Confirmed with Link: Bannister Out, Monty In

[PocketNines]

Petro wasn’t re-signing here, so Army had to scramble

That ... is not accurate. He would have signed. He said, treat me like similarly situated players and give me the ability to veto a move, I have four very young children, I want to have a say in it. He was not asking for prima donna money, he would have signed for less than Kyrou AAV had he just received the ability to say no to a trade.

 

[Mike Liut]

That ... is not accurate. He would have signed. He said, treat me like similarly situated players and give me the ability to veto a move, I have four very young children, I want to have a say in it. He was not asking for prima donna money, he would have signed for less than Kyrou AAV had he just received the ability to say no to a trade.

I’ve heard he wasn’t re-signing here and him and his wife fell in love with Vegas after their visit. Maybe I’m wrong

 

[CaliforniaBlues310]

Me when the Petro convo comes up for the millionth time in a thread that has nothing to do with him

 

[PocketNines]

Yep that's how history and life works, some events are more impactful than others and the bigger impact events have a ton of resonance.

 

[Xerloris]

View attachment 935035

Me when the Petro convo comes up for the millionth time in a thread that has nothing to do with him

Some people are stil acting like an ex gf and not accepting the fact that he didn't love them and wanted to move on.

 

[CaliforniaBlues310]

Some people are stil acting like an ex gf and not accepting the fact that he didn't love them and wanted to move on.

Lmao for real. It’s been YEARS, we need to let it go.

 

[Snubbed4Vezina]

 

[PocketNines]

It came up because one of the topics this thread provoked is: "Will Tom Stillman do anything to win?"

That's how resonance works.

We have seen this franchise and many in the fan base not learn this exact lesson before with Pronger, then make this staggering mistake again, so it would be strategically wrong not to keep this front and center, due to the complete lack of memory ability people have.

You might as well complain to life that it's unfair ...

 

[nORRis8]

Congrats on hiring an excellent coach!
Top notch!
All the best.

 

[jani]

Gratz, great move. Playoff bound next season.

 

[shpongle falls]

Holy F***ing Sh*t. Wow. I didn’t think they would make a move like this but then again Army ain’t f***ing around he wants them to win NOW. And for 5 years too? They really didn’t want anyone else to snag Monty eh?

With Monty, Julien, Ott, Weber I like this staff. I hope they can right the ship and get this team to the playoffs.

 

[Stealth JD]

What happens when the Blues are sitting 6th in the Central this time next year, with Montgomery as coach? I don't think a 40-year old Scotty Bownman would lead this roster to the playoffs.

Steen just inherited his first head coach...not that he likely wasn't a part of the discussions around the hire. It's just a weird situation with the GM on the way out, the roster in need of dire talent infusion and we're watching them shuffle the chairs on the deck of the titanic. I get they wanted to hire Montgomery...but is the club really at the point where they need a top-notch coach? They're probably 2-3 years from contending for anything; doesn't seem like head coach was the biggest priority to shore up.

But they got their man, I guess. Hopefully they'll give him a longer leash than they gave Berube and Bannister when the season started to slip away.

 

[MortiestOfMortys]

This team still has more to give, and I feel confident that Monty -- who the players seemed to really like when he was here -- can get more juice out of what's here.

With that said, we still only have one top-6 center, and he's playing on a broken foot. Arguably our best defensemen is also out with an injury. Our goalies have regressed to the mean a bit since last year (no knock on them, it happens). Even with a better coach implementing a better system, I don't know if I believe this is a playoff team. Maybe the more important thing is that they -- especially the younger "core" guys -- start not looking entirely lost out there. And we'll probably go from drafting 9th OA to drafting somewhere in the mid-teens.

Clearly "taking a step back from last season" was not an outcome the FO was willing to accept from Bannister.

 

[HighNote]

I think we still have a decent shot at the playoffs this season. When Broberg is back, if we can avoid any other major long-term injuries, I think we can climb our way to a wild card spot. This is a bubble team when mostly healthy, and now with a coaching upgrade the outlook is even better.

My biggest worry is the powerplay. We need to find a way to start drawing more penalties and capitalizing on the powerplay. That alone will win us games here and there. Boston's powerplay is somehow worse than ours, but they've drawn nearly twice as many powerplays than us, so maybe Monty can at least improve us in that department. I don't doubt that having so few powerplays can make it difficult for your PP units to get into a groove. And obviously not having Thomas for a month hurt us.

 

[Linkens Mastery]

Armstrong straight up says this move isn't based off of the results of this season, it's because Monty was available. Sounds like if Monty didn't become available they were going to ride Bannister until the end of the season, or longer, until Monty was available.