Jim Montgomery is heading into a season that leaves him with nowhere to hide.
As the St. Louis Blues prepare for 2026-27, the coach is entering what amounts to his second full year behind the bench, even if the timeline makes it feel more like his third. The message around him is blunt: this is the point where excuses run out, and the organization needs a real plan for where it’s going next.
How much rope Montgomery gets under new general manager Alexander Steen is still unclear. What isn’t unclear is that the next step has to come with structure, direction, and Montgomery’s approval on who stays and who goes. If the Blues are going to sort out their future, the coach has to be part of that process.
The late-season look may give a clue to what’s coming. Montgomery took over in the early part of the 2024-25 season when the Blues were a mess, and the turnaround was immediate enough to spark a stunning push toward a playoff berth.
But 2025-26 was a different story. It had flashes, sure, but the bad outweighed the good.
Health never cooperated. The right lineup never seemed to stick.
Momentum never really took hold. Montgomery kept moving pieces around, then moving them again, trying to find the right fit.
By the time he settled on something workable, the season was already slipping away.
That’s why the expectation now is that many of the line combinations from the end of last season could carry into the fall, unless training camp produces something dramatic.
And training camp is supposed to be a battle. Montgomery called it a tenacious one in his exit interviews after the 2025-26 season, and Steen backed that up with additions aimed at center depth and the blue line, including Brandon Carlo.
That setup creates real competition across the roster, which is exactly what a young, inexperienced team needs. Some players will make it, some won’t, and the ones who survive the fight will be the ones who earn their spots. Montgomery’s job is to make sure that process actually sharpens the team.
He also holds the final call on the opening night roster. And with Steen still new to the job, the general manager is going to lean on his coach to make the right choices. Steen is expected to be in place for a long time, but as he settles in, trusting Montgomery to help shape the roster makes plenty of sense.
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