It will be less crowded behind the Canadiens bench this season.
Head coach Martin St. Louis will have only two assistants — Trevor Letowski and Stéphane Robidas — following Alex Burrows’s decision this summer to step away from his post for what the Canadiens and Burrows said were family reasons.
Instead of hiring a third assistant coach to replace Burrows, the Canadiens last week hired Roger Grillo as a “coaching consultant.” Grillo will not be behind the bench.
It will be a full-time position for Grillo, who joined USA Hockey as regional manager of the American Development Model in 2009 before being named director of player development in 2022. Before joining USA Hockey, Grillo was an assistant coach for five seasons at the University of Vermont and then head coach at Brown University for 12 seasons.
The 60-year-old Grillo helped recruit St. Louis to the University of Vermont as a player and then helped coach him for four seasons in the NCAA.
Burrows was in charge of the Canadiens’ power play — with input from St. Louis — that ranked 27th in the NHL last season with a 17.5 per cent success rate. St. Louis will now take over control of the power play.
“I helped Burr with the power play the last couple of years,” St. Louis said Monday before playing in the Canadiens golf tournament at Laval-sur-le Lac. “When he stepped down, I want to have that continuity with the power play and I wanted to take care of it. So I didn’t feel like I needed to bring a coach in that department when I want to do it. It wouldn’t be fair for that guy coming in.
“So I was looking more for somebody that can be an extension of the staff,” St. Louis added. “I was looking for an older person. What Roger has done throughout his coaching career and post career he had the experience that was kind of very fitting for the position that I was looking for. And, obviously, I’ve had a relationship for a long time. He’s going to be an extension, help for all the departments in the staff so that I can do my job better, considering that I will take the power play as well. I’m excited for it.”
St. Louis scored 391 goals during his Hall of Fame NHL playing career and 101 of them came on the power play.
The Canadiens don’t have a lot of NHL coaching experience behind the bench and Grillo has never coached in the league. St. Louis has a 75-100-26 record in 201 games since taking over the Canadiens with no NHL coaching experience.
When asked Monday if he had thought about adding an assistant coach with more experience, general manager Kent Hughes said: “We’ve discussed everything. First of all, with every passing game, week, year, the coaches have more experience, too, and the world’s a little different today than it was 20 years ago because we got video. So if there’s some team with the most experienced bench and they’re doing something in terms of their defensive structure, how they play in games, everybody can see everything. I think we have a really bright coaching staff and I think that they’re capable and willing to continue to change and improve in whatever ways they can.
“Marty had a certain vision for how Roger could help them become better coaches,” Hughes added. “As a management group we’ll continue to evaluate as well.”
St. Louis admits he still has a lot to learn as an NHL coach.
“When I don’t have the answers, I know I work hard to try to find them,” he said. “I like the staff, I like the engagement of everyone. I don’t think it’s just all my actions, I think it’s everybody around me — including the players — and I think we’re all growing together right now and we’re all after the same thing.”
St. Louis said he will demand more from his players as they head into the third full season of the rebuilding process, comparing it to what a parent expects from a child who is 10 or 12 years old with what’s expected from a 5-year-old. But the coach won’t set a goal that the team has to win X number of games this season.
“I really like last year how we competed in this league and this year is just an opportunity again and, OK, where are we?” St. Louis said. “We’re going to get judged throughout the season, but the final judgment’s going to come at the end of the season. I know we’re going to keep progressing.
“I don’t coach 20 guys the same way,” he added. “I hold everybody to the same standards, but the way I coach everybody is different. It’s not negotiable in standards … it’s like that for everybody. The way I handle the players making mistakes, why they made mistakes, which mistakes they made, it’s on a case-by-case.”