NHL Depth: This Is So GREAT For The Montreal Canadiens!

NHL Depth: This Is So GREAT For The Montreal Canadiens!

Well, we’re getting closer to the month of August and that means Montreal Canadians training camp is around the You know what, Star, be quiet. It’s late July. What the hell are you doing ruining summer? Talking about training camp being around the corner. Marco Demo, what is good, brother? What? How are we already talking about September? Shame on you. Sh. You’re right. You know, because I’ve been ir irritated over the course of the last week. You know what I’ve seen in print? You know what I’ve seen on on television advertising? back to school specials. Kids got out of school like June 20th, June 21st, not even a month later, it’s back to school flyers. It’s back to school ads. Can you let the children bleed? Please, Marco, somebody think about the children, please. Please. It’s not even the children. I think if my wife were listening to this right now, she’d have PTSD. She needs the next six weeks. She needs it. When did her when did her air quote vacation start as a teacher? Right. And now it’s like back to school. She has lesson plans and getting the next year ready. Yeah, my my poor wife’s back to like summer literally started at the draft. Yeah, right. You know, no wonder. No wonder. Um so the Montreal Canadians really haven’t had um any downtime as far as upper management is concerned. Jeff Gordon, Ken Hughes have been talking about u the moves, the lack of moves. And what’s interesting here is that uh Jimmy Murphy through RG Media had a chance to sit down with Hav’s executive VP Jeff Gordon to talk about, drum roll please, goalending and the depth within the organization. My question to you right off the hop, Marco, is is the Canadians goalie depth chart an area of strength within the organization? It’s crazy how things can change really quickly, right? Um, if everybody remembers after the Canadians traded Mikuel Sergev and let Andre Marov walk, left defense was like one of the biggest weaknesses in the organization. And they tried to course correct that over the next like three years by spending premium draft assets on drafting left defense. And then fast forward to the last two or three years and now it’s become an organizational strength and they’ve used that position to trade out and add pieces to their lineup. Well, goalending once Carrie Price uh went down and and called it a career, it was the kind of the same thing where you looked up and down the lineup and it was like Kaden Primo was your best bet. And I feel like now when you look at the lineup or at least the depth chart, you have legitimate goalending prospects almost at every level. And I think this is the this is the change that Jeff Gorton and Kent Hughes have tried to make. I think, you know, when you look at that interview, they made a concerted effort in terms of drafting at least one goalie in every single uh year. Some some teams don’t. Um, in fact, they’ve gone in 2023 and 2025, they drafted multiple goalies. 2023, they drafted three goalies. Uh, and three pretty two pretty at, you know, at least two of them have legitimate potential. One of them obviously being Jacob Fowler, the crown jewel of the future when it comes to uh when it comes to their uh their goalending depth, right? Yeah. He is seen as an argu, you know, if not top, probably top three, arguably top three. I know the Athletic had him number two. Scott Wheeler had him number two in terms of best goalending prospects in the NHL. Now, again, prospects not a sure thing. And so, this is why I’d like to start at the top. Samuel Montbo. I think we can all agree in today that he is a bonafide number one goalender in the NHL. Agree. I think it’s I think we could all agree that he’s on a he’s on a really solid value deal at $3 million for I believe another two years. Um, and you know, it’s really, it was really interesting to see like his performances. Like Canadians fans blamed him the previous two seasons to this one that his u steals, the games that he stole inhibited the Canadians from picking higher in the draft. Absolutely. Which absolutely which is fair, but it definitely came in handy last season when they were able to squeak into the playoffs. You did your job too well. We’re critical of you doing your job too well. Your job is to stop the puck. Stop being good at your job. It’s exactly something I’ve never And then Yeah. And and and then you know, you reach the the playoffs obviously this year and you know, he was the backbone of that team. um unfortunately went down with injury in game three and then you know at that point it was kind of hard to ask Jakob Doves a rookie to kind of come