Canadiens sign head coach Martin St. Louis to multi-year extension
One of the rising stars in the coaching ranks is staying in La Belle Province for a couple more years.
On Monday, Montreal Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes announced that the team has signed head coach Martin St. Louis to a multi-year contract extension.
The terms of the contract have yet to be reported. Hughes said St. Louis’ work with the club has earned him a new contract.
“Marty has done a terrific job leading our young team,” Hughes said in a release. “He is a great communicator and teacher. We look forward to his continued efforts to mold this group into a championship-caliber team.”
St. Louis was an inauspicious hiring by the Canadiens when he joined the team in the middle of the 2021-22 season, following the dismissal of Dominique Ducharme. While he had a long and storied playing career, including winning a Stanley Cup with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2004, the Quebec native had yet to coach at any high level.
Yet, with his experience as a player in tow, St. Louis helped lead Montreal through a rebuild, helping develop some of the team’s young talent. Patience and guidance paid off, as the Habs, the youngest team in the NHL, qualified for the playoffs in 2024-25, the team’s first postseason berth in four years. St. Louis was named a finalist for the Jack Adams Award as a result.
Things continued to trend upward in Montreal this past season. With more experience throughout the lineup, the Canadiens competed for the top spot in the Atlantic Division for much of the 2025-26 campaign. The team ended up finishing third, but went on an exciting run in the playoffs. After beating the Lightning in the first round, Montreal outlasted the Atlantic-winning Buffalo Sabres to advance to the Eastern Conference Final. There, they ran into the eventual Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes, with the Habs bowing out in five games.
In his five-plus seasons as the bench boss in Montreal, St. Louis has earned a record of 163-155-47 during the regular season, with a 10-14 record in the postseason.
