Blues hire Craig MacTavish as assistant coach

The Blues have made an addition to their coaching staff as the team announced that they’ve hired longtime NHL coach and executive Craig MacTavish as an assistant coach on Craig Berube’s staff. GM Doug Armstrong released the following statement about the hire:

"Craig has spent 30 years in our League, serving as a player, coach and general manager. He played in over 1,000 games, has coached in almost 700 and is a four-time Stanley Cup Champion. We are excited to add his experience to our staff."

MacTavish takes the place of Jim Montgomery behind the bench in St. Louis after it was made official earlier Friday that Montgomery has joined the Bruins as their new head coach.

This will be the 63-year-old’s second stint with the Blues, having finished his playing career with St. Louis during the 1995-96 and 1996-97 seasons. While MacTavish has extensive experience as an NHL coach (including eight years as the head coach in Edmonton), he hasn’t worked behind an NHL bench since covering as Edmonton’s interim coach for five games back in the 2014-15 campaign. Since then, MacTavish’s only coaching experience came in the KHL with Yaroslavl, where he didn’t make it through the season. MacTavish joins Mike Van Ryn and Steve Ott as assistants on Berube’s staff.