in and and try to be a Dryden in this situation and and take the team on his back but he was the best player for the Montreal Canadians in their first two and a half games of that series against the Washington Capitals. So I think the Canadians feel very comfortable with Montbo and he’s in the right age right now where he’s kind of coming into his own. So they feel they have that kind of set up. What’s really interesting now is how they kind of go from Montboat down. And this is where the conversation was interesting which you know which takes me into if there’s one area to nitpick and I I really can’t dispute the fact that Sam Montabau is a very much a legit number one goalender in the National Hockey League. And I’ll put my hand up and and admit to you that I never thought we’d be in this space that we’re currently occupying. And that is us talking about Sam Montabau as a number one goalender. This man, this this this young man has worked his ass off to establish himself and to get that contract extension from a waiver claim through the Florida Panthers to World Hockey Championships representing Canada to yes being the starting goalender of record. But to take it back to where I began, if there’s an area to nitpick, I think Sam Montto plays too many games. So, let’s talk about the fact that he got into 62 games last year. In my opinion, you know, I think we’re probably looking at that, you know, 50 to as many as 55 starts for Sam Monttobo. Is Yakob Doves hardwired at this point of his career to be responsible, Marco, for playing upwards of 30 games and upwards of 60 points on the back of Jakob Doves. What do you think about that? I think the Canadians kind of view it that way. Um I think you know when you look at the amount of game like he came in I think his what his first game was right around Christmas, right? It was uh New Year. It was the Florida Panther four and nothing game, right? Yeah, it was New Year’s. It was right before whatever reason. Yeah, it’s right before New Year’s. So the the idea was he played 16 games kind of you know 40% of the season had already gone by. So naturally speaking if you were to see this kind of play out he would have probably played 20 25 you probably 25 games. So it’s about maybe upping that by five more games which with the amount of backtobacks that the Canadians have this season 16 backto backs right. Yeah, the you can bet your bottom. Well, they’re tied with the San Jose Sharks, but that that’ll probably help San Jose in another department. Um, when it comes to Montreal, uh maybe a different goal in in mind, right? So, when you look at uh when you look at Dobish’s ability to be able to play those games, I think personally I think that he’ll be he should be able to play at least 25 games next season. you know, obviously bearing injury and and and whatnot, but I think that the Canadians Canadians believe, and this is the conversation we had with Gordon, Canadians believe that Yakob Dovich can be an NHL backup right now. But you can never put your eggs in one basket. We’ve seen this time and time again. You really just, especially with goalending, it’s such a volatile position, right? Like you could just have a goalie go through like a really bad stretch and need a guy to step up. Well, that’s exactly what what Yakob Dovish did when he started with the Canadians, right? He went on that run at a time where Samuel Montbo maybe wasn’t playing his best hockey, right? Um and then they there was the the uh all-star break or sorry the um not the all-star break but the four nations break and then you know Samuel Montbo went on that terror where he played something silly like 16 out of 20 games and people are like play dubbish. Well, I think it’ll be uh it with the Olympic break smack dab in the middle of February, you’re not gonna have a choice but to to really rely on two if not three goalies to play in this situation. And so I that’s where I believe that the signing of Kapo Kakinan is insurance and that’s the way the Canadians view it. That’s the way that we were told that they view it. They want internal competition, right? And yeah, last year it didn’t really feel like there was internal competition. they just felt like giving it to Kaden Primo, whereas this year it can go either way. Jakob Doves is exempt from waiverss. So, he would really have to, you know, subperform at training camp for Kacin to be able to leaprog him, but at the same time, you know, you you want Kacin in there because he’s he’s a double insurance policy. Exactly. With main club and with the AHL team. Well, I wanted to jump in there because, you know, Marco, we do this every day together and, you know, we try to be as consistent as