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Montreal Canadiens Hire Martin St. Louis As Interim Head Coach

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The Montreal Canadiens have gone a bit off the board to replace Dominique Ducharme, who was fired earlier today. Instead of going with someone that already has coaching experience at the NHL level, the team has instead hired Hockey Hall of Fame player Martin St. Louis as interim head coach. General manager Kent Hughes has released the following statement:

We are very happy to welcome Martin to the Canadiens organization. Not only are we adding an excellent hockey man, but with Martin we are bringing in a proven winner and a man whose competitive qualities are recognized by all who have crossed his path.

St. Louis, 46, has no formal experience as a coach in the NHL, though he did serve as a powerplay consultant for the Columbus Blue Jackets for part of the 2018-19 season.

Still, there’s no one doubting his hockey knowledge. St. Louis played 1,134 regular season games over a long NHL career, scoring 1,033 points. He added another 107 playoff contests, winning the Stanley Cup with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2004. Olympic gold. World Cup gold. Art Ross and Hart trophies. There’s very little that St. Louis failed to accomplish as a player, despite going undrafted as an undersized forward in a league that was still focused on size.

There are also many obvious connections with the new Montreal front office. Not only did St. Louis play for Jeff Gorton when he was still in the front office of the New York Rangers, but their kids also played youth hockey together. St. Louis’ son Ryan now plays at Northeastern with Jack and Riley Hughes, sons of the Montreal GM. Hughes was also the agent for Vincent Lecavalier, a longtime teammate of St. Louis in Tampa Bay. Lecavalier has also been linked to the Canadiens organization in recent days, though the role he would take on is not clear.

Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports that St. Louis is only signed through the end of this season and the two sides will talk about the future at the end of that short tenure. With the Canadiens completely floundering and at the bottom of the standings, it’s hard to expect St. Louis to really turn around the program. If he can get at least some sort of change out of the group, however, perhaps he’ll make the jump right from peewee head coach to NHL head coach on a full-time basis.

Montreal Canadiens Fire Dominique Ducharme

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The new front office leadership of the Montreal Canadiens has made their first big move. Dominique Ducharme has been relieved of his duties as head coach, effective immediately. His replacement will be named later today according to the team and the status of the assistant coaches has not been changed. Kent Hughes, Montreal’s new GM, released a statement:

We would like to sincerely thank Dominique for his work and contributions to the Montreal Canadiens organization. At this point in the season, we felt it was in the best interest of the club to make a change. 

Ducharme, 48, took over as head coach of the Canadiens in February of last year when Claude Julien was let go and ended up leading the team all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals. Even during that run there were questions about whether he was the right person to continue leading the Canadiens, but the interim tag was eventually removed and Ducharme signed a three-year contract extension in July. That deal keeps him under contract through the 2023-24 season but he will no longer be behind the Canadiens bench as Hughes and Jeff Gorton start to put their stamp on the team.

It’s been a disastrous year for Montreal, with the leadership group in tatters after Shea Weber and Carey Price were sidelined by injury and players like Phillip Danault were lost to free agency. The team has cratered in the standings and on the ice, with some players even showing a lack of effort at times. The Canadiens are 8-30-7 on the season and were embarrassed by the New Jersey Devils last night, losing 7-1 on home ice. The final goal last night was scored by Tomas Tatar, notably a player that was scratched in the playoffs by Ducharme last year.

If the Canadiens hire someone else to take over as head coach right away, they would actually be paying three people for that job. Julien’s contract, which carried a $5MM salary, is still on the books for this season. That, plus the $1.7MM that Ducharme is believed to earn, is certainly not an insignificant amount to a team that has also dealt with attendance restrictions this season and will continue to do so for the next few weeks.

Interestingly enough, Gorton–who was given the role of executive vice president of hockey operations after Marc Bergevin was let go–actually told reporters earlier this season that he would not be making a coaching change until the summer. That plan has obviously changed with Hughes’ addition and the continued losses piling up in Montreal.

