St. Louis had been with his family to help with his son, Mason, 16, after he got hurt during a youth hockey game, and then suffered complications from the injury and was hospitalized. The Canadiens said Mason is now recovering at the family home in Connecticut.
“Everyone within the Canadiens organization has been very supportive of my wife, Heather, and me as we fully focused on our son Mason and his recovery from a hockey injury,” St. Louis said in the team release. “As parents, nothing is more important to us than our three sons, Ryan, Lucas, and Mason.”
Assistant coach Trevor Letowski directed the team during St. Louis’ absence.
St. Louis, 48, was hired as interim coach after the Canadiens fired Dominique Ducharme in February 2022. He signed a three-year contract extension in June 2022.
Before coaching, St. Louis enjoyed a stellar playing career, totaling 1,033 points (391 goals, 642 assists) in 1,134 regular-season games with the Flames, Tampa Bay Lightning and New York Rangers. He won the Stanley Cup and the Hart Trophy as the league MVP with the Lightning in 2004 and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2018.
Every NHL offseason is a chance for front office personnel around the league to bolster their club’s on-ice roster in an effort to improve their Stanley Cup chances in the upcoming campaign. This offseason included blockbuster trades (some occurring during the Stanley Cup Final), several teams drafting a new No. 1 prospect for their pipeline, and a particularly frenetic free agency period that included more than 100 players signing and $1 billion spent on July 1 alone.
Some teams aced the offseason test. Other teams … did not.
Here are the report cards for all 32 NHL teams through the first wave of signings and trades, based on the moves they made, the moves they wanted to make and their needs entering the rest of the summer.
Note: Advanced statistics are from Natural Stat Trick and Evolving Hockey. Cap and contract information is from PuckPedia; teams with negative remaining cap space are that much over the cap, and must be cap-compliant by opening night. Kristen Shilton covered the Atlantic and Metro teams, Ryan S. Clark the Central and Pacific clubs.
Coach status: Patience is one trait that can play a role in defining a rebuild. Luke Richardson has been a patient figure in his two seasons in charge of a young Blackhawks roster. Although the Blackhawks remain in a rebuild, they’re approaching what appears to be the next stage in that plan.
Homegrown talents such as Connor Bedard, Kevin Korchinski, Philipp Kurashev and Alex Vlasic have grown under Richardson. And they’ve now used the past two free agency cycles to recruit veterans that have added another layer to a rebuild that appears it could be on the verge of finishing with more than 30 wins and 70 points after having consecutive 20-win campaigns with less than 60 points.
Overall grade: A. GM Kyle Davidson supplemented the young core with veterans such as Nick Foligno and Taylor Hall last offseason. A year later, Davidson was adept in using copious cap space to add even more veterans, while addressing their weaknesses.
Bertuzzi and Teravainen provide more top-six options for a team that finished last in goals per game. Brodie, Brossoit and Martinez, the latter two of whom won a Stanley Cup together, offer more defensive reliability for a roster that allowed the fourth-most goals per game. Lastly, Maroon and Smith can provide help in a number of areas as well.
Coach status: Moving on from David Quinn after two years meant the Sharks were searching for a coach who could help build the foundation for their new era. They hired Ryan Warsofsky, who has won at the ECHL and AHL levels. He’ll be in charge of a young roster that seeking to improve upon the worst record in the NHL last season, aided by the rookie campaigns for Celebrini and Smith.
Overall grade: A. Here’s why the Sharks had one of the strongest offseasons of any NHL team. They drafted a top-line center in Celebrini while signing a second-line center in Smith, the latter of whom could end up on the wing in the future. They added players who can help them now and in the future, including some who could be traded at the deadline to add to the draft capital coffers.
Perhaps the only issue with the Sharks’ plan is that they have all three salary retention slots taken, which could make deals at the deadline a bit more challenging to execute. But this team should certainly be more competitive next season.
