Ken Hitchcock is back in the NHL!

The St. Louis Blues have announced that legendary NHL coach Ken Hitchcock has rejoined the franchise as a Coaching Consultant. It's believed that in his new role that Hitchcock will work closely with Blues head coach Craig Berube. In a corresponding move, the Blues announced that former Edmonton Oilers and Boston Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli has been promoted within the organization and will now serve as the team's President of Hockey Operations.

Check it out:

The 69 year old Hitchcock previously serves as the Blues' head coach from 2011 until 2017 when he was replaced by one season wonder Mike Yeo. In 413 games as the Blues' head coach Hitchcock put up a 248-124-41 regular season record and managed to get the team into the Stanley Cup Playoffs each season. He also won the Jack Adams Award as the NHL's top coach during his first season coaching the Blues in 2011-12.

Overall, the Edmonton, Alberta, native served as a head coach in 22 NHL seasons, including stints with the Dallas Stars, Philadelphia Flyers, Columbus Blue Jackets, St. Louis Blues and Edmonton Oilers. His most recent stint was with the Oilers where he put up a 26-28-8 record during the 2018-19 season. He ranks fourth all-time in league history with 849 wins (849-534-88) and sixth in games behind the bench.

Hitchcock also captured the 1999 Stanley Cup Championship with the Dallas Stars.

All of this is to say that Hitchcock is an extremely accomplished coach at the NHL level and the Blues organization could do a lot worse when choosing a Coaching Consultant. While I'm not sold on the Chiarelli hiring/promotion for obvious reasons, I fully endorse Hitchcock's hiring. As for Chiarelli well... this is the man that absolutely sewered the Oilers' roster while he was at the helm from 2015 until 2019. Sure he won a Stanley Cup championship during his time with the Boston Bruins, but much of the credit there can go to former interim-GM Jeff Gorton. 

In any case, it'll be interesting to see how things changes in the Blues front office after today's hirings. If nothing else, the organization needed a bit of a shakeup after two relatively disappointing seasons.