3 way too early reasons to be optimistic about the Canadiens in 2024-25

The Canadiens believe in Martin St. Louis

In the NHL, it’s normal to get rid of head coaches if they don’t produce winning records quickly. And unfortunately for Martin St. Louis, it wasn’t happening when he first took over in 2021-22, or in 2022-23, or even last season. And he has just a 75-100-26 record to show for it. 

But the Canadiens are keeping him around, and that should bring another ray of hope that this team will have stability heading into 2024-25. With such a poor record - even if the team isn’t built to win just yet, it would have been easy for management and ownership to roll with another name, but they were wise to keep everything as is. 

Plus, St. Louis’ coaching style is a tremendous fit for both today’s era of hockey and the young team that is the Canadiens. If such a style continues to bode well with the players, there’s no reason to make changes despite the overall record of the coaches currently on the market. 

This organization went in for a complete rebuild; they’re steadily building organizational depth; they have their coach, a trio of dynamic scorers and perhaps more, plus sound, young defensemen like Logan Mailloux, Kaiden Guhle, Jordan Harris, Justin Barron, and David Reinbacher in the organization. 

Hanging onto someone like St. Louis, whose system this team will continue to build chemistry in, could give the Habs even more of an advantage as they head into their third full season with the coach.