Blues fire Drew Bannister, hire Jim Montgomery five days after being dumped by Bruins

Less than seven months after removing the interim tag from Drew Bannister, the Blues have sent him packing and have hired a coach who was fired just five days prior.

The team announced Sunday morning that Bannister, 50, was fired after a 9-12-1 start, and they’ve replaced him with Jim Montgomery, whom the Bruins canned on Tuesday.

Montgomery, 55, was given a five-year contract by St. Louis, where he was an assistant from 2020-22.

Bannister took over for Craig Berube, who was fired last December after leading the team to a Stanley Cup in 2018-19.

As the interim coach, Bannister led the Blues to a 30-19-5 record in his 54 games at the helm last season, though the team still missed the playoffs.

The team then gave Bannister the full-time gig in May along with a two-year contract.

But president and GM Doug Armstrong apparently wanted to pounce on the opportunity to bring in Montgomery, who led the 2022-23 Bruins to the most regular-season points in NHL history at 135.

Boston lost to the Panthers in seven games in the first round of that season’s playoffs, lost to them in the second round last year and were off to an 8-9-3 start when Montgomery was let go.