Montreal Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis will be away from the team indefinitely for family reasons, the Canadiens announced Saturday.
In St. Louis’ absence, assistant coach Trevor Letowski will assume head coaching duties. The organization did not provide further details.
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
In an interview on TVA Sports during the first intermission of their game against the Calgary Flames on Saturday, Canadiens defenseman David Savard said, “We’re going to try and get a win for (St. Louis’) son.”
St. Louis and his wife, Heather, have three children: Ryan, 20, Lucas, 18, and Mason, 16. St. Louis’ father, Normand, lives just north of Montreal.
Advertisement
In 2014, St. Louis lost his mother, France, at the age of 63 while he was playing with the New York Rangers in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
St. Louis was hired by Montreal during the 2021-22 season and has led the team to a 70-94-21 record during his tenure. He was behind the Canadiens’ bench during the team’s 2-1 overtime loss to the Boston Bruins on Thursday.
Saturday morning in Calgary, the Canadiens held a pre-game media availability at their hotel where St. Louis was expected to speak, but the team brought out assistant coach Stéphane Robidas instead.
The Canadiens just began their longest road trip of the season that will take them from Calgary to Edmonton, Vancouver, Seattle and Denver over 12 days. They arrived in Calgary on Friday afternoon.
The Canadiens are 25-30-11, sitting second-to-last in the Atlantic Division.
Required reading
- Young Canadiens showing perspective and hanging in despite losses
- Canadiens provided Cayden Primeau a stage, and he took full advantage to perform
- Canadiens weekly notebook: Jake Allen meant different things to different goalies
(Photo: David Berding / Getty Images)