Montreal Canadiens HC Martin St. Louis taking indefinite leave of absence

Saturday in a news release, the Montreal Canadiens announced that head coach Martin St. Louis would be taking an indefinite leave of absence from the team. In the report, the Canadiens indicated that the leave of absence was due to family reasons and that assistant coach Trevor Letowski would be taking over the reins for the time being.

In now his third season as the head coach of the winning-est franchise in NHL history, St. Louis has guided the Canadiens to a 70-94-21 record in his 185 games behind the bench. Originally, St.Louis was brought in to take over behind the bench halfway through the 2021-22 NHL season after Montreal parted ways with former head coach, Dominique Ducharme.

With the leave of absence being indefinite, it is difficult to speculate as to when St. Louis will return to the Canadiens. Currently on their longest road trip of the year, Montreal will not return to the Bell Centre until March 28 when they take on the Philadelphia Flyers.

Much like St. Louis when he originally joined the Canadiens, Letowski does not have any former experience being the head coach of an NHL team. In his third season as an assistant coach with the club, Letowski is the former head coach of the Windsor Spitfires and the Sarnia Sting of the Ontario Hockey League.