Montreal (AFP) - Martin St.Louis, a Stanley Cup winner and two-time NHL scoring champion, was named coach of the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday, hours after the club fired Dominique Ducharme from the job.
St.Louis, a 46-year-old native of suburban Laval who was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2018, has never been a head coach but served as a consultant to Columbus in the 2018-19 campaign.
"We're very happy to welcome Martin to the Canadiens organization," Montreal general manager Kent Hughes said."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."
In 16 NHL seasons from 1998-2015, St.Louis had 391 goals and set up 642 others over 1,134 games with the New York Rangers, Tampa Bay Lightning and Calgary Flames.
He won the Stanley Cup with the Lightning in 2004, the same season he captured the Hart Trophy as the NHL Most Valuable Player and won the Art Ross Trophy as the NHL scoring leader.He also won the scoring crown in 2012-13.
Ducharme was fired after a league-low eight wins in 45 games this season and a day after falling 7-1 on home ice to New Jersey, the Canadiens' seventh loss in a row.
"At this point in the season, we felt it was in the best interest of the club to make a change," Hughes said.
Since being named head coach last February, Ducharme went 23-46 with 14 overtime losses with the Canadiens.
Montreal made a shock run to last year's Stanley Cup final, their first appearance in the championship round since 1993, only to lose to Tampa Bay.
The Canadiens have struggled this season with injuries, lacking star defenseman Shea Weber and goaltender Carey Price all season.
Ducharme, 48, became the fourth NHL coach fired this season with two others resigning.