The Canadiens have a big offseason ahead of them that includes hosting the draft where they currently hold 11 selections. That number could grow as the trade deadline approaches, though there aren’t a ton of expiring contracts on the books. Whoever does take over as head coach will certainly not be able to bring the team back from the hole they’ve dug themselves, meaning it could very well be an interim position for the rest of this season.

Jean-Charles Lajoie of TVA Sports was to report that Ducharme had been fired. 

Devils Notes: Hamilton, White, Ruff

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After the news of Jack Hughes entering COVID-19 protocol today, Devils fans are understandably stressed. There’s some good news on the horizon, though, as it appears defenseman Dougie Hamilton is making progress towards his return to the lineup. Team reporter Amanda Stein said today that although Hamilton did not join his teammates for practice today, the veteran defenseman did skate by himself this morning. Hamilton’s been limited to 30 of 45 games this season with various injuries, but he’s now been out of the lineup for over a month with a broken jaw. His 20 points in 30 games are by far the best scoring pace by a Devils defenseman this season, and while his defensive game has stuttered a few times this season, expect more consistent playing time in his new system to aid with that.

More notes from the Devils organization:

  • The team made a shift on defense today, calling up defenseman Colton White from the AHL’s Utica Comets. While Mason Geertsen can play defense, he’s been utilized mostly at forward this season when in the lineup. With that, the Devils had no extra healthy defensemen with the team with the dissipation of taxi squads across the league over the All-Star break. White brings 15 games of NHL experience this year back to the roster, notching three assists.
  • Stein also reports that head coach Lindy Ruff will return to the team later today in Ottawa ahead of their game against the Senators tomorrow. Ruff was away from the team in Western Canada after the passing of his father. Assistant Alain Nasreddine coached the team in his absence and ran the team’s practice today.

Hockey Canada Updates Olympic Coaching Staff

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Jan 30: Colliton will be taking over as head coach of the Canadian team, as Julien is not able to travel with the team due to an injury. Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff tweets that Julien fell during a team-building activity during their training camp in Switzerland and suffered fractured ribs.

Jan 14: When the NHL pulled out of the Olympics, so too did the management and coaching staffs that were set to lead Team Canada. Doug Armstrong had been brought in to serve as general manager, while Jon Cooper was supposed to serve as head coach. Since they’ll be busy with NHL duties, Hockey Canada has picked a new pair of familiar faces to lead the program.

Shane Doan will serve as Team Canada GM for the upcoming Olympics, joined by assistant general manager Scott Salmond, a member of Hockey Canada’s executive staff. The coaching staff will officially be led by Claude Julien, along with assistants Jeremy Colliton, Nolan Baumgartner, and Tyler Dietrich. Tom Renney, Hockey Canada’s CEO, released this statement:

We are excited to announce our experienced management group and coaching staff that will lead Canada’s Men’s Olympic Team at the 2022 Olympics. With less than a month until the men’s tournament gets underway at the Olympics, we are excited to continue working with the entire staff as it prepares to represent Canada and build a roster that Canadians can support as it looks to bring home an Olympic gold medal.

Doan and Julien were easy choices after leading the Canadian contingent at the recent Channel One Cup, an event that was basically a backup plan for Olympic preparation should the NHL decide to pull out. Doan also has plenty of international experience and even participated in the 2006 Olympics with Canada. Julien was an assistant on the 2014 squad and has also been part of several other Canadian coaching staffs over the years.

In the release, Salmond says that he looks forward to “unveiling the roster in the coming weeks” but does not give a firm date for the announcement. The tournament starts for Canada on February 10, when they’re set to take on Germany.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

West Notes: Stars, Martinez, Manson

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With the Stars having a particularly inconsistent season and being in a battle for a Wild Card spot, some have wondered about the futures of head coach Rick Bowness and GM Jim Nill.  Speaking with Saad Yousuf of The Athletic (subscription link), team owner Tom Gaglardi suggested that no firm decisions have been made either way:

“I think we went into this season and we thought we had a really good team and really expect this team to be solid in the playoffs. If that happens, Rick’s probably somebody we want to continue to build around. Past that, we don’t talk about those things. Summer will come when summer comes. We’ve just decided, we’re not talking about these things right now.

