The Montreal Canadiens announced Saturday in a news release that head coach Martin St. Louis would be on temporary leave from the team. According to the article, the Canadiens’ leave of absence was for family concerns, and assistant coach Trevor Letowski will take over for the time being.
In his third season as head coach of the most successful organization in NHL history, St. Louis has led the Canadiens to a 70-94-21 record in 185 games behind the bench. Originally, St. Louis was called in to take over behind the bench halfway through the 2021-22 NHL season when Montreal fired former head coach Dominique Ducharme.
With his leave of absence indefinite, it is difficult to predict when St. Louis will return to the Canadiens. Montreal is now on their longest road trip of the year and will not return to the Bell Centre until March 28, when they play the Philadelphia Flyers.
Like St. Louis when he first joined the Canadiens, Letowski has no prior experience as an NHL head coach. Letowski, who is in his third season as an assistant coach with the club, formerly coached the Windsor Spitfires and the Sarnia Sting in the Ontario Hockey League.
