It was always going to be difficult for the St. Louis Blues to land Mike Babcock.
Babcock, the long-time Detroit Red Wings head coach, had his heart and pocketbook set on becoming the highest-paid coach in the NHL. Despite the depth of skill and talent on the St. Louis roster, teams like the Buffalo Sabres and Toronto Maple Leafs had a clear advantage when it came to wooing Babcock which had little-to-nothing to do with actual on-ice performance - indeed, it doesn't seem farfetched at all to say that had Babcock chosen the Blues, they'd likely have been Stanley Cup favorites for next season.
Instead, with Babcock now a Maple Leaf, it looks like embattled Blues head coach Ken Hitchcock will remain in place.
According to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet.ca, via James O'Brien of ProHockeyTalk.com, St. Louis is sticking with Hitchcock in 2015 "barring anything dramatic."
As O'Brien notes, "dramatic" seems like a fairly ambiguous term so there's no telling what, exactly, that would entail, but both Hitchcock and the Blues organization seemed to take a breath after another disappointing postseason ousting.
Hitchcock told Andrew Allsman of KMOV.com, "I need time to relect. I feel like I've let people down," in late April as questions of his future and desire to remain a coach swirled.
Blues GM Doug Armstrong, meanwhile, told Tom Timmermann of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch just last week that the organization was still "going through the process."
"I certainly can say we're a lot closer to the finish line now than we were two or three weeks ago but we're not there yet. Ken and I are going to keep working towards having good communication and making sure we're both in the same vein, taking same path as we move forward. It's something that we're working on every day, we're trying to do it behind closed doors and away from public scrutiny," Armstrong said.
"I'm aware that people want answers. Unfortunately, or fortunately for us, we have a strong ownership group that understands that this is a process. We're going to make use of our time and when a final decision has been made, we'll announce it."
Hitchcock has become a divisive figure in St. Louis and seemingly a product of his own success - in the regular season at least.
The Blues have made the playoffs each season since Hitchcock took over, thanks to phenomenal regular season efforts, but each year has brought renewed and heightened postseason expectations and each year Hitchcock's group has failed to deliver and ultimately disappointed in the season's most important moment.
Still, while Hitch may not be the man to lead the Blues to a Stanley Cup, it seems he'll likely be sticking in St. Louis for at least one more season.
