Montreal Canadiens: Grading Martin St. Louis a Year Later

Last month, I wrote about the job Kent Hughes has done as the Canadiens’ General Manager after one year on the job. Believe it or not, it’s now also been a year for Martin St. Louis as head coach of the Canadiens. At the time he was hired, St. Louis was just the interim head coach, but after coaching the final 37 games of the 2021-22 season, St. Louis parlayed that into a three-year contract extension and the removal of the interim tag.

While it hasn’t been a linear path, most would say that Martin St. Louis has done an excellent job behind the bench, especially when one considers the adversity that’s been dealt. Nobody in the NHL has suffered more from injuries over the last two seasons, with the previous season, in particular, holding the dubious record of the most man games lost to injuries in NHL history.

With that in mind, let’s take a look back at the job St. Louis has done over the last year as the head coach. To do this, we will look at a few things, first by comparing him to the previous man in charge, Dom Ducharme. Then we will look at how he stacks up against the rest of the NHL, and finally, how he has impacted individual players and their development.

Martin St. Louis vs Dominique Ducharme:

Dom Ducharme was head coach of the Montreal Canadiens during one of the more exciting times in recent Canadiens history, helping lead them to their first Stanley Cup Final since 1993. But, unfortunately, Ducharme was also behind the bench for most of last season, perhaps the worst single season in franchise history. It was so bad that Kent Hughes had no choice but to relieve Ducharme of his duties in hopes of a spark that could rejuvenate the locker room.

Ducharme coached 86 games as head coach of the Canadiens, not including the postseason, and in those games, the Canadiens went 23-49-14. In 88 games behind the Habs bench, St. Louis has gone 34-46-8, a slightly better record with arguably worse talent. More on that in a second. But the best comparison between the two takes place simply by evaluating last season’s stats when both men coached the same roster. Ducharme went 8-33-7, while St. Louis went 14-19-4. So not only did the Habs have a better record, but they improved statistically pretty much all across the board, an impressive feat.

As for Ducharme, aside from a magical playoff run, he wasn’t particularly impressive behind the bench in the 2021 season either. With a much more talented roster than either of the last two seasons, Ducharme went just 15-16-7 after taking over for Claude Julien. This is with a roster that included Shea Weber, Carey Price (Although he did miss some time from injuries), and Phillip Danault. St. Louis hasn’t been perfect as head coach of the Canadiens, but for a guy with no prior coaching experience at a level higher than bantam, he’s been a welcomed improvement. St. Louis boasts a 20-27-4 record this season despite several injuries and a roster that ranks toward the bottom of the league in talent.

While it isn’t the only thing that matters, an improvement from one coach to the next is important, and I think it’s clear that St. Louis was an upgrade. The Canadiens intend on winning even more games than they currently have, but as has been a trend in my articles for the last little while, that will take time as more talent is introduced to the roster.

How does Martin St. Louis stack up against other NHL coaches?

In his 88 games behind the bench as Head Coach of the Montreal Canadiens, St. Louis has been a welcomed sight for sore eyes. The team was spiraling in a big way when he took over, and he helped get them back on track, albeit still losing more than their fair share of games. But considering the fact the Canadiens have suffered more injuries than anyone else over the last two years, the roster is already one of the weaker ones in the league, and he had virtually no prior coaching experience, it really isn’t that surprising. It’s hard to envision a more seasoned coach doing much better.

Take Ottawa, for example, a team with a much better roster, specifically in their top-six forward core. They have much higher expectations than the Canadiens, so much so that the GM declared their rebuild over before the beginning of the 2021-22 season. They finished that year 26th in the NHL and missed the playoffs for the fifth consecutive year. Despite adding even more talent this season, they still find themselves outside the playoffs, just seven points ahead of the rebuilding Habs.

The Canadiens are about where you would expect them to be, at or near the bottom in pretty much every statistical category. Obviously, that is a less-than-ideal scenario, but again, look at what St. Louis has to work with. This team isn’t horrible, just undermanned, and they are a far cry from the Claude Julien led teams of just a few years ago. Despite that, they’ve remained competitive and won their fair share of games. No one would fault him, or management for that matter, if they finished dead last, and while they aren’t competing for a playoff spot, they are playing good hockey, and St. Louis deserves credit for that.

It will be really fascinating to see where the team can go moving forward as the influx of talent becomes more evident, and St. Louis and the rest of his coaching staff gain more experience. Looking at the job Jeff Saturday did in a similar situation in the NFL, it’s clear this is going a lot better for Montreal than it otherwise could have. Pulling someone who quite literally had never coached before, even if they were a Hall of Famer as a player, can have disastrous results, but not for St. Louis.

The Players Needed a Coaching Change

You can’t talk about the job St. Louis has done and not discuss his impact on Cole Caufield. Other players have also benefited from St. Louis taking over behind the bench, but nobody stands out more than Caufield. In 30 games during the 2021-22 season with Ducharme behind the bench, Caufield scored just one goal. In the 83 games since, Caufield has 48 goals, a pace that would be the most by any Montreal Canadien since Stephane Richer scored 51 in the 1989-90 season.

Now it seems unlikely that a player as talented as Caufield would remain at one goal forever, even under Ducharme, but it also seems hard to deny St. Louis’ impact. No matter how you choose to look at it, Caufield has become the player that Habs fans hoped he could be, and it coincided with the hiring of St. Louis, starting from day one, quite literally. And Caufield isn’t the only player that has shown growth under St. Louis.

Before coming to Montreal, Kirby Dach struggled to live up to the hype of being a third-overall pick in Chicago. The potential was there, but he just couldn’t seem to take that next step for whatever reason. Now, four months into his tenure with the Habs, Dach looks like the player he was drafted to be. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what has changed for Dach, and Caufield for that matter. It may simply be a newfound confidence that St. Louis provided for them. Sometimes knowing you have a coach who’s willing to let you be aggressive and try things instead of stapling you to the bench after a mistake can go a long way. Whatever it is, the switch was clearly flipped, and the hope is that St. Louis can continue to do this for other players, most notably Juraj Slafkovsky.