Sam Montembeault did enough in camp to make the Canadiens’ decision look easy on the surface. That’s the problem. Montreal still may have chosen the wrong goalie.
On Sunday, the Canadiens trimmed their roster to the league maximum of 23 players, sending 19 players down in the process, including nine who were placed on waivers. The moves had a few notable wrinkles: Montreal kept seven defensemen, holding onto prospect Adam Engstrom, who appeared in 15 NHL games last season, instead of former-fifth-overall-pick David Reinbacher (2023). They also carried 14 forwards and brought up Florian Xhekaj.
The more debated call came in net. The Canadiens kept Montembeault, who posted eye-catching preseason numbers - one recorded goal allowed on 35 shots against, good for a .971 save percentage - while Jacob Fowler was left out despite being exempt from waivers. Fowler allowed three goals on 28 shots for an .893 save percentage, but with Montembeault needing waivers and Fowler not, Montreal took the safer short-term path.
That’s where the logic gets shaky. Training camp is short, preseason samples are tiny, and the gap between the two goalies was only two goals.
Fowler, after beginning to establish himself as an NHL regular last season, looked like the goalie of the future. Montembeault, meanwhile, has one year left on his contract before becoming an unrestricted free agent.
The Canadiens can point to the preseason numbers, sure, but those numbers came against incomplete NHL rosters and don’t tell the full story.
Take Saturday’s game against the Ottawa Senators. Montembeault faced only three NHL regulars in Ben Hutton, Nikolas Matinpalo, and Ridly Greig. Greig was the only forward in that group, and he was also the only one who scored more than six goals last season, when he tied his career-high with 13.
The larger lesson here is the same one preseason always teaches: don’t overreact. Carey Price was the classic example back in 2010, when he told fans to “ chill out ” after allowing four goals on nine shots in a 4-2 preseason loss to the Boston Bruins. He went on to post his best season to that point in 2010-11, finishing 38-28-6 with a 2.35 goals-against average and a .923 save percentage.
Price was always going to make that team, though. The same was true this year for Jakub Dobes, who helped push the Canadiens into the playoffs and to Round 3 last season.
Even though he had the worst preseason numbers of the three goalies, with an .857 save percentage, he was never really in danger. When the games matter, he’s already shown enough to earn his place.
Montembeault, by contrast, comes with more baggage. He last played the night of last season’s trade deadline, when he gave up five goals on 33 shots in a 6-5 shootout loss to the Anaheim Ducks and was charged with several bad goals.
That came after a rough 2025-26 regular season, when he went 10-8-4 with a 3.43 goals-against average and a .872 save percentage. Even his preseason struggles last year can be read as a warning sign, when he finished at .877 through three appearances.
If you removed the five goals he allowed in a 7-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs, though, his numbers would have looked much better.
Montembeault also had one strong season in 2024-25, going 31-23-7 with a 2.80 goals-against average and a .902 save percentage while finishing among the league leaders in goals saved above expected. But that was the outlier in his five seasons with the team. That’s why keeping him now feels like a decision driven more by convenience than by the bigger picture.
It also points toward a likely 1A/1B setup with Dobes, something the Canadiens have used before. If that’s the plan, the starts Montembeault gets are starts Fowler should probably be taking instead.
Montreal trusted Fowler and Dobes in the playoffs, which says plenty about where the organization should be looking long term. Montembeault has done a lot to rebuild his value, and his story as a waiver-wire success is a good one.
Still, with only one year left on his deal, it’s hard to see a clear hockey case for choosing him over Fowler if the goal is building for beyond 2026-27.
There is also the possibility that Montreal is keeping Montembeault in hopes of showcasing him for a future trade. But the market for goalies doesn’t exactly look rich. Jonas Johansson, whose career numbers are similar to Montembeault’s even if he’s done it in fewer games, was just dealt within the division for future considerations.
That leaves the Canadiens in a spot where the best-case scenario might be Montembeault playing well enough to bring back a mid-round pick. For a team that already had Fowler ready to go, that feels like a step in the wrong direction.
In Other News...
Canadiens Sent David Reinbacher Down For A Bigger Reason
David Reinbachers latest assignment to Laval says more about the Canadiens roster picture than it does about his play. Montreals decision was not a reflection of how he performed, but a sign of how the club wants to manage a young defenseman who is still best served by getting major minutes rather than sitting in a limited role on the NHL bench.
The timing matters, too, because the Canadiens are getting healthier on the blue line. With Kaiden Guhle edging closer to a return, the immediate need for an extra defenseman has eased, leaving Montreal with a choice that favors development over depth. For now, Reinbacher stays where the games can give him more responsibility, even if the path back up becomes clearer again soon. [Read more 🡒]
Canadiens Make A Tough Early Call On David Reinbacher
The Canadiens final roster cuts brought a notable early-season decision on David Reinbacher, who will start the year with the Laval Rocket in the AHL. The former fifth-overall pick had a strong preseason, but Montreal is clearly taking the long view with a young defenseman whose development has already been shaped by injury history and a crowded battle for minutes on the blue line.
For now, Reinbacher should get the kind of heavy workload in Laval that can be harder to guarantee in Montreal, where the club had to balance roster spots, waiver concerns and its depth chart on defense. The door to the NHL is hardly closed, though, and if he keeps building through the season, the Canadiens are leaving themselves plenty of room to bring him back up when the timing makes sense. [Read more 🡒]
Canadiens Trade Interest Just Raised The Stakes For Kent Hughes
The Canadiens spent part of the summer exploring a bigger swing, with Frank Seravalli reporting that management had considered packaging Kirby Dach in a larger deal if it meant bringing immediate help back the other way. It was the kind of roster-thinking that makes sense for a team trying to accelerate its timeline, and it also showed how aggressively Kent Hughes has been willing to survey the market when there is a chance to reshape the lineup.
Montreal had Kirill Marchenko in mind as a possible target before he was moved to Toronto, which forced the Canadiens to keep searching for another path. The Edmonton Oilers also showed interest in Dach, but Hughes appears to be holding out for a more significant trade opening, leaving the next move tied to whether a better fit comes available. [Read more 🡒]