The Montreal Canadiens named Martin St. Louis their full-time head coach after serving as the interim coach since February of last season. The franchise, now under the leadership of general manager Kent Hughes, gave St. Louis a three-year extension with the team.
With St. Louis behind the bench, the Canadiens were 14-19-4 for the remainder of the season. While that might not seem like that big of an accomplishment, the play on the ice drastically improved.
Young players like Cole Caufield started to shine a bit brighter as he put up 35 points in the 37 games under St. Louis and really as the team enters a rebuild keeping the players happy and motivated is all that matters.
Martin St. Louis is not the most experienced coach around Yes he won a championship with the Lightning during his playing years, but this was his first taste of coaching in the NHL or basically any capacity.
Chances are by the time the Canadiens are ready to turn the corner to success, St. Louis will no longer be the guy in this city, but that doesn’t mean that he won’t help them out now.
The Montreal Canadiens made the right decision keeping Martin St. Louis.
He is not the best coach available this offseason, and he is not going to out coach teams every night, but maybe he can be the voice a team needs while they work to rebuild their roster.
"“Martin is a proven leader, a great communicator with a deep understanding of and passion for the game of hockey. His arrival brought a renewed energy to our group, and we look forward to him returning behind the bench to continue guiding our team for the foreseeable future.”– General Manager Kent Hughes"
The Canadiens were in the Stanley Cup Final just a year ago and now find themselves with the first overall pick at the upcoming NHL Draft. With Shane Wright the expected first overall pick at the upcoming draft, there is no doubt he could be being coached by Martin St. Louis next season.