MHN Podcast Ep. 1: Louis Jean On Marty St. Louis, Habs Trade Rumours

In the debut of the Montreal Hockey Now podcast with Marco D’Amico and me, we welcomed TVA anchor, as well as Canadiens and NHL Insider Louis Jean to discuss the NHL trade rumours surrounding the Canadiens.

We also got Jean’s reaction to the hirings of Jeff Gorton as executive vice president of the Canadiens, Kent Hughes as the new general manager, and Martin St. Louis as interim head coach. Speaking of the latter, Jean said that the St. Louis hiring caused quite a stir around the NHL coaching and management circles.

“Well the first thing is that it ruffled a lot of feathers,” Jean said when asked about the reaction to the Habs bringing in a coach whose coaching resume was simply Pee-Wee hockey coach. “Texting, talking to coaches at all levels. …the Pee-Wee comment was made by prominent coaches as well. They were like ‘Wasn’t this guy just in Pee-Wee? What experience does he have?’ and that to me is the one box he didn’t check off, is the experience, because I think he has everything else, I really do.”

Jean cited a convo he had with St. Louis’ former head coach and confidant, John Tortorella.

I spoke to John Tortorella after Marty St. Louis was hired and he said ‘Listen, you have no idea of the amount of conversations we’ve had over the years; you have no idea how often I’ve tried to bring him on my staff full time as well and he said ‘He’s going to be great! He’s going to be very good. He’s a student and what I hope this does, is it changes a conservative sport of always just doing things one way. The biggest thing to me about Marty has been his approach – the way he runs practices and things – and the way he’s communicating so far. He’s not jaded and he’s not trying to give you the mumbo jumbo that every coach reads from in the coach’s manual on how to talk to the media and how to limit as much as possible, the information you’re given.”

As for some of the Canadiens players rumoured to be on the NHL trade market, we all wondered if versatile forward Artturi Lehkonen could be the Barclay Goodrow of this NHL Trade deadline. Is his value on the NHL trade market too high for Hughes and Gorton to keep Lehkonen instead of trading him?

For Jean’s take on that and other Canadiens and NHL trade rumours watch below: