Martin St-Louis has earned his place near the top of the coaching conversation, and THN’s latest rankings reflect that with the Montreal Canadiens bench boss landing in seventh.
That’s a long way from the skepticism that followed his hiring in February 2022. When GM Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton handed the job to a man whose coaching background had been limited to minor hockey, plenty of people saw a short-term fix for a team in transition. Four years later, St-Louis is still behind the Canadiens bench, and the idea that he was only there to bridge a gap has aged badly.
What’s become clear is that St-Louis was preparing for this role long before he ever got the title. According to Mathias Brunet’s interview with Steve Begin in La Presse on Friday, he was already using the whiteboard and explaining details to teammates while he was still a player, including during his time in the Calgary Flames’ AHL system. The coaching instincts were there well before the league officially recognized them.
The results have followed. St-Louis has coached 365 regular-season games for Montreal and owns a 162-155-47 record, good for a .511 points percentage.
Given the state of the Canadiens when he took over, that’s a strong mark. He’s also picked up 24 playoff games, going 10-14, including a seven-game series win over Jon Cooper and the Tampa Bay Lightning and another over Lindy Ruff.
The bigger story, though, is how he’s helped individual players grow. St-Louis has built a reputation as a sharp communicator and a teacher, the kind of coach who can get more out of a roster by making the details make sense. That matters, especially for a former star player whose playing greatness doesn’t automatically translate to the bench - Wayne Gretzky with the Arizona Coyotes is the example the source points to.
He also showed real adaptability in Montreal’s first-round series against Tampa Bay. After sticking with matchups in the hope that his top line would eventually break through, he changed course and started moving lines around. Against Cooper, that kind of adjustment is no small thing, and it helped the Canadiens get the better of a tough opponent.
St-Louis isn’t flawless, and the source makes clear that his lack of experience showed in the third round against Rod Brind’Amour and the Carolina Hurricanes. Montreal lost that series in five games and was outplayed for much of it. But like his players, he had to learn from the setback.
For now, St-Louis is the fifth-longest-tenured coach in the NHL, trailing only Cooper, Jared Bednar, Brind’Amour and Andre Tourigny. His contract is set to expire at the end of the season, and while Hughes said a new deal was on his off-season to-do list, there has been no update yet.
One change around the staff has already happened. The Canadiens hired Derek Lalonde as an associate coach after Trevor Letowski reportedly wanted to step back and spend more time with his family.
Letowski had been St-Louis’ right-hand man, so his departure won’t be easy to ignore. Even so, it would be surprising if St-Louis opened the season without a new contract in place.
He has shown over time that he’s exactly what Montreal needed.
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The appeal from the Canadiens side is straightforward enough: they have been looking for a right-handed defenseman who can handle meaningful minutes, and the proposal being kicked around would address that need while forcing Montreal to decide how much value it is willing to attach to Xhekaj. Depending on how the deal is structured, the price could climb beyond a simple one-for-one swap, which is exactly why this has become one of those talks worth watching rather than dismissing. [Read more 🡒]
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NHL Expansion Buzz Just Put The Nordiques Dream In Jeopardy
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For Montreal followers, the significance goes beyond another market on the league map. If Houston is indeed the destination, it would make the long-discussed idea of the Nordiques coming back look even more remote, even if the NHL has not made anything official yet. For now, it is still just buzz, but it is the kind of buzz that can change how people talk about hockey in Quebec. [Read more 🡒]