” Armstrong said. “When Jim was let go in Boston, he was someone I respected, someone I admired, someone I thought had all the qualities to be a long-term coach for the Blues. This decision was, I would say, almost 100 percent based on someone of Jim’s caliber becoming available.”

Montgomery and the Blues agreed a five-year contract, and following a conference call with Armstrong and the team’s captains on Sunday morning, he is expected to join the club in New York on Sunday evening ahead of the match against Rangers.

The news wasn’t a complete shock.

The Athletics announced the possibility last week as the Blues fell short of Armstrong’s expectations to compete for a playoff spot this season, along with Montgomery’s sudden availability.

The club went 39-31-6 in 76 games under Bannister. They fell to 9-12-1 on the season after a 3-1 loss to the New York Islanders on Saturday – six points shy of a wild-card spot in the Western Conference standings.

In 22 games this season, the attack scored two goals or less thirteen times and one goal or less seven times. The power play ranks 25th in the NHL (16.7 percent) and the penalty kill is No. 24 (75.9 percent).

“When I talked to Drew today, the situation we were in – a young coach learning, learning with young players – was not an easy situation for him to face,” Armstrong said. “I thought he did well. He made mistakes. We all made mistakes. So Drew learned as we went along.

“I was more than willing to go through the highs and lows with Drew until Monty became available, and then it felt like that might not be available for years to come. I didn’t know when the next opportunity would present itself and I felt this was the right choice for the Blues franchise.”

Drew Bannister was fired Sunday after just 22 games in his first full season as Blues coach. (Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images)

The Blues had interest in Montgomery last season, but when Boston advanced to the second round of the playoffs, Armstrong took over Bannister’s interim tag and announced a two-year contract for him as head coach.

When asked on Sunday whether Montgomery was indeed at the center of the Blues’ internal discussions last summer, Armstrong replied: ‘He really wasn’t because he had a job. I don’t spend much time on the wish list of what’s out there. To be honest, I haven’t thought about Monty much this summer.”

But after Montgomery’s hiring, it’s clear he would have been on the wish list if there had been one. Armstrong said he is a coach who can help the club now and in the future.

“He’s really in the prime of his coaching career right now and we’re the benefactors of that,” Armstrong said. “He is the complete package, or at least we hope he is the complete package. He can coach a team that is evolving and coach a team that has evolved and is ready to win. As we continue to learn how to be competitive every night, Monty can push us all to be better, and when we get there, he can take us to the promised land.

It was also clear that Armstrong did not see Bannister as that man, citing the fact that inexperience behind the bench can no longer be used as an excuse as the team tries to find its way in the coming weeks.

Montgomery was 120-41-23 in Boston, including the most single-season wins in NHL history (65-12-5) in 2022-2023.

“I go back to when Ken Hitchcock came in: coaching is not a problem,” Armstrong said. “He’s a great coach. The game is old. He’s over a hundred years old and he has the best single-season record. He knows how to coach. So if there were any questions about that, they are now gone.”

Despite making the move he believed was best for the organization, Armstrong acknowledged the perception of a coaching carousel in St. Louis, who will be behind the bench Wednesday for the third time in less than a calendar year.

Bannister was promoted in mid-December last year, replacing Craig Berube. He becomes the fifth coach to be fired by Armstrong, after Davis Payne, Ken Hitchcock, Mike Yeo and Berube.

“I certainly understand if people look at it that way,” Armstrong said. “I think the one with Craig was a great run and a change was needed. I think Drew came in and did a good job as interim, which was positive. Last year we went through the process of thinking about other coaches and I found that Drew had done enough to get the opportunity to learn on the job here in the NHL and work through that.

“Like I said, I woke up (earlier this week) and had no plans at all to hold this kind of press conference. Except that a coach became available who I think can make a difference, and we responded to that.”

Armstrong insisted the move says nothing about the state of the Blues’ retool.

“When we first talked about the redesign, we used the Los Angeles Kings model for three or four years, and we’ve been working on it for a year and a half,” Armstrong said. “One of the things we do is wait for (Dalibor) Dvorský, (Jimmy) Snuggerud, (Otto) Stenberg, (Theo) Lindstein and (Adam) Jiricek. That’s five first-round picks we’re happy with.

“It is very important for me to say that our vision of where we are today has not changed. When we said we were going to restructure, bringing in Monty today doesn’t bring Dvorský, Snuggerud, Stenberg… any closer to playing. That’s part of adulthood. What it does, it gives us a very good coach for today and tomorrow.”

Turning to today, are the Blues a potential playoff team this season with Montgomery now at the helm?

“Our record would indicate we’re not headed to the playoffs,” Armstrong said. “I think our season has fluctuated so far. We’re obviously struggling on both sides of the special teams and goal scoring side, and that’s not a good recipe for success.

“I think getting those (Philip Broberg and Nick Leddy) back will help stabilize things. Losing Robert Thomas, as we did, took away from the offense, and it hasn’t come back since he got back. So we have our work to do. We have a lot of things that Jim needs to take care of to his satisfaction, and we can make progress.”

(Photo by Jim Montgomery: Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)