Drew Bannister has no experience as an NHL coach and he’s not on the list of “up and coming” AHL coaches that national media often mention when predicting coach candidates.
But the Blues’ new interim head coach is not new to the Blues organization and not new to coaching.
He follows the same path that predecessors Craig Berube and Davis Payne paved, as coaches of the Blues’ primary minor league affiliate called up mid-season. And try this for perspective: Bannister has been in charge of the Blues’ minor affiliate(s) since before the Cup run. He’s been there since 2018, first with AHL San Antonio before the Blues switched their affiliation to AHL Springfield.
So he knows the organization well, and he’s coached several of the current Blues, including Jordan Kyrou, one of the young players who will forever be associated with Berube’s final seasons and ultimate inability to get certain players to get with the program.
Watch GM Doug Armstrong’s Berube-fired presser here.
Before joining the pro coaching ranks, Bannister was an OHL coach with Owen Sound as an assistant and Seault St. Marie as a head coach.
Before coaching, he was a prototypical journeyman pro, drafted by the expansion Lightning in 1992, amassing 164 NHL games across four teams and six seasons, before doing the study abroad program by playing in Finland, Russia, Germany and the U.K.
For his first shot in the NHL, Bannister gets a flawed roster that drove his predecessor nuts, and inherits assistants who were tied to Berube.
Good luck, man.