St. Louis Blues hire Darryl Sydor as assistant coach
The Blues hired Darryl Sydor, who will be their third defensive coach in three seasons.
After letting go of their entire assistant coaching staff earlier this month, the St. Louis Blues started to make some progress in filling the vacancies on Wednesday afternoon, announcing the hiring of Darryl Sydor as an assistant coach. The 45-year-old coach, who spent 18 seasons as an NHL defenseman, is expected to oversee the Blues’ d-men and coordinate the penalty kill unit.
Sydor has a myriad of ties to the Blues; most significantly, he finished his NHL career by wearing the Blue Note for 47 games during the 2009-10 season. During that season, he played with current Blues Patrik Berglund, David Perron, Alex Pietrangelo, and Alexander Steen.
Sydor has also coached under head coach Mike Yeo at a couple different stops. He was one of Yeo’s assistants with the AHL Houston Aeros back in 2010-11, then followed Yeo to the Minnesota Wild in 2011-12, where he remained through the 2015-16 season. He was on Craig Berube‘s staff with the Blues’ AHL affiliate, the Chicago Wolves, but will now make his return to the NHL.
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This is a nice redemption story for Sydor, whose coaching career was at odds a couple years ago. In August of 2015, Sydor was arrested for drunk driving and child endangerment after driving with a 0.30 blood-alcohol level while his 12-year-old son was in the car. He pled guilty to second-degree DWI in September of that year and paid a $900 fine while receiving two weeks in jail and four years probation. After failing to receive any NHL interest last offseason, Sydor has obviously repaired his reputation to the point where he’s getting another chance.
Sydor will be the third different assistant to run the Blues’ defensive corps and penalty kill in the last three seasons. Brad Shaw held those responsibilities for a long while, working on the Blues’ staff from 2006-16, but he departed last summer after the Blues only offered him a one-year contract.
Shaw was replaced by veteran assistant Rick Wilson for the 2016-17 season, but the Blues announced earlier this month that Wilson–as well as the rest of the assistant coaching staff–won’t return for 2017-18. That’s at least partially due to the fact that the 66-year-old Wilson felt the need to return to his family in Dallas, as NHL.com’s Lou Korac reported.
Next: Blues will share AHL affiliate with Golden Knights in 2017-18
With Sydor now added to the staff, it’s likely that the Blues will still add three or four more assistants in the coming weeks. They’re still looking for a power play coach and a goaltending coach, and it’s possible that they may also look for assistants to fill the support roles that Ray Bennett and Steve Thomas occupied this past season. Candidates for those positions could include Craig Berube, Michel Therrien, and Dan Bylsma, as well as goalie coaches David Alexander and Fred Brathwaite.