St. Louis Blues assistant coach Steve Ott will take over head coaching duties for the team’s AHL affiliate. James Carey Lauder / Imagn Images
ST. LOUIS — The St. Louis Blues are making a move with their coaching staff.
The organization fired AHL Springfield coach Steve Konowalchuk, who was in his second season with the Thunderbirds. Steve Ott, in his ninth season as an assistant coach on the Blues staff, will take over as the head coach of the Thunderbirds for the remainder of the season.
“The Blues want to thank Steve Konowalchuk for his contributions to our organization over the last two years and wish him all the best moving forward,” Blues general manager Doug Armstrong said in a statement. “We’re looking forward to Steve Ott taking over in Springfield to push our young players to get better every day and further their development path to become St. Louis Blues. The current staff will take over his duties with the Blues for the rest of this season.”
In two seasons under Konowalchuk, Springfield was 47-50-4-8 (.486 points-percentage), including a record of 13-18-4-2 (.432) this season. The Thunderbirds are in last place in the Atlantic Division.
Springfield assistant coach Chad Wiseman will serve as the interim head coach for Monday’s game against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and remain in place until Ott can join the team later this week.
The Blues are on a three-game road trip, which began with a 5-0 loss to the Edmonton Oilers Sunday night. They are off Monday, but return to the ice against the Winnipeg Jets Tuesday, wrapping up against the Dallas Stars Friday.
Ott, 43, joined the Blues in the summer of 2017 and has worked under head coaches Mike Yeo, Craig Berube, Drew Bannister and Jim Montgomery. He played 14 seasons in the NHL, including 122 games with the Blues (2014-2016).