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St. Louis Names Former ECHL Coach Payne Interim Coach

January 2, 2010 - ECHL (ECHL) News Release


ST. LOUIS - The St. Louis Blues of the National Hockey League announced that they have named 2007 ECHL Coach of the Year Davis Payne as interim head coach, replacing Andy Murray.

"Davis is very knowledgeable of the players in our organization and we feel he is the best candidate to coach our team," Blues president John Davidson said in a statement. "He has nine winning seasons at the minor league level which includes an ECHL Championship in 2006."

The Alaska Aces are the ECHL affiliate of the Blues of the NHL and Peoria of the American Hockey League. Every ECHL team has an affiliation with an NHL team and the league has affiliations with 28 of the 30 NHL teams, marking the 13th consecutive season that the league has had affiliations with at least 20 teams in the NHL.

There are 28 coaches with an ECHL background working behind the benches of teams in the NHL including Washington Capitals head coach Bruce Boudreau, New York Islanders head coach Scott Gordon and Philadelphia Flyers head coach Peter Laviolette while former ECHL player Dan Bylsma is head coach of the Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins. It is the fifth consecutive season that there have been 11 or more coaches with an ECHL background working in the NHL. Boudreau, who coached Mississippi for three seasons winning the Kelly Cup championship in 1999, was named NHL Coach of the Year in 2007-08 becoming the first former ECHL coach to receive the award.

The 39-year-old Payne has been coaching Peoria since July 2008 and has led the team to a 62-44-9 record.

He was head coach of Alaska for four seasons where he was 185-75-28 in the regular season and 38-21 in the postseason including the Kelly Cup championship in 2006. The Aces advanced to the conference finals each of his last three seasons to become only the second team in history and the first team in 15 years to reach the finals four three years in a row. He is one of only two coaches to lead his team to back-to-back 100-point seasons, winning the Brabham Cup in 2005-06 with 113 points and finishing second in 2006-07 with 105 points. He was selected to coach in the ECHL All-Star Game three times tying him for the most appearances.

Payne was head coach and director of hockey operations for Pee Dee in the ECHL for two and a half seasons from 2000-03. With Payne behind the bench, Pee Dee was 104-67-17 in the regular season and reached the Kelly Cup Playoffs three straight seasons, advancing to the second round all three years.

He has a career ECHL record of 289-142-45 in the regular season and his teams reached the Kelly Cup Playoffs in each of his seven seasons. He is 50-35 in the Kelly Cup Playoffs and ranks second all-time in the ECHL in postseason wins.

Selected in the seventh round (140th overall) by Edmonton in the 1989 NHL Entry Draft, Payne played eight professional seasons. He began his pro career in the ECHL with the Greensboro Monarchs in 1992-93. He played for Phoenix and San Antonio of the International Hockey League and Rochester and Providence of the American Hockey League while also playing 22 games in the NHL with the Boston Bruins. He concluded his playing career as an original member of the Greenville Grrrowl of the ECHL where he played two seasons before becoming an assistant coach.

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