The Blues appoint Michael Babcock as skills coach and Mike Weber as an assistant.

street. Louis – The St. Louis Blues have hired Mike Babcock’s son Michael as their skills coach.

General Manager Doug Armstrong announced Wednesday that Babcock and former defenseman Mike Webber will join Craig Berube’s team. Berube oversaw the search for replacements for Craig MacTavish and Mike Van Ryn, assistants who were fired after St. Louis missed the playoffs.

Babcock, 28, finished his last NHL season with the Ottawa Senators, helping the coaching staff develop game plans, developing pre-scout and ice skills. Previously, he spent two years working for his father as an assistant for the University of Saskatchewan men’s hockey team.

His father has been linked with the head coaching position of the Columbus Blue Jackets, who may have to wait until June 30 to hire him. Mike Babcock, despite being left out of the league since being fired from Toronto in 2019, is under contract with the Maple Leafs until the end of the month, with six figures due.

Michael was attracting attention in the NHL as a young assistant.

Weber, 35, who joined Berube as an assistant coach, has spent the past three seasons in that position with the Rochester Americans in the American Hockey League. He played 360 games in the NHL from 2007 to 2016, after which he attended training camp for the Blues on a tryout before playing in the AHL and then in Europe.