Sam Montembeault is in a tricky spot, but that doesn’t mean the Canadiens are stuck with a bad outcome.
With Jakub Dobes already entrenched as the team’s starter and Jacob Fowler starting the season in Laval, Montembeault is the one left in the middle. He’s backing up Dobes now, and the bigger question is what comes next if Fowler is ready to move up later in the year.
That matters because Montembeault’s stock has already taken a hit. After a career year that even drew Vezina votes, he followed it with an .873 save percentage last season. Once Jan. 24 rolled around and Fowler got his first NHL look, Montembeault appeared in only three more games.
Still, there’s at least one reason for the Canadiens to believe they may be looking at something more useful than a lost season. Montembeault had a strong preseason, including two games in which he stopped every shot he faced. Across the full preseason, he turned aside 34 of 35 shots.
That doesn’t guarantee anything, but it does set a more reasonable baseline for what to expect. He doesn’t need to be great every night for Montreal to get value out of him. If he can string together a few strong performances and stay generally serviceable, that’s enough to keep his profile alive.
And that profile matters, because the Canadiens may eventually need to decide whether to keep a goalie like Montembeault around as insurance or try to turn him into something before his role disappears. If Fowler is ready, Montreal won’t want Montembeault sitting around in Laval doing nothing, especially if he even clears waivers.
The best path for the Habs is to see what Montembeault can do this season and then aim to cash in before the situation turns stale.
The recent history gives them a useful guide. Montreal has already dealt with similar cases involving Jake Allen and Cayden Primeau, both of whom overlapped with Montembeault as possible options before being moved on.
Allen went to the New Jersey Devils at the 2023-24 trade deadline in exchange for a 2025 conditional third-round pick. Primeau was traded after the 2024-25 season, when he was a restricted free agent, and the return was a 2026 seventh-round pick.
That’s the reality for backup goalies: the return usually isn’t huge. But the exact outcome still depends on how much experience and credibility the goalie brings to the table.
That’s where Montembeault could separate himself a bit. He’s younger than Allen, but he has more experience and a better track record than Primeau. If he lands somewhere near the middle of his career performance, the Canadiens could reasonably expect a return closer to what they got for Allen than for Primeau.
There’s also the possibility that a hot start pushes the price up. The NHL trade deadline has a habit of producing overpays, and if Montembeault catches fire, Montreal could benefit from that kind of market.
But the other side is just as clear. If he looks like last year’s version, the Canadiens may have little choice but to put him on waivers and hope for the best. In that case, he might not bring back anything at all.
Even then, a trade wouldn’t be impossible. It just might mean settling for a late-round pick and moving on. If that’s where the season goes, the expectation would be that he ends up in Laval.
For now, though, Montembeault has already done one useful thing: he made himself a little more valuable before the games even count. That’s not everything, but it’s better than the alternative.
In Other News...
Canadiens Young Core Is Getting Serious Respect Around The NHL
Around the league, the Canadiens young talent is drawing a level of attention that goes beyond the usual prospect buzz. San Jose captain Macklin Celebrini recently put together his top five NHL players under 23, and Montreal had two names on the list in Lane Hutson and Ivan Demidov. Celebrinis praise for the pair underscored what has become hard to miss for anyone following the team: the skill level is real, and the ceiling around this core keeps rising.
It is not just one young player earning respect, either. Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby has also pointed to Juraj Slafkovsky as an important piece for Montreal, which only adds to the sense that the Canadiens are starting to look more than promising on paper. For a fan base that has waited through plenty of rebuild talk, the growing acknowledgment from established stars is a meaningful sign that this group is beginning to force its way into the conversation. [Read more 🡒]
Kent Hughes Went Further Than Fans Realized For A Top Forward
Montreal spent much of the summer looking like a team willing to push beyond the usual lines in its search for help up front, and a new report suggests Kent Hughes was even more aggressive than many fans realized. According to Elliotte Friedman, the Canadiens made a real run at adding a top forward and were among the leagues most active teams as they tried to keep building the roster with an eye on impact talent.
The pursuit went beyond a simple one-for-one pitch, with Montreal exploring creative trade ideas that involved other clubs in an effort to get something done. But Columbus did not bite on the proposals, leaving the Canadiens to keep searching for another way to add the kind of scorer they clearly had in mind, and likely to revisit the same market again when the next window opens. [Read more 🡒]
Canadiens May Have Found The Line Zachary Bolduc Needed
Zachary Bolduc arrived in Montreal with a four-year, $16.80 million commitment attached to his name, and the Canadiens are already looking for the right spot to let that investment breathe. In the opener, he skated on a line with Jake Evans and Josh Anderson, a combination that gave Montreal a different look and hinted at the kind of role Bolduc can grow into as he settles in with his new club.
For a player trying to build on his previous seasons, the fit matters almost as much as the production. Bolduc has a clear target in front of him as he tries to push toward a 20-goal benchmark, and early chemistry with Evans and Anderson could be a useful sign for a team hoping to get real value from his contract while easing him into a bigger offensive responsibility. [Read more 🡒]