possible and I’ve been beating the drum of I’ve kind of want a veteran guy to back up. It’s a good technique. A little bit more risk, please. Um, to get a VA a veteran backup to shoulder the load. And you brought up the key point in the amount of uh when the schedule came out midweek last week, uh, how many back-to-backs the Montreal Canadians are set up with. And you know, in the article with Jeff Gordon and Jimmy Murphy, they’re talking about how they don’t want any goalender to be in the 60s anymore to reference the 62 games Sam Motobo got in. So like I love I love internal competition. And to me, the the the real battle I believe is between Dobish and Fowler. Like I want someone to push Fowler and a hungry kid at Ohio State University who’s establish who’s trying to establish himself as a professional in Jakob Dobish to come out there and push Jacob Fowler. Like let’s go. You have a professional. You have a professional who, you know, who did well in the in the American Hockey League last year. On paper, that’s how I have it drawn up. Now, yeah, I’m sure once they hit the ice, they’re going to go with the hot hand, right? Or a combination of who’s going and have like a continual travel between Laval and and Montreal. Is that how this goalie depth is going to be set up at the pro levels? I wouldn’t be surprised if they gave Fowler a game or two before the end of next season. I wouldn’t be surprised, especially if they especially if they clinch a playoff spot and have a couple of games to spare, especially on the road. I wouldn’t be surprised, you know, the last couple of games are against the Islanders and the Flyers, right? Those, you know, if if the Canadians have it their way, those could be nothing games that you could potentially just play your kids in and give other guys a rest. So I don’t I don’t necessarily unless again of course injuries I don’t necessarily foresee that being something of a problem. So when you look at a guy like Fowler I think Fowler is AHLbound no questions asked not rush in that process and you know a lot of people want to see him play upwards of 50 games in the AHL. Listen, Jakob Dome broke the AHL record for the amount of starts for a rookie in that league because they was he just did not have a veteran backup until or a decent veteran backup until like threequarters of the way through the season. Um, and so that really weighed in on him and his numbers really started taking off when that when they were finally able to bring that veteran back up in. So, they don’t want to make the same mistake twice, which is why Kakanin is so interesting. They may push themselves on the org chart for the long term. Absolutely. But I don’t think Dobish and Fowler on the same trajectory wavelength in the immediate term. Right. Obviously Fowler has the higher potential the potential to be a top five goalie in the NHL according to some scouts. So you have to kind of take your time with that. Obviously Dobish is a you know sign, you know, what three four years older I believe three years older than than Fowler. So he’s got obviously a little bit more room to to to maneuver in and obviously has that pro experience. So Dovich to me would be firmly either a backup or a a tweener that goes between the AHL and the and the NHL because he’s waiver exempt. But in my honest opinion, the way that he played, I don’t think he hurt the Canadians in the playoffs, which is saying something for a a guy who had what 17 18 games uh in the NHL prior to the start of the playoffs. I don’t think he hurt the Canadians at all. Uh I think yeah there were some um concentration mistakes but he stole goals from Washington. Um so I believe that kind of impacted the way the Canadians view him and they really appreciated that that that kind of mental fortitude. So I believe he’ll be given every opportunity to beat the backup. It’s Kacinan that will be very interesting to me because Kakanin was the goalie of the um the I’m gonna say Charlotte checkers. Correct. um yeah that was bas that basically swept the Laval Rocket in the playoffs uh three months ago and you know he was absolutely dominant in the way that he he played. So he really, you know, is a borderline NHL backup in his own right. And if you have that kind of player in Laval, well, it takes the whole load off of a guy like Jacob Fowler. They can split the starts because as much as you want a player, a goalie to play as many games as possible. Yeah. The American Hockey League calendar is basically just weekly backtobacks, right? It’s always Friday, Saturday, sometimes Friday, Saturday, Sunday, you know? So like, and then there’s travel involved. So, like you’re always going to need a tandem. And I feel