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Even though we're still in the middle of summer and the action won't resume at the Bell Centre until next month, Geoff Molson took a few minutes out of his day to answer questions from RDS.
He discussed the future of Arber Xhekaj and Zachary Bolduc, who are still without contracts, the possibility of retiring Carey Price's jersey, and Martin St-Louis's status as head coach of the Canadiens.
While waiting for Xhekaj and Bolduc, Molson reflects on St-Louis's futurehttps://t.co/GT8x12N4OW
— RDS (@RDSca) August 24, 2026
Martin St-Louis signed a three-season contract when he was officially named head coach (NOT interim) of the Habs in June 2022. Even before the start of the 2024–25 season, the Canadiens chose to exercise the two-year option included in their head coach's contract.
St-Louis is therefore under contract through June 2027, which means that if he doesn't sign a new deal within a month, he'll start the regular season without any real job security.
We know that Martin St-Louis has never been nervous about this, but it's still extremely rare to see a head coach—a successful one, at that—coaching without at least one more year left on his contract.
Pierre LeBrun said as early as last March that he would be surprised if the Habs didn't offer their head coach a new contract before the start of the 2026–27 season. Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton each signed contract extensions a week after the start of their final contracted seasons last year, to avoid becoming a distraction; it's a safe bet they'd like to see Martin St-Louis sign quickly as well.
What did Geoff Molson tell RDS when he was asked about this earlier this week?
“He has one year left on his contract; he's a coach we really like, and it's part of our plan to keep him with us for the long term.”
The good news is that the president and owner isn't afraid to say he wants to keep Martin St-Louis in Montreal for many more years.
The not-so-good news is that we didn't really learn anything new from that statement. We all know he wasn't going to say otherwise.
My gut tells me that a contract extension for the head coach—as well as for goaltending coach Marco Marciano—will be announced shortly. Maybe they're just waiting for everyone to be back in town so the news doesn't get lost in the shuffle in August?