“We’re not talking about anybody’s contract. Let’s focus on the now and getting everything we can out of this season. The summer will come. There will be lots of time to take stock and decide which way we go. If there are changes to be made, we’ll make them then.”

A decision will need to be made on Bowness one way or the other as he’s in the final year of his contract while Nill is signed through the end of next season.  It appears that the way Dallas performs over the next few months will go a long way towards determining what direction they’ll go.

More from the West:

  • Golden Knights defenseman Alec Martinez isn’t quite ready to return from his upper-body injury, notes Jesse Granger of The Athletic (Twitter link). Vegas will have to activate him from LTIR in order to get him in the lineup which will likely in turn cause winger Max Pacioretty to be placed on there for the time being.  Granger adds that the lineup for tonight’s game isn’t finalized yet due to some COVID testing questions.
  • The Ducks announced (Twitter link) that defenseman Josh Manson suffered an upper-body injury in today’s game against Ottawa. He suffered the injury on a hard hit from Brady Tkachuk in the first period.  Manson, a pending unrestricted free agent, has six points in 42 games heading into today’s contest although he is second in the team in hits with 111.

Philadelphia Flyers Hire John Torchetti

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The Philadelphia Flyers have added an assistant coach to the staff, filling a vacancy left behind by the firings earlier this season. John Torchetti has been hired and will join Mike Yeo’s staff, along with Nick Schultz and Darryl Williams. Notably, the Flyers also announced that Yeo will remain interim head coach for the remainder of the season, despite the team losing their last 12 in a row and 14 of 19 since he took over.

If there wasn’t so much frustration surrounding the Flyers at the moment, Torchetti joining Yeo’s staff might bring a few laughs. After all, he was the coach who took over in Minnesota when Chuck Fletcher–then the Minnesota GM, now Philadelphia’s–fired Yeo in 2016. Torchetti has also served as an interim coach for the Florida Panthers and Los Angeles Kings, seemingly always coming in to clean up and add structure to a bad situation.

He actually had a winning record for Minnesota down the stretch and took that team to the playoffs, something that certainly doesn’t seem likely in Philadelphia this year. The team now sits dead last in the Metropolitan Division, tied with the New York Islanders despite playing eight more games. It’s been a dreadful stretch and the Flyers now own the third-worst goal differential in the entire NHL, only ahead of the Arizona Coyotes and Montreal Canadiens.

Torchetti has been a head coach in the IHL, AHL, KHL, and QMJHL as well, most recently with the Moncton Wildcats in 2019-20.

Babcock, Maurice Not Looking To Coach In NHL This Season

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The turmoil surrounding the Edmonton Oilers resulted in several jerseys being thrown on the ice after a 6-0 defeat at the hands of the Florida Panthers. As silly as it sounds, jersey tosses have often come just ahead of a coach’s dismissal, as Ron Wilson and Travis Green can attest. The situation with Dave Tippett in Edmonton is an evolving one, as Ryan Rishaug of TSN explains that though a change isn’t imminent, it is a “day-to-day process” at the moment and suggests that a poor result against the Calgary Flames tomorrow night would likely leave no choice for general manager Ken Holland.

With Tippett’s future unclear, some have suggested that Mike Babock, a long-time colleague of Holland’s with the Detroit Red Wings, could be a potential answer in Edmonton. Darren Dreger of TSN tweets that Babcock has no intention of coaching in the NHL this season and will be staying with the University of Saskatchewan through March. Babcock is technically still under contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs, meaning hiring him would come along with buying out at least a portion of the remaining money owed. The eight-year contract he signed in 2015 paid him $6.25MM each season through 2022-23.

Another name, Paul Maurice, has also been thrown into the mix after he resigned as head coach of the Winnipeg Jets earlier this season. Similarly, Dreger reports that Maurice will not be coaching in the NHL for the rest of this season. Maurice is certainly a candidate for the Oilers or another NHL team moving forward, but is taking some time away from the game to refocus.