like that would be excellent for a guy like Fowler to have what I consider to be like a younger veteran, right? Like he’s not in his 30s, but he’s seen some he’s seen some game time and been uh you know, a borderline number one for certain teams. So, he understands that pressure. Um I think it would be fantastic for Fowler. But ideally, this is what’s going on in the pro level. Now, we can get even we can start discussing the amateur level because that’s where it starts getting interesting to me. And it I say amateur because it’s not in the American Hockey League or the NHL, but some are playing in pro leagues that deserve our attention. Yeah, I know. And and just before we get to that, um I’m fascinated by, you know, we spoke about internal competition, which should bring out the best in how bad do you want it because the other guy’s going to work as hard if not harder to take that job from you. And that’s why I love the topic and I’m glad we’re talking about it here in terms of the Canadians goalie depth and where it stands because you know you’re Sam Montto and his story is great. I already went into detail on that but knowing that Sam is looking over his shoulder on the left side he’s got do who who he already knows as a teammate. Looks over the other shoulder and there’s one of the more highly touted goalie prospects to come out in a long time by the name of Jacob Fowler. He’s got two guys breathing down his neck. I want to see what this does to Sam Montto. I really do. And I I I’m don’t say that because I doubt him. He’s already proven to me that he’s capable of defying odds and working his way and earning paychecks. So, that part to me is a very good thing to have within the organization. Three legitimate NHL goalenders or the potential of being good NHL goalenders all pushing each other for one job. I think it’s it’s great. It’s great depth, you know. It Well, I mean, it it it just speaks to the difference in in in approach that we’ve seen over the last couple of years. Yeah. Where it was just very barren and you had no alternative. Like I think that was the key. You went from carrying three goalies at the pro level because you didn’t want to lose one. Yeah. To not having much of an alternative last season, right? It was Dobish or Bus because they didn’t they weren’t going to recall uh Kaden Primo. And now this season there seems to be a little bit more flexibility where Kacanin and Doves can kind of you know share the backup duty if in in the worst case scenario but in a best case scenario you you kind of have Doves reaching like legitimate backup status. So I think it’s that’s exactly what you want. Uh where it does get interesting is as of next year as of as of next year we are starting to talk seriously about okay well who fits where. Exactly. And and you know before we move on you know you alluded to outside of the Canadians the Laval Rocket uh goalie depth. What else is coming? What can you what can you shed some light on in terms of how deep this goalie uh talent pool goes within the Canadians entire family? Yeah, I’m not as high on certain goalie prospects as others, but I’m also not a scout. So, this is my opinion based on my viewings, right? Um but ifien who uh I believe was a fifth round pick in 2023 uh played the majority of the season last season in the KHL for Sochi. For those that don’t know Sochi, um to be polite is basically the Buffalo Sabres of the KHL. Um they’re the feeder team for Scott, which is the team that uh Matt Feay Mitchkov and and Ivan Denidov played for over the last few years. So they tend to send their guys to Sochi when they’re too good for the junior leagues, but they’re not good enough to make the SCA team. And his record was 417 and and three, I believe. And um 417 and one, right? So that’s terrible record, but he had a a 9001 save percentage regardless, which is insanely impressive for a 20-year-old goalie in the KHL, the highest league in Russia, and they’ve produced very good goalies. uh his rights were then are have now been traded to Spart Spartac Muska. So he’s going to be the number one goalie for that team bar none. So he’s going to get you know last year he played still played 28 KHL games which is great. That’s about half the season. Um I think he’s going to get probably 40ish starts this season and that is going to be extremely telling because if he can really kind of continue he’s just hit every single level with with just straight up progress, right? Everything like the the last two seasons he had his draft year and then his post-draft year in the MHL dominant. You look at the way he played in the VHL and then he gets to the KHL takes off again. So wild. You have to you have to give