Canadiens make a big hiring, and Martin St-Louis reacts

Martin St-Louis addressed the Derek Lalonde hire directly with reporters on Monday, and he didn't dodge the obvious question.

Why bring in another voice after four years running this bench?

"One of the biggest qualities that you need to have if you want to continue growing and improving is curiosity," St-Louis said. "You have to be curious. I'm very curious."

He didn't stop there.

"So to bring someone like Derek, I can tell you that I'll be asking him a lot of questions," St-Louis said. "You have to take the opportunity to realize that there are a lot of people around you that you can learn from, even if you're comfortable with your own self."

That's a rare thing to hear from a coach two seasons removed from a 106-point year.

Montreal finished 48-24-10 this past season, good for sixth overall and third in the Atlantic. That's not a program in crisis. That's a coach who apparently still wants more.

Why Montreal added a voice St-Louis didn't need

Most head coaches with that kind of record protect their system. They don't invite someone in to poke holes in it.

St-Louis framed it the opposite way. Comfort, in his words, is the risk. Curiosity is the fix.

It's an unusual approach for a league that still rewards coaches who stay rigid and defensive about their own process. St-Louis is betting the opposite works better.

The Canadiens closed the regular season on a 7-3-0 run over their final 10 games before finishing with a loss. Whatever St-Louis is doing, the room hasn't tuned him out.

Adding Lalonde to that staff is a bet that a strong finish doesn't mean the coaching is finished evolving.

What nobody's said yet is exactly where Lalonde fits in the hierarchy, what he's specifically tasked with fixing, or whether St-Louis's questions turn into real structural changes on the ice. That part gets answered once training camp actually opens.

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