Ott promoted to associate coach; Julien joins as assistant | St. Louis Blues

St. Louis Blues President of Hockey Operations and General Manager Doug Armstrong announced today the team has promoted Steve Ott to associate coach and extended his contract through the 2025-26 season.

In addition, the Blues named Claude Julien an assistant coach and extended the contracts of Assistant Coach Mike Weber and Goaltending Coach David Alexander through the 2025-26 season.

Ott, 41, will enter his eighth year behind the Blues’ bench in 2024-25 after first joining the staff as an assistant in the summer of 2017.  During his tenure, the Summerside, PEI, native has helped the Blues compile a 287-192-58 (.588 points-percentage) regular-season record and four appearances in the postseason. In 2018-19, just his second season as a coach, Ott played an instrumental role in helping the Blues make a historic rise in the standings during the regular season, ultimately capturing the 2019 Stanley Cup championship. As a player, Ott enjoyed a 14-year NHL career, including 122 games with the Blues from 2014-2016. Overall, he accumulated 288 points in 848 career regular-season games, including stints with Dallas, Buffalo, St. Louis, Detroit, and Montreal. 

Julien, 64, boasts more than 20 years of coaching experience, including 19 seasons as an NHL head coach. He began his career as the head coach of the Montreal Canadiens in 2002, where he spent three seasons. Julien then spent one year behind the New Jersey Devils bench before serving 10 seasons with the Boston Bruins. During his tenure in Boston, the Blind River, Ontario, native accumulated a franchise-leading 419 regular-season wins, 57 playoff wins, and captured the 2009 Jack Adams Award as the NHL’s best coach. Overall, he guided the Bruins to seven playoff berths, two trips to the Stanley Cup Final, and the 2011 Stanley Cup Championship. Following his time in Boston, Julien returned to Montreal to coach the Canadiens for five more seasons from 2016-2021. 

Weber, 36, first joined the staff as an assistant in the summer of 2023. Prior to joining the club, he was an assistant for three years with the AHL’s Rochester Americans where he led the team to a trip to the Eastern Conference Final in 2023. The Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, native also spent two seasons as an assistant with the OHL’s Windsor Spitfires to begin his coaching career. As a player, Weber appeared in 351 career NHL regular-season games across nine seasons and stints with Buffalo and Washington. He also appeared in 237 career AHL regular-season games.

Alexander, 42, was first named goaltending coach in the summer of 2017. He works with the Blues goaltenders on all aspects of the position, including his mentorship of Jordan Binnington which played a vital role in the Blues capturing the 2019 Stanley Cup championship. Alexander also supervises the goaltending coaches in the Blues organizational system. A native of Moncton, New Brunswick, Alexander came to St. Louis from the Tampa Bay Lightning organization where he spent four seasons working as the goaltending coach for their AHL affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch.  During his tenure, he helped the Crunch win the Eastern Conference in 2017 and clinch a berth in the Calder Cup Final. Prior to his time in Syracuse, Alexander served five seasons as an assistant coach at the University of Maine.