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Canadiens: 5 Associate Coach Candidates For Next Season

By Patrick Lortie

MONTREAL, QC - FEBRUARY 10: Newly appointed interim head coach, Martin St. Louis of the Montreal Canadiens makes his way towards the bench in his first career NHL game as a coach prior to the game against the Washington Capitals at Centre Bell on February 10, 2022 in Montreal, Canada. (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images)
MONTREAL, QC - FEBRUARY 10: Newly appointed interim head coach, Martin St. Louis of the Montreal Canadiens makes his way towards the bench in his first career NHL game as a coach prior to the game against the Washington Capitals at Centre Bell on February 10, 2022 in Montreal, Canada. (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images) /
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While the Montreal Canadiens have announced that they are rebuilding on the inside, meaning the creation of an Analytics Department, a proper Player Development Department among the top of the list, there is also a position that has yet to be filled behind the bench. In modern hockey, an Associate Coach is now the official right hand man of the Head Coach.

Martin St. Louis has three Assistant Coaches behind the bench in Luke Richardson, Alex Burrows and Trevor Letowski. The last Associate Coach was Dominique Ducharme when he was hired to replace former Associate Coach Kirk Muller to support Claude Julien.

If St. Louis sticks around, signs an extension and ultimately has his Interim tag removed, expect an experienced coach to support St. Louis and give a dose of knowledge to the staff and players.

This doesn’t mean one of Burrows, Richardson or Letowski will get pushed aside, Plenty of assistants rotate behind the bench and some actually spend their time upstairs during the game to get a bird’s eye view and communicate with the bench. Clement Jodoin is a name that comes to mind as he was assistant between the 97-98 and 02-03 seasons. Many times he was the man upstairs and relaying info to Alain Vigneault and company and eventually Michel Therrien.

Without further ado, here are five candidates for the now coveted Associate Coach position.

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