Less than 24 hours after the end of a disappointing season, the Blues wasted little time making changes to their coaching staff.
On Friday morning, the club announced the firing of assistant coaches Mike Van Ryn and Craig MacTavish.
Assistant coach Steve Ott and goalie coach Dave Alexander will return for the the 2023-24 season along with video coach Darryl Seward and video coordinator Elliott Mondou.
It doesn't come as much of a surprise, since the Blues ended the season with some of their worse defensive statistics in recent memory. Their 3.63 goals allowed per game was 26th in the league and their 298 goals allowed (not counting three shootout defeats) was 27th. Those are the worst statistical numbers for them since 1983-84 when they allowed 316 goals, or 3.95 per game.
Van Ryn, 43, spent five seasons as an assistant coach with the Blues after he was hired on May 30, 2018. He played for the Blues for the first three of his eight seasons as a defenseman in the NHL from 2000-03 and then coached for eight years between the OHL and AHL prior to joining the Blues in time for their first-ever Stanley Cup in 2018-19.
The defense was fifth in Van Ryn's first two seasons running it but has since dipped to 19th in 2020-21, then an uptick to 11th in 2022-23 last season with help from Jim Montgomery, to 26th this season.
The 64-year-old MacTavish joined the Blues' staff this past season as an assistant coach behind the team’s bench. He ran the club's penalty kill unit but was quickly replaced of those duties when the Blues got off to a horrendous start when it was dead-last in the league as late as Dec. 15 at 67.1 percent. The PK unit, which struggled mightily down the stretch this season, finished 30th at 72.4 percent.
The Blues finished 37-38-7 this season, the first time since 2007-08 they finished below .500 in a season, and missed the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time since 2017-18.
There will be more on these changes, plus other topics when players, coach Craig Berube and Blues general manager Doug Armstrong address the end-of-season session with the media Saturday morning. Armstrong will then address the coaching changes and other organizational topics.
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