Canadiens sign head coach Martin St. Louis to multi-year contract extension

The Montreal Canadiens signed head coach Martin St. Louis to a multi-year contract extension, the team announced Monday.

St. Louis has guided the upstart Canadiens to consecutive playoff berths, including a trip to last year’s Eastern Conference final, after beginning his tenure during a full-scale rebuild.

Montreal hired St. Louis on an interim basis following Dominique Ducharme's dismissal in February 2022. With that, St. Louis took on his first-ever role behind an NHL bench after previously coaching at the youth hockey level.

The 51-year-old Hall of Fame forward from Laval, Que., had the interim tag removed at the end of that season.

Terms of his new deal were not released.

St. Louis has a 163-155-47 record entering his sixth season as Canadiens coach. He was a finalist for the Jack Adams Award as NHL coach of the year in 2025, after leading the Canadiens to the playoffs for the first time since the 2020-21 season.

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Montreal, at the time the youngest team in the league, was eliminated in the first round by the Washington Capitals.

“Marty has done a terrific job leading our young team,” Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes said in a statement. “He is a great communicator and teacher. We look forward to his continued efforts to mold this group into a championship-caliber team.”

Inducted to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2018, St. Louis totalled 1,033 points in a decorated career before retiring in 2015.

His most decorated season was in 2003-04, when he won the Hart Trophy as league MVP, the Art Ross trophy as leading scorer with 94 points and helped the Tampa Bay Lightning win the Stanley Cup.