One brief glimpse at Montreal Canadiens goalie Sam Montembeault’s stat line two games into his 2024-25 season will reveal how good he’s been. He’s 2-0 with a 0.50 goals-against average and .986 save percentage. If you look even deeper, it gets even more impressive.
That goes beyond the record Montembeault set with a 48-save season-opening shutout against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Oct. 9… or how he gave up a solitary goal in the third period against the Ottawa Senators a few days later, ending his shutout streak at 105:30. The analytics also say Montembeault has been extraordinarily good.
Very small sample size and extremely hilarious Goals Saved Above Expected so far this season.
— Brian Wilde (@BWildeMTL) October 13, 2024
Montembeault 6.6
Talbot 3.9
Oettinger 3.8
Hellybuyck 3.7
Thanks Money Puck for the numbers…
There are a operative words to hone in on in the last two paragraphs, though. For example, “extraordinarily.” Montembeault has undeniably shown over the last few seasons an inherent capability to steal the odd game. However, playing behind an inexperienced defense, which is still largely struggling to start this season, the 28-year-old has ultimately failed to prove himself as anything other than an average goalie over long stretches, ending 2023-24 with a league-average .903 SV%.
Montembeault Defies Expectations
There’s nothing wrong with average. In fact, if history is any indication (it should be), elite goaltending is more so a luxury than a necessity to win the Stanley Cup. That’s why goalie Carey Price’s $10.5 million cap hit still makes it one of the worst Canadiens contracts two years after the Canadiens great unofficially retired, with the last 10 goalies to win the Stanley Cup having an average one of $4.37 million.
Related: Top 3 All-Time Canadiens Goalies
Ultimately, higher cap hits in net make it harder to build a balanced lineup in front of the goalie in question. Thankfully, that’s exactly what it looks like general manager Kent Hughes is doing.
To be clear, the Canadiens and their fans should welcome Montembeault, who ex-general manager Marc Bergevin claimed off waivers to start 2021-22, continuing to defy expectations from his third-string beginnings. If he becomes an elite goalie so be it. In fact, his continued emergence in net would make for one of the greatest feel-good stories in franchise history.
However, Price “retired” by Age 35. The last full season he played was 2019-20, at which point he was not yet 33. Obviously, what did Price in was his knee injuries. The Canadiens redlining his games played didn’t do his knees or resulting lack of overall longevity any favours, though.
Since the Canadiens traded Jaroslav Halak in 2010, thereby establishing Price as the team’s No. 1 goalie, he played 60 or more games five times in a span of 10 seasons.
Keep in mind, the lockout-shortened 2012-13 had only 48 games, when he appeared in 39 (81.3% of the time). In 2019-20, when the Canadiens only played 71 due to the pandemic, he missed the 60-game mark by just two. He got in just 49 in 2017-18 due to several injuries and was limited to just 12 games in 2015-16 due to the aforementioned knee trouble. It’s almost as if the Canadiens should have been able to predict that injuries were going to become an issue for their face of the franchise.
Montembeault in Moderation
So, it might be tempting for the Canadiens to rely on Montembeault to a huge extent. However, seeing as he’s never played more than 41 in any one season, it doesn’t make sense to have him shoulder such a significant portion of the workload. It makes more to focus on his stats reading as good as they do just “two games into” 2024-25, like the first line of the piece says.
Montembeault is easy to get behind as an underdog, especially with his contract proving to be a bargain more and more with each passing game. However, a lot can change over the course of a season, and, if the Canadiens aren’t careful, they may find his effectiveness dwindling down the stretch. There should be no need for that to become an issue, with Cayden Primeau having emerged himself as an NHL-calibre goalie last season. Granted, it doesn’t look that way now, considering he got shelled, allowing six goals on 29 shots against the Boston Bruins in his one game so far.
However, again, that’s just one game. Last season, he technically outplayed Montembeault with a team-leading .910 SV%. Granted, there were extenuating circumstances like a lower level of competition as a backup. Nevertheless, the fact remains, since the Canadiens did away with the three-goalie rotation by trading Jake Allen, Primeau posted a .921 SV% over his last nine appearances of 2023-24. He remains a viable option in net.
Learn from Mistakes Made with Price
Just like no one should get carried away with Montembeault’s early-season success, no one should read too much into Primeau’s struggles. All Montembeault has shown so far is the Canadiens may have their goaltending shored up ahead of schedule during the rebuild, not that he’s the second coming.
Montembeault still has a lot to prove before that should even become close to a talking point. However, even if he somehow, someway becomes the next Price, the Canadiens would do well to learn from past mistakes.
Some have suggested the team Hughes is building now is the one Price deserved when he was in his prime. Maybe that’s true, but, seeing as he’s just 37, younger than the likes of Jonathan Quick and Marc-Andre Fleury, he could theoretically still be playing now. How Hughes and company deploy Montembeault from here on out will determine if this is the management group Price deserved too.
