Fact of the matter is that MSL sucks strategy-wise, and regularly gets out-coached. He is just not good at those important facets of the game.
But St. Louis is an amazing communicator, basically "A+" when it comes to motivating players and instituting a good locker room atmosphere. Then you add-in his amazing credibility and "relatability" as a HHOFer for players, how good he's been for PR with the Montreal media, moreso the french-speaking one, and things become clearer.
Simply put, for a rebuilding team, one that is not competing for a Stanley Cup, MSL is a heck of a good coaching candidate. Our management trusts him not to ruin young players' careers, and he'll be there to help us tide-over tough years by maintaining hope and excitement for the team (and also the goodwill of the fans). Can't really ask for more given the state that the franchise was in when Hughes and company took over.
Long story short, we stay the course and keep MSL at least one more year, maybe two. Our management maximizes value as they can in that span, maybe trades Savard at the deadline for futures, maybe sign a veteran or two come offseason, along other moves.
And when our team personnel starts getting stronger and more experienced, we probably pivot to a better "X's and 0's" coach to try and get us to win.
No clue who that would be at that point, we're still far from even being ready to truly turn that corner despite claims and assertions from our top-brass to the contrary.
For us to start competing for the Cup, and being a good-enough team to have higher aspirations, I think we'll need to wait another 2-3 years at least.
So yeah, that's how I see our rebuild unfolding.
