St. Louis hired as Canadiens coach after Ducharme fired

Martin St. Louis was hired as coach of the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday after they fired Dominique Ducharme.

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 had no NHL coaching experience but was a consultant with the Columbus Blue Jackets during the 2018-19 season.
"It's a great honor for me to be named the coach of the Montreal Canadiens," St. Louis said Thursday. "I grew up here, I was a big fan of the Canadiens. This is something that I have been preparing myself to do for about 10 years. I was able to disconnect from the pro game for about six, seven years to be able to be with my three boys and my wife. And I'm very blessed to have such a great wife that again allows me to pursue a dream that I always wanted. Thank you for the opportunity."
Terms of his contract were not disclosed.
"It has always been my dream to be an NHL coach," he said. "I knew it wasn't whether or not I would do it, it was just a matter of time when I would. When (general manager) Kent [Hughes] approached me, I had no doubt that it was a very good opportunity, that this was the time. And the terms and the contract were not important to me, that's not what I want. For me, it's the opportunity. All my life that's all I ever sought was opportunities. I don't need promises or anything like that. Give me a chance and I'll show you what I can do."
The Canadiens lost St. Louis' debut, 5-2, to the Washington Capitals at Montreal on Thursday.
St. Louis played 16 NHL seasons from 1998-2015 and scored 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 season he won the Hart Trophy voted NHL MVP, and won the Art Ross Trophy as NHL scoring leader twice (2003-04, 2012-13).
"I'm passionate. I eat hockey," St. Louis said. "So when you ask me why I want to do this, one, it's the Montreal Canadiens. And two, I'm the head coach. So those are two very good reasons to stop everything else you're doing, even leaving your family. I had a good six, seven years (since retiring) to help them on the ice and off the ice. I know they're in good hands."
St. Louis was most recently a coach at the peewee level.
"If there's anything this team needs right now is to have fun," St. Louis said. "I know when they were peewees, they had fun so I'm probably the most qualified guy now. People are entitled to their opinion, and for me all that stuff as an athlete, as a human, all that stuff that people want to doubt or talk and say and comment, to me it's all noise. … I've always been a guy that blocks the noise and gets after it, and that's what I intend to do because no matter what I say, what experience I have, I'm still going to get judged on how I perform and how I can help this team."

Hughes said he had no doubt St. Louis was the right person for the job.
"I think I described myself as a hockey junkie and he described himself as eating hockey," Hughes said. "I see hockey the way Marty sees it. … He's always thinking about the game. He's got a very analytical mind. … and it's not just about the X's and O's, it's about the individuals, it's about the group. I knew he was going to be involved in hockey as soon as he got his kids to the right point in their life that he could make that commitment back to the sport because Marty would never do it anything but 130 percent. I didn't know whether now would be that time for him, and I think we're fortunate that he said yes."

The Canadiens scored the fewest goals per game in the NHL (2.20) and allowed the most (3.98) under Ducharme. They were 31st (next to last) on the power play (13.6 percent) and 30th on the penalty kill (72.6 percent).
"I don't want to say we're trying to reset the culture, we're trying to establish the culture that we would like to see, and [St. Louis] is the embodiment of it," Hughes said. "I saw him play when he was in midget, I heard everybody say he couldn't do it. I saw him play in Hawkesbury (Canadian Junior Hockey League), I saw him play at [the University of Vermont].
"You know as his mom said, 'You show them.' He always did, so it's time for our team right now to start showing the hockey community, the fans of the Montreal Canadiens that we're not going to roll over here. We understand we're not going to make the playoffs this season but we're not going to roll over. We want a competitive team. We want a team that brings culture. Marty's the perfect embodiment of what we want to accomplish here, not just this season but going forward."
Ducharme was 23-46-14 iin two seasons with Montreal, which is last in the NHL standings (8-31-7) after reaching the Stanley Cup Final last season, when it lost to Tampa Bay in five games.
The Canadiens lost 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.
"Dom's the coach of this team," Hughes said 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."
Ducharme was the fourth NHL coach to be fired this season (Alain Vigneault, Philadelphia Flyers, Dec. 6; Travis Green, Vancouver Canucks, Dec. 5; Jeremy Colliton, Chicago Blackhawks, Nov. 6). Dave Tippett was fired as coach of the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday.
Paul Maurice resigned as Winnipeg Jets coach on 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.
NHL.com independent correspondent Sean Farrell contributed to this report