When news broke on Monday that Alex Burrows wouldn’t be back behind the bench in Montreal next season but would remain with the organization, some were wondering what his next role would be. It turns out it will be in player development as the Habs announced that he and Lauri Korpikoski have been added to that department.
Officially, Burrows has been named as a player development consultant. Meanwhile, Korpikoski has been hired as a player development coach and will be based out of Europe, giving the Canadiens someone working with their international prospects (of which there are more than ten now).
Burrows has been with Montreal in some capacity for the past six years. He worked as an assistant coach in Laval for parts of three seasons before joining Dominique Ducharme’s staff when he was promoted to the head coaching role in 2021; he stayed on the staff when Martin St. Louis took over.
Burrows stepped aside from his old role, citing a desire to stay closer to his family. On Monday, GM Kent Hughes suggested that Burrows would be working with both the coaching staffs of the Canadiens and Rocket so he’ll still have some involvement with the NHL team.
As for Korpikoski, he played more than 600 NHL games over a nine-year career between 2008-09 and 2016-17 before spending six more years overseas, four in his native Finland and two in Switzerland. He last played in the 2022-23 campaign and this will be his first foray into coaching.