St. Louis Blues

Yeo rounds out Blues' coaching staff with Berube, Tkaczuk, Alexander

Published Jun. 15, 2017 2:30 p.m. ET

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Craig Berube (center) was head coach of the Flyers for two seasons.

ST. LOUIS -- The St. Louis Blues don't have a primary American Hockey League affiliate anymore, but they do have the coach of their 2017 Calder Cup playoff team on their 2017-18 coaching staff.

The Blues announced Thursday they have hired Craig Berube, a former head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers, as associate coach. Berube most recently coached the Chicago Wolves -- their primary AHL affiliate until this offseason -- to a first-place finish in the AHL's Central Division and the second round of last season's Calder Cup playoffs.

The team also named Daniel Tkaczuk assistant/skills coach and David Alexander goaltending coach. The three join assistant coaches Steve Ott and Darryl Sydor and video coach Sean Ferrell to complete Mike Yeo's coaching staff.

In his 14th year of coaching, Berube, 51, led the Wolves last season to a 44-19-13 regular-season record, their best mark since 2009-10. Prior to joining the Wolves, he spent two seasons (2013-15) as head coach in Philadelphia, where he led the Flyers to a 75-58-28 regular-season record. Berube also spent seven seasons as an assistant coach with the Flyers (2006-07, 2008-14) and two seasons as head coach (2006-08) and three seasons as an assistant coach (2004-07) with the AHL’s Philadelphia Phantoms.

Berube, an Alberta native, played in 17 NHL seasons, including stints with Philadelphia, Toronto, Calgary, Washington and the New York Islanders. The forward posted 159 points (61 goals, 98 assists) and 3,149 penalty minutes across 1,054 regular-season games. He is one of three players in NHL history to have appeared in over 1,000 regular-season games and serve over 3,000 penalty minutes.

Tkaczuk, 38, spent last season with the Wolves as an assistant on Berube’s staff, helping to develop younger Blues prospects. He previously coached four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League. His 12-year playing career included stints in the NHL (19 games with Calgary in 2000-01), the AHL, Finland, Italy, Germany and England.

Alexander is the director of goaltending development at Alexander Goaltending, where he works with several NHL goaltenders, including the Blues' Jake Allen, in the offseason. He spent the past four seasons as goaltending coach for the Tampa Bay Lightning’s AHL affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch, tutoring several NHL goaltenders, including the Lightning’s Andrei Vasilevskiy. He also was an assistant coach at the University of Maine for five seasons.

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