Martin St-Louis Was Always Going To Be a Coach, Nate Thomson Says — Montreal Canadiens Coach

Montreal Canadiens coach Martin St-Louis was acting like a bench boss long before his NHL coaching career began, according to former teammate Nate Thomson. Thomson said St-Louis was already drawing up plays in the locker room and telling teammates where to go, the kind of habit that made his coaching path look inevitable.

Nate Thomson on St-Louis

Thomson made the case on the Habs Tonight podcast, where he said St-Louis was the player who had the marker on the whiteboard during intermissions, with half his gear still on and his skates laced. “He didn’t have to tell us he was going to be a coach […] He was the guy who was, you know, we were in the locker room for intermissions, and he was on his skates, wearing half his gear with the marker on the whiteboard, you know, doing a play. He’s telling the guys, “Hey, Stammer, you've got to go here…”, this and that, so he hasn’t changed now. He’s passionate, he loves the game, and he loves talking about it.”

He also called St-Louis a “hockey genius,” and added that his former teammate’s work rate separated him from most players. “He’s a hall of famer for a reason, you know. His work ethic is second to none. He won’t be denied; he’s never satisfied. I would Marty was probably, as far as teammates go, one of the most influential guys in my career […] The way he pushed me, the way he believed in me, he knew how important I was to the team, even as a fourth-line guy.”

Lightning, Rangers and Montreal

Thomson and St-Louis were teammates with the Tampa Bay Lightning for parts of five seasons between 2009 and 2014, giving Thomson a long enough look to see how St-Louis operated away from game nights. Thomson later spent two seasons with the Canadiens, and he posted a 55.1 win percentage at the faceoff dot in both seasons.

St-Louis’s route to the Canadiens bench also ran through the front office. Jeff Gorton was an assistant general manager when St-Louis played for the New York Rangers, and Kent Hughes saw him develop from minor hockey to the pros. Canadiens management moved ahead with him even though he had never been an NHL bench boss before, leaning on the same traits Thomson described: passion, communication, and a sharp feel for the game.

St-Louis Decisions

That profile has shown up in the way St-Louis has handled the current roster. He made Brendan Gallagher a healthy scratch this season, and he stood by Kirby Dach after Dach became a target on social media following the Canadiens' first loss in Tampa Bay.

St-Louis said he would not abandon a player who had not given up on himself, and that approach now sits alongside the picture Thomson painted: a coach who was already coaching before he stopped playing. For the Canadiens, that is the clearest explanation for why the job fit him before he had the résumé usually attached to it.