The Canadiens may not be headed into the season with three goalies, but that doesn’t make the picture in net any clearer.
TSN’s Kenzie Lalonde reported that Kent Hughes answered, “Probably not,” when asked whether Montreal would carry three goalies this season. That lines up with how the Canadiens have already learned this lesson: it hasn’t worked at the NHL level, whether in 2023-24 or in stretches last season. The bigger question now is how the team sorts out Samuel Montembeault, Jakub Dobes and Jacob Fowler.
Dobes looks like the safest bet of the group. He took a real step forward in the second half of last season and then was even sharper in the playoffs.
Montreal backed that progress with a new three-year, $16.07 million contract that begins in 2027-28. At this point, Dobes has earned the right to be the starter.
The issue is what comes behind him.
Montembeault is the obvious complication. His stock has dropped after a rough season in which he put up a 3.43 goals-against average and an .872 save percentage in 25 games.
The Canadiens have not been able to move the veteran, and if he opens the year in Montreal, he could very well be the backup. That would push Fowler toward Laval, even though his play last season made a strong case for a bigger NHL role.
There’s a catch, though. If Montreal can’t trade Montembeault, sending him to Laval would mean he has to clear waivers, and that likely won’t happen.
Keeping him around could be the safer play, at least for now, because it gives the Canadiens a chance to rebuild some value while preserving the option to move him later if his performance improves. It also creates a path for Fowler to start games with the Rocket instead of sitting behind Dobes.
That wouldn’t be a setback for Fowler. He’s only 21, and he reached the NHL faster than many expected.
Even with just 17 games of NHL experience, he looked composed and steady, like a goalie who had been around longer than he has. He’s been compared to a young Carey Price because of that calm, unshaken presence.
But development for a young goalie is about reps, and if Dobes gets hot, Fowler’s chances to play behind him would shrink quickly. In that case, the Canadiens would rather have Montembeault taking the bench seat than Fowler.
None of that means Fowler is destined to stay in Laval. Montreal’s long-term answer in goal appears to be Dobes and Fowler, and the organization still wants to move Montembeault if it can.
Even if the Quebec native rebounds, that remains the goal. For now, the Canadiens’ priority is simple: keep Fowler developing, whether that’s in Montreal or Laval, and trust the plan they’ve put in place.
In Other News...
Arber Xhekajs Deal Puts His Canadiens Future Under A Brighter Spotlight
Arber Xhekajs latest contract situation says as much about timing as it does about the player himself. According to Nicolas Cloutier, the one-year deal was not something imposed by the Canadiens, but a choice made by Xhekaj and his agent after a summer spent waiting to see whether a trade would ease the congestion on Montreals blue line. His ice time last season never fully matched the long-term role many had imagined for him, which only added to the sense that this was a player trying to keep his options open.
Medium-term contract ideas were also reportedly in the mix, which makes the eventual short-term route even more revealing about where things stood. For Xhekaj, the next season now carries real weight: a stronger year would not only help him re-establish his place in the lineup, it could also put him in a better spot when the next round of negotiations comes around. [Read more 🡒]
Jacob Fowler Gives Canadiens Fans A Rookie Race Worth Watching
The early chatter around the 2026-27 Calder Trophy is already drifting toward the usual blue-chip names, but Jacob Fowler is the kind of long-shot candidate Canadiens fans can keep an eye on for a different reason. Montreal has a habit of making room for young talent when it is ready, and Fowler fits that conversation as one of the more intriguing under-the-radar rookies mentioned in the mix, alongside other prospects such as James Hagens and Konsta Helenius.
What makes Fowler worth tracking is less about immediate hype than the path he could force if his development keeps moving the right way. The rookie race is always shaped by opportunity as much as talent, and for Montreal the real question is whether Fowler can arrive at the point where the Canadiens have a decision to make about how quickly to bring him into the picture. [Read more 🡒]
Canadiens May Have An Unexpected Arber Xhekaj Plan
With Kaiden Guhle unavailable and Montreal still sorting through its blue-line depth, Martin St-Louis is keeping the door open to a different kind of lineup wrinkle for Arber Xhekaj. The Canadiens still view Xhekaj mainly as a defenseman, especially after he recently signed a one-year contract, but the coaching staff is clearly thinking about ways to keep him in the mix as roster needs shift from night to night.
Xhekaj has already gotten a brief look on the wing once before, and the idea is no longer being treated as a one-off curiosity. For Montreal, the appeal is simple: a physical, versatile player who can help in more than one spot gives St-Louis another option while the team waits to see how the rest of the lineup settles in. [Read more 🡒]