Montreal Canadiens’ Martin St-Louis to be away from team indefinitely for family reasons

The Montreal Canadiens have announced that head coach Martin St-Louis will be away from the team indefinitely due to family reasons.

The Canadiens did not go into specifics for the reason why St-Louis will be absent, only identifying that it was for family reasons. Further details may be unveiled when or if he is willing to speak on the matter. Assistant coach Trevor Letowski will assume head coaching duties until St-Louis returns.

The announcement comes just an hour before the Canadiens were set to play the Calgary Flames on Saturday. The game was in Calgary, and was the start of a five-game road trip that would also take them to Edmonton, Vancouver, Seattle and Colorado over the course of 11 days, so the distance from Montreal likely played a big role in St-Louis’ temporary departure.

St-Louis is in his third season as the head coach of the Canadiens after taking over the role from Dominique Ducharme in February 2022. He holds a record of 70-94-21 through 185 games with the Habs as they undergo their current rebuild, although there has been plenty of praise about how he’s allowed their young players to thrive and develop.

Letowski is also in his third season as an assistant coach of the Canadiens, although his tenure started during Ducharme’s time with the team. It’s his first job at the NHL level, so he has no experience as a head coach in the NHL, but he has spent parts of three seasons as the head coach of the Sarnia Sting in the Ontario Hockey League, and another three seasons with the Windsor Spitfires. He was also the head coach for Team Black in the Canada’s National U-17 Development Camp in 2015-16.

The Canadiens currently sit in seventh in the Atlantic Division with a 25-30-11 record, which is the seventh-worst record in the league.