With the start of their preseason on the horizon, the Canadiens have ensured that they’ll have some continuity behind the bench for a couple more years, announcing that they’ve given associate coach Kirk Muller a two-year contract extension. He had one year remaining on his contract prior to this deal.
This is his second stint as a coach with Montreal. He had first served as an assistant from 2006 to 2011 before looking to run his own bench. That led Muller to Nashville’s farm team in Milwaukee but he didn’t last long there as just 17 games into 2011-12, he was hired as Carolina’s head coach where he spent parts of three seasons. After being let go following the 2013-14 campaign, he went to St. Louis for two years before returning to the Canadiens in the 2016 offseason in his current role.
Montreal will be taking a slightly different approach with their coaching staff for 2018-19. Instead of having the usual two assistants on the bench alongside head coach Claude Julien (who is signed through 2021-22 at $5MM per season), they plan to have three. Muller will be joined by offseason additions Luke Richardson and Dominique Ducharme on their new-look staff after letting go of Dan Lacroix and J.J. Daigneault at the end of last season.
Head coach by xmas.
You mean playing 3rd line center by xmas