Montreal Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin announced yesterday that they have officially extended the contract of assistant coach Alexander Burrows to keep him behind the bench for another three seasons.
The ex-Vancouver Canuck is 40 years old and became an assistant coach in Montreal last February when Dominque Ducharme was named interim head coach after Claude Julien was fired. He was pivotal in running the offence and the powerplay which helped the Habs reach the Stanley Cup final for the first time in 28 years.
In regards to powerplay numbers, the Pincourt-native had the team running at 19.8% and the offence scored 97 goals in 38 regular-season games which is an average of 2.55 goals per game. In the playoffs, the powerplay ran at 18.9% and the forwards generated 51 goals in 22 playoff games.
Before joining the Canadiens behind the bench he was part of Joel Bouchard’s coaching staff in Laval and with the Rocket. The powerplay ranked 18th in the league at 17.9%, which then climbed to 19.7% the following season.
Burrows spent 13 years playing in the NHL, most of which was with the Vancouver Canucks, before finishing his career in Ottawa playing his last two seasons in the league. In 913 career games, he scored 205 goals and added 204 helpers for a total of 409 points.
In all of his Stanley Cup playoff career, he scored 19 goals and 20 assists in 85 games played. His most successful playoff was back in 2010-11 when he scored 17 points (nine goals, eight assists) in 25 games to help the Canucks reach the Stanley Cup final.
Originally from Pincourt, Quebec, a suburb of Montreal in the West Island, Burrows played his junior career with the Shawinigan Cataractes from 2000-2002 before reaching the NHL. He would finish his junior career with 100 points (51 goals, 49 assists) and 289 penalty minutes in 127 games played in the QJMHL. During the playoffs with Shawinigan, he also scored 11 goals and 12 assists in 22 playoff games.
Now, back to this past season. He has been helping the Canadiens’ offence and powerplay and will continue to do so for the next three years. Considering next season will be an 82-game season, he will get even more time to practice with the team and we should see some more improvement.