The NHL announced many award nominations on Friday, including the three Jack Adams nominees. The trophy is awarded each year to the best coach as voted by the NHL Broadcasters’ Association members.
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This year, the three finalists are Scott Arniel of the Winnipeg Jets, Spencer Carbery of the Washington Capitals, and Montreal Canadiens’ bench boss Martin St-Louis. The other two nominees were at the helm of the best team in their respective conferences, while the Habs barely squeezed into the playoffs. St-Louis’ presence amongst the finalists shows how surprised the hockey world was to see this young Canadiens’ team make the Spring dance and how big of an accomplishment it was.
A little over two weeks ago, St-Louis was interviewed by RDS’ Pierre Houde on the Bell Centre ice after the last game of the season, and you could tell how proud of his group the rookie coach was. Houde asked him how he experienced his own progression as a coach, and he replied:
Of course, we have a fantastic group when you think about Jeff Gorton and Kent Hughes, who had the courage to appoint a former player with no experience behind the bench. I was confident that the experience I had in hockey would serve me well to help a young group. As for my life, I left home a bit earlier than my wife thought, so I owe her a lot. She has always allowed me to chase my dreams and passion, and never asked me to retire early as a player. I played until I was 40, I’m very lucky on that front. And of course, as a staff, we’ve evolved and learn a lot every year. Even in the last week, we’ve learned a lot; it’s not easy to coach a young team stressed about reaching a goal they can almost touch.- Martin St-Louis on his progression as a coach.
Since being brought on by the Hughes/Gorton duo, St-Louis has coached 283 regular-season games, leading his team to a 115-131-37 record. The team has kept improving since he replaced Dominique Ducharme during the 2021-22 season, and the organization decided to undergo a complete rebuild. Montreal finished the year with 91 points in the standings, 15 points ahead of their 76-point effort in 2023-24 and 23 points ahead of their 2022-23 total.
When the Canadiens were struggling mightily in November, some suggested that St-Louis had lost the room and should be fired, but they had no idea what would come. From December 3, the Habs went 32-18-8 and were one of the best teams in the NHL. Fueled by Patrik Laine’s return to action, Jakub Dobes’ arrival, and Nick Suzuki’s plea to the GM not to trade anyone, the Canadiens made their way to the playoffs, leaving it till the very last day to clinch.
Never one to hog the spotlight, when the coach was asked about what it meant to be nominated, he explained:
As a coach, you’re only as good as your staff, your support staff, my assistant coaches, and, you know, the buy-in from the players. To me, that’s where it all starts. It’s a team award. We don’t get recognized with this award unless everybody’s pulling in the same direction. So I’m very proud of the team that, as an organization, got nominated for that.- St-Louis on being nominated for the Jack Adams Trophy.
He also said he was flattered by the nomination, but added he felt he did a lot of coaching in his last 10 years as a player, suggesting the media should ask former teammates about that.
As for Arniel and Carbery, the former led the Jets to their first Presidents’ Trophy thanks to a 56-22-4 record with 116 points, team records in both wins and points. Only three coaches have earned more victories in their first year with an organization. As for the latter, in his second season at the Capitals’ helm, he guided the team to a 20-point improvement with a 51-22-9 record with 111 points and the second place overall in the league.
Win or lose, the nomination is an accomplishment in its own right for St-Louis, who went from being a minor hockey coach to an NHL one in a flash and showed he was more than up to the task. Like during his playing career, he proved the naysayers wrong, and it certainly feels like he’s not done.
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