Martin St. Louis was hired as coach of the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday, replacing Dominique Ducharme, who was fired.
St. Louis, who was born in Laval, Quebec, outside Montreal, is a former NHL forward who was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2018. The 46-year-old has no NHL coaching experience but was a consultant with the Columbus Blue Jackets during the 2018-19 season.
“We are very happy to welcome Martin to the Canadiens organization,” Montreal general manager Kent Hughes said. “Not only are we adding an excellent hockey man, but with Martin we are bringing in a proven winner and a man whose competitive qualities are recognized by all who have crossed his path.”
St. Louis played 16 seasons in the NHL from 1998-2015, scoring 1,033 points (391 goals, 642 assists) in 1,134 games with the New York Rangers, Tampa Bay Lightning and Calgary Flames. He won the Stanley Cup with the Lightning in 2004, the Hart Trophy voted as NHL MVP (2003-04) and the Art Ross Trophy as NHL scoring leader twice (2003-04, 2012-13).
Ducharme was 23-46-14 in 83 games over two seasons with Montreal, which is last in the NHL standings (8-30-7) after reaching the Stanley Cup Final last season, where it lost to Tampa Bay in five games.
“We would like to sincerely thank Dominique for his work and contributions to the Montreal Canadiens organization,” Hughes said. “At this point in the season, we felt it was in the best interest of the club to make a change.”
The Canadiens lost their first five games to begin the season and fired GM Marc Bergevin on Nov. 28 after a 6-15-2 start. Jeff Gorton was hired as executive vice president of hockey operations that day and hired Hughes, a former player agent, as GM on Jan. 18.
Hughes said one of his first decisions would be regarding the status of Ducharme, who was promoted after Claude Julien was fired Feb. 23, 2021. Ducharme helped the Canadiens reach the Cup Final, but Montreal has lost seven straight games (0-5-2) and has struggled all season.
“Dom’s the coach of this team,” Hughes said at his introductory press conference Jan. 19. “… I haven’t had a lot of opportunity to think about everything. It’s been kind of more of a reactionary 48 hours. But I certainly have beliefs about what a modern-day coach should be or have in terms of qualities, and I’m anxious to speak to Dom and learn more about him, and ultimately, we’ll see where things take us from there.”
Montreal has dealt with numerous injuries and has been without defenseman Shea Weber (multiple injuries) and goalie Carey Price(knee surgery) this season.
Ducharme is the fourth NHL coach fired this season (Alain Vigneault, Philadelphia Flyers, Dec. 6; Travis Green, Vancouver Canucks, Dec. 5; Jeremy Colliton, Chicago Blackhawks, Nov. 6). Paul Maurice resigned as Winnipeg Jets coach Dec. 17, and Joel Quenneville resigned as Florida Panthers coach Oct. 28 after being implicated in an independent investigation into the Blackhawks for allegations by former player Kyle Beach of sexual assault by then-video coach Brad Aldrich in 2010.
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