In terms of candidates for Edmonton then should they move on from Tippett, Rishaug explains that assistant coach Glen Gulutzan would be the most likely on an interim basis. Bakersfield Condors head coach Jay Woodcroft, who previously served as a video assistant under Babcock and Holland in Detroit, would be a candidate for the full-time job but Rishaug doesn’t expect the team would want to commit a multi-year contract to him midseason when the candidate list is so short.

Of course, any change in regard to the Oilers’ head coaching position is speculative at this point and obviously dependent on how the team plays moving forward.

Buffalo Sabres Update Several Injuries

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Every week it seems like the Buffalo Sabres announce several new long-term injuries, and this week was no different. The team gave an updated injury report which now lists Kyle Okposo as week-to-week following a hit from Erik Brannstrom on Tuesday night. Head coach Don Granato told reporters including John Vogl of The Athletic that Okposo did not suffer a concussion on the play, but is out with “bumps and bruises.”

Unfortunately, the bad news didn’t end there. Colin Miller, who was still listed as week-to-week on the update, underwent surgery and will miss six weeks. The 29-year-old defenseman played just a few days ago and had been discussed as a strong trade deadline chip for the Sabres. Miller is a pending unrestricted free agent, right-handed, and has nearly 400 games of NHL experience. That made him an attractive option, but he’ll now have to work through rehab and get back to full strength if Buffalo really wants to cash in.

Meanwhile one of their own trade acquisitions, Malcolm Subban, also had surgery and is likely out for the rest of the season. The 28-year-old netminder was acquired from the Chicago Blackhawks last month for nothing more than future considerations but will end with just four appearances for the team. Given Subban is also a pending unrestricted free agent, it’s a tough blow that could see him struggling to find an NHL contract in the summer. In those four games, he posted a .871 save percentage and now holds a .898 for his 86-game NHL career.

Vinnie Hinostroza, who has been a nice story for the Sabres this season with eight goals and 17 points in 36 games, will miss about three weeks with his lower-body injury. The Sabres have recalled Jack Quinn today, who appears to be ready for an extended look at the NHL level because of how many injuries the team is currently dealing with.

Islanders Head Coach Barry Trotz Returns To Game Action

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New York Islanders head coach Barry Trotz is back behind the bench for game action tonight after a personal leave of absence from the team for the death of his mother and clearing COVID protocol, reports Newsday’s Andrew Gross.

The team placed Trotz in COVID protocol on January 11, not getting a chance to coach the team after returning from his leave of absence. The last Islanders game Trotz coached was against Buffalo on December 30th, taking his leave of absence the next day.

However, due to a rash of postponements, Trotz has been absent only for the last three of the team’s games. Assistant coach Lane Lambert took over head coaching duties in the process.

With Trotz back at the helm, the Islanders continue a long road back toward a potential playoff spot. By standings points, the team is third-last in the Eastern Conference and 18 points behind Boston for the last wild card spot. However, they have as many as 10 games in hand on some teams, ample room to make up some difference. The eighth-place points percentage in the conference is Washington’s .654, though, and New York’s .467 mark still lags far behind.

2022 NHL All-Star Game Rosters To Be Revealed Tomorrow

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The four divisional rosters for the 2022 NHL All-Star Game will be revealed Thursday exclusively on ESPN’s SportsCenter program, the TV network tweeted today. The reveal program will be hosted by Steve Levy, along with analysts and former NHLers Chris Chelios and Mark Messier.

Each division’s roster features nine skaters and two goaltenders, and the tournament continues to be played in a 3-on-3 format. The coaches for the four divisions have already been named — Andrew Brunette (Atlantic), Rod Brind’Amour (Metropolitan), Jared Bednar (Central), and Peter DeBoer (Pacific).

All but one player from each division will be revealed during the roster announcement. Fans have the opportunity to vote for the last player on each squad, known as the Last Men In voting campaign. Details for that will also be revealed during the show.

The All-Star weekend takes place February 4 and February 5.

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