Guillaume Latendresse and Max Lapierre explain why Martin St-Louis' future is not officially settled

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Jeff Drouin
April 16, 2022 (12:02)

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With only eight games left in the Habs' season, many fans are wondering why interim head coach Martin St. Louis has yet to sign a contract extension and be confirmed as a full-time coach.

As reported by my colleague Alexandre Desrosiers of Rumeursdetransaction.com, Maxim Lapierre and Guillaume Latendresse were on 98.5's Les amateurs de sports and discussed why the Habs have yet to announce a contract extension to their interim coach.

Here is Maxim Lapierre's explanation.

"I think Martin is more of a guy who's going to look at the situation on the team side, more than the contractual side. I don't think the numbers, the salary, the years, it's going to piss him off ben, ben. I think it's more about what we're going to give him as a product next year. It was a great mission for him. He was starting out as a pee wee coach in the National League. It was a nice challenge to start with and we did well in the beginning."

"But right now, if we're being honest, it's five wins in his last 18 games. We've got to stop hiding and telling ourselves that everything is great and everything is rosy and we're working better. We're starting to see signs of the team we had under Dominique Ducharme."

"Martin St. Louis may want to know, "Do I embark on a rebuild, or are you going to give me weapons to surround Suzuki and Caufield?"

As for Latendresse, he's going a bit in the same direction as his podcast colleague La Poche Bleue.

"One doesn't go without the other. Martin St. Louis wants to know the path we're taking. What's the direction: "If they tell me we're in a rebuild and we're two or three years away from being at the bottom of the standings. Fine. Give me (a five-year) contract and the salary that goes with it."

Both Habs alumni bring excellent points to the table, and while many pundits suspect that St. Louis will be back behind the team's bench next fall, the fact remains that he'll likely want to take a few weeks of post-season reflection to make his final decision to Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton.