Montreal Canadiens coach and former NHL star Martin St-Louis will be away from the team for an indefinite length of time due to family reasons.

In his absence, Canadiens assistant coach Trevor Letowski will take over St-Louis coaching duties.

St-Louis was present behind the Montreal bench for Thursday night’s game – an overtime loss to the Bruins – making tonight’s matchup with the Calgary Flames the first this season that Montreal will have without St-Louis behind the bench.

St-Louis was hired as the new coach of the Canadiens back on Feb. 9, 2022, replacing then-coach Dominique Ducharme. St-Louis’ time with the rebuilding squad has been understandably shaky, holding a current record of 70-94-21 across his 185 games thus far with the club.

This indefinite leave comes as the Canadiens sit at a record of 25-30-11 and have lost 10 of their last 13 games. They also are currently sitting 13 points out from a potential wild-card berth, which would put them in the playoffs for the first time since losing in the Cup final back in 2021.