The Blues coaching staff is once again taking shape.
After assistants Brad Shaw and Kirk Muller departed the team following the 2015-2016 season for the Blue Jackets and Canadiens, respectively, St. Louis hired Mike Yeo as associate coach and heir apparent to Ken Hitchcock, who says he'll only coach one more season. They also hired former Blues defenseman Rick Wilson, who'd spent the past five seasons as an assistant coach with the Minnesota Wild.
On Thursday, the Blues added another new face, Steve Thomas, who'll serve as assistant coach.
Thomas has spent the past two seasons as an assistant coach for the Tampa Bay Lightning, where he helped guide the club to back-to-back appearances in the Eastern Conference Finals and a trip to the 2015 Stanley Cup final. The Stockport, England, native first joined the Lightning as player development coach in the summer of 2012. In that role, Thomas oversaw all of the team's prospects in the junior and college ranks.
During his 20-year NHL career, Thomas dressed in 1,235 regular season games between stints with Toronto, Chicago, New York (Islanders), New Jersey, Anaheim and Detroit. Overall, he accumulated 933 points and 1,306 penalty minutes during his regular season career, while he also recorded 107 points in 174 career playoff appearances.
