Top 5 fastest coaching firings in modern NHL history.

The National Hockey League can be a cruel place to do business and unfortunately for now former St. Louis Blues head coach Drew Bannister that was a lesson he learned the hard way over the weekend. Bannister became one of the shortest tenured coaches in modern NHL history when he was fired after just 22 games behind the bench, but he wasn't the fastest.

Today I'll be looking at the 5 shortest tenures behind the bench in modern NHL history, and for this one I'll be going through the list in reverse order starting with:

#5 Geoff Ward - Calgary Flames - 24 games.

Ward's situation very much mirror's the one that resulted in the firing of the aforementioned Bannister with the former Flames head coach being dismissed largely due to the availability of a bigger name. Ward went 35-26-5 over two partial seasons behind the Flames bench but was fired when Brad Treliving, the Flames general manager at the time, decided to replace him with Darryl Sutter who was coming off of a pair of Stanley Cup championships with the Los Angeles Kings.

#4 Drew Bannister - St. Louis Blues - 22 games.

Bannister comes in at only number 4 on this list which may surprise many of you as 22 games is not a very long tenure. Bannister was of course fired almost entirely based off of a decision made by the Boston Bruins earlier in the week. Blues general manager Doug Armstrong even admitted over the weekend that the decision to fire Bannister was predicated entirely on the availability of Jim Montgomery, who was fired by the Bruins last week, which was made even clearer by the fact that Montgomery was signed to a huge 5 year deal.

#3 Ron Rolston - Buffalo Sabres - 20 Games.

You could definitely place the tenure of Ron Rolston behind the bench of the Buffalo Sabres in the disaster column. Rolston lasted only 20 games behind the bench and that was due to the fact that he was on hand for the worst start in Buffalo Sabres history at the time, going 4-15-1 to start the regular season. It was so bad in fact that longtime Sabres general manager Darcy Regier was also fired as a result of the catastrophic start to the season, with Pat Lafontaine and Ted Nolan serving as their replacements. Rolston has never coached in the NHL again since.

#2 Barry Melrose - Tampa Bay Lightning - 16 games.

Melrose lasted only 16 games during the 2008-09 season after leaving a job at ESPN to take on his first coaching role since the 1994-95 season when he was coaching the Los Angeles Kings. Unfortunately for Melrose and the Lightning things didn't work out so well with a rather public divide between the head coach and ownership at the time. In fact Melrose was even critical of ownership in a book he would later write.

"Having players friendly with owners is an unhealthy situation that upsets the chemistry in the dressing room," wrote Melrose. "Maybe you aren't that friendly with the star who is having dinner regularly with the owner. Maybe you start to think he might be throwing you under the bus at those dinners."

#1 Mike Babcock - Columbus Blue Jackets - 0 games.

This is a record that can never be broken and that is something that longtime NHL head coach Mike Babcock will be able to claim for the rest of time.

Babcock was coming off of a very controversial end to a coaching tenure behind the bench of the Toronto Maple Leafs when Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen made the controversial decision to hire Babcock to be the next bench boss of the Blue Jackets. Many had predicted the decision would backfire for Kekalainen but no one could have predicted just how quickly it would happen.

After Babcock's coaching tactics and handling of his players was once again called into question during the preseason led to an investigation on the part of the National Hockey League Players Association, Babcock was forced to resign before coaching even a single game.