Huge surprise waiting for Martin St-Louis could change everything
Pierre LeBrun dropped the report Wednesday afternoon, and the timing could not be louder. Martin St-Louis is getting an extension from the Montreal Canadiens this summer, and Kent Hughes is not waiting.
LeBrun said it on The Athletic. Extensions for St-Louis, John Hynes, and Spencer Carbery are coming in short order. The Habs side of that sentence is the one that turns heads.
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Because as the report landed, Montreal is getting outscored by Carolina in a series that has tilted hard.
The Canadiens trail the Hurricanes 3-1. They were shut out 4-0 at the Bell Centre on Wednesday night, the kind of loss that empties a building before the third period ends.
Game 5 is Friday in Raleigh. Win or go home for a roster that finished 48-24-10 with 106 points and a +27 goal differential during the regular season.
That makes the timing of this extension talk fascinating. Hughes is doubling down on his coach while the team's stars are leaking oil in May.
Why Hughes is moving now on his head coach
Nick Suzuki carries 16 points in 18 playoff games but sits at minus-6. Cole Caufield is minus-8. Juraj Slafkovsky is minus-7. The captain's line has been hemorrhaging chances against Carolina's forecheck.
And yet the front office is reading the bigger picture. Montreal jumped from rebuild project to 106-point team in two seasons under St-Louis. That trajectory matters more to Hughes than four uneven nights in May.
The Habs beat Carolina three times in three regular-season meetings, including a 7-5 road win on New Year's Day. They have the personnel to play with this opponent. The execution is the issue.
Lane Hutson has 15 points in the series, second among Montreal skaters. Ivan Demidov has nine points in his first playoff run at 19 years old. The pieces are real.
The criticism is whether St-Louis pushed the right buttons before the bench got pinned back. Game 4 was a no-show offensively, and the coach owns part of that.
Locking him in before Game 5 is a statement. Whatever happens in Raleigh, the message is that this is St-Louis' team for the long haul.
The coaching market is thin, and waiting until July invites complications. Other teams have openings. St-Louis has cachet.
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YESTERDAY
MAY 27, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Nikolaj Ehlers | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Shayne Gostisbehere | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Sebastian Aho | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jordan Staal | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Logan Stankoven | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Andrei Svechnikov | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jackson Blake | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Jalen Chatfield | - | 1 | 1 | |
| K'Andre Miller | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Frederik Andersen | - | - | - | |
| Josh Anderson | - | - | - | |
| Zachary Bolduc | - | - | - | |
| Alexandre Carrier | - | - | - | |
| William Carrier | - | - | - | |
| Cole Caufield | - | - | - | |
| Kirby Dach | - | - | - | |
| Phillip Danault | - | - | - | |
| Ivan Demidov | - | - | - | |
| Jakub Dobes | - | - | - | |
| Noah Dobson | - | - | - | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||