Nelson Ayotte joined the Columbus Blue Jackets in July 2016 as high performance consultant and now serves as the club's director of high performance.
 
Ayotte joined the Blue Jackets after spending the previous 11 seasons with the St. Louis Blues as their strength and conditioning coach. He is recognized as one of the top sports performance training coaches in the world and is a level five rating with the National Canadian Coaching Program which is its highest rating.
 
Ayotte was chosen as Canadian coach of the year in 1998 and Quebec coach of the year in 1998, 1999 and 2000. He also won the Canadian Military Land Forces Coach of the Year in 2002. Ayotte has coached with Canadian National teams, US Olympic track and field, and worked with several professional athletes in the NHL, NFL, MLB, NBA and PGA. He has lectured on training methodology across North and South America and also in Europe.
 
Ayotte is an innovator of sports training and holistic physical fitness with several supplement products and training systems to his credit. He graduated from the International Coaching School of the University of Victoria B.C and is a Master-course conductor of the National Coaching Institute of Montreal, Quebec.