If the Canadian’s plan holds up and goes as planned, it will be up to Martin St-Louis to lead the team to great honors.
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To raise the curtain on his season report, Kent Hughes announced that the organization had exercised the option to extend the Laval player’s contract for two seasons. Since he still has one campaign left in his current season, St-Louis will stand behind the Habs bench until the end of the 2026-2027 season.
“He brings new elements every day. So much so that we don’t even know who he really is yet. It seems like there’s always something more with him, which is really rare in this business,” said Jeff Gorton, vice-president of hockey operations.
“There is not a day when we are not satisfied with him,” he added. He improves every day and he takes pride in it. It is truly impressive. He is the right person for this position.”
Able to adjust
In place since February 2022, St-Louis was hired to oversee the reconstruction of the team. Two and a half seasons later, the Habs posted a 75-100-26 under his leadership.
Initially, if Hughes and Gorton had chosen St-Louis, it was because he saw him as the perfect candidate to develop a core of young players. At that time, many people wondered if the former Lightning forward would only be a transitional coach.
Because developing young people and leading a mature team towards great honors are two mandates that do not always apply to the same person. This decision therefore confirms that Hughes and Gorton are confident that St-Louis will be able to achieve this.
“The more we advance as a team, the more expectations change,” Hughes said. I’m sure Martin will be able to adjust, otherwise we would have waited another season before exercising our option.
“Martin is a very intelligent person,” he continued. He is able to read individuals and find the right way to communicate with each of them. He’s really brilliant on the hockey side too. He’s been through a lot as a player.”
Assistants waiting
If the St-Louis file is resolved, this is not the case for his deputies. Hughes stressed that the cases of Alex Burrows, Stéphane Robidas, Trevor Letowski and Éric Raymond would be discussed in the coming days.
“I think we really have a group of coaches who have a lot of experience as players and who are brilliant individually,” said the Canadiens general manager. If we consider that we need to add an experienced coach, we will always look, but I cannot say that we need to add one for the moment.
As for Jean-François Houle and his assistants, at the Laval Rocket, discussions regarding their future will take place at the end of the team’s season. The Rocket can still hope to qualify for the American League playoffs, but they will have to win their two games on Friday and Saturday.