The St. Louis Blues have added veteran NHL coach Claude Julien to their coaching staff and promoted Steve Ott to associate head coach, the team announced Thursday.
Julien, 64, who last coached in the NHL in 2021 with the Montreal Canadiens, will be an assistant under Drew Bannister.
Julien has only previously served as a head coach in the league, doing so for 19 seasons. He began his career with the Montreal Canadiens for three seasons (2002 to ’06), then coached the New Jersey Devils for one season (2006-07) before a 10-year run with the Boston Bruins (2007 to ’17), winning the Stanley Cup in 2011.
His second stint with the Canadiens (2016-21) lasted parts of four seasons, but after Montreal opened the 2020-21 season with a record of 9-5-4, he was fired on Feb. 24 and replaced by Dominique Ducharme.
Julien has not been behind an NHL bench for three seasons but coached internationally with Team Canada at the 2022 Olympics (which the NHL did not attend) and the 2022 IIHF World Championship.
Julien has an established relationship with Blues general manager Doug Armstrong and coaching adviser Ken Hitchcock, and last season he got back into the league as a pro scout with the club.
Accepting his first assistant coaching position in the NHL speaks to Julien’s desire to return to the bench. He also expressed interest in the Ottawa Senators’ head-coaching position, which went to Travis Green.
Julien will be working with Bannister, 50, who replaced the fired Craig Berube last season and steered the Blues to a record of 30-19-5 as the interim coach. After a search that carried over to the offseason, the team removed the interim tag from Bannister’s title, signing him to a two-year contract.
The Blues said after the season that they were interested in adding another coach to Bannister’s staff.
Ott, who played for the Blues and has been an assistant for the past seven seasons, had his contract extended one year as part of his promotion, taking him through the 2025-26 season. Assistant coaches Mike Weber and David Alexander were also extended one year, through 2025-26.
That two-year timetable is in line with Bannister’s contract and takes the coaches through when Alexander Steen is expected to take over for Armstrong as GM.
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(Photo of Claude Julien: Hannah Foslien / Getty Images)
