Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis stepping away indefinitely

The Montreal Canadiens will be without head coach Martin St. Louis for tonight’s game versus the Calgary Flames, and perhaps longer.

The Canadiens took to X this afternoon to announce that the 48-year-old will be taking an indefinite leave of absence for family reasons.

Canadiens head coach Martin St-Louis will be away from the team for family reasons.

Read ↓https://t.co/RPNjhwmagU

— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) March 16, 2024

“The Canadiens announced on Saturday that head coach Martin St-Louis will be away from the team indefinitely for family reasons,” a short snippet on the team’s official website reads. “Assistant coach Trevor Letowski will assume head coaching duties during his absence.”

St. Louis is in his second full season behind the Canadiens benched after being hired part way through the 2021-22 campaign. While his 70-94-21 may not be the best indicator, he has done some great work in his short time with the Habs, including really helping some of the teams young stars in Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, and Juraj Slafkovsky develop into highly-impactful players.

It’s also worth noting that despite still being in a clear rebuilding stage, the Canadiens have improved this season. In 2022-23, they finished with a 31-45-6 record for 68 points. They are already up to 61 points this season, and still have 16 games remaining on their schedule.

Taking over for St. Louis will be Letowski, who had a 616-game NHL career spanning from 1998 to 2008. He got into coaching immediately after retiring from professional hockey, starting out as the assistant coach of the Sarnia Sting. He remained in the OHL until the 2021-22 season, when he was named an assistant coach for the Habs.

At this time, there is no further update on St. Louis’s situation or when he may be back. We are hoping for all the best in regards to him and his family.

More to come…

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