these guys challenges when you’re a goalender and he just keeps going and going and going. Uh his contract is up uh June 1st, 2027. So this is a guy that they could take their time and that was one of the reasons why they drafted him because he was so raw. But people saw him at the Canadians development camp this year and they were really impressed because he’s a big boy that moves very well and tracks pucks very well. So to me, he’s that kind of like every team kind of ends up having one, but like that low-key out of nowhere rushing goalie that like the Flyers or the Rangers have had a lot of success in. Well, now you’re seeing the Canadians kind of kind of dabble in there as well. And that’s just there’s another one that they were sly about this year in Arceni Radkov, uh, who was a third round pick. the third round pick, I believe, uh, ironically, that they received from the New Jersey Devils for Jake, uh, Jake. Oh, wow. Okay. I like that. I love that. They drafted a goalie by trading a goalie. A goalie. I love that. Which Yeah. Go ahead. And the the the the fun part is he was drafted out of the KHL, but was picked in the expansion in the import draft by the BLA Armada. Oh, wow. And he is now going to be playing there this season, right? Uh, and next season is expected to go to the NCAA at the University of Massachusetts, UMass. Shout out Jimmy Murphy. Um, so what’s really interesting with Ratov is he’s going to go to a really fun environment because uh the Armada are expected to be contenders for the Q title and the Memorial Cup. And it that’s the most interesting fundamental aspect for me is the fact that he’s going to get tons of games. Expectations on his shoulders. He’s already produced very well in the MHL in in in Russia again, but he’s coming over early. Usually you see Russian goalenders stay in Russia. Now you’re seeing them come over for university ranks and whatnot. And uh what’s really interesting is you have guys like Cat Bono that are coming back to the Armada, Bill Zonin. So, those are two first round picks. Alex Cville Nev, who’s, you know, trending to be a potential top 10 pick in the 2026 draft, plays a lot like Lane Hudson. Um, so that’s going to be a dynamite team. And now you bring in a strong uh, you know, potential number Well, he’s they didn’t bring him in for nothing. He’s going to be their number one goalie. But here you have a third round pick that a couple of teams were high on that were hoping he would slide a little bit further. uh that could potentially surprise because again he has that very developed uh technique to go with a bigger frame that allows him to cover the ice and really kind of attack the play. In junior sometimes it’s a little they’re they’re a little bit more passive. I think that style of having played NHL and having practiced around professionals is going to give him kind of an edge in the queue. So I I’d be very interested to see how that goes down. Um we we can’t do a a Habs goalie um topic discussion without mentioning how the Canadians turned a ninth round pick in 2003 into Patrick Line and a second round pick in 2026. Stick tap Pat McAfee clap to a great career for Yarus Lafalak. 17 years in the National Hockey League and for some of a certain age uh delivered one of the more magical moments you as a Canadian fan ever got to watch. Seven games over Pittsburgh, seven games over Washington. Oh, Hak’s water bottle his his arm. I saw him. He was shaking. He was so nervous. uh that magical run that Yaros Lava Alak was in net for back in 2010 uh will go down uh and stay in the memories of Hab fans of a certain age. So I just wanted to mention that considering we talk we’re talking about Hav’s goalie depth and it was Hav’s goalie depth in Yarislav Hak when Carrie Price for a variety of reasons didn’t have it. Hak came in he had it and here we are 15 years later still looking back on what an unbelievable run that was in in 2010. So congratulations to Yaruslav Halak. Never saw a hockey player who loved fuagra more than Yara. Chocolate milk and fuagra. That’s how Yaraslav Halak runs. That’s Marco Demo. You can follow him at M& do with RG media.

Join this channel to get access to perks:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCx7N63HCTBWijHpI-qphK3A/join

Shaun Starr and Marco D’Amico take a deep look into the goalie position within the Montreal Canadiens organization. The boys look at the Habs backup goalie situation and what that should look like at the NHL level.

How many games is the right amount of games for Sam Montembeault to play?

Should Dobes be his backup?

Who pushes Jacob Fowler with the Laval Rocket?

Join in and let us know what YOU think

More

#montrealcanadiens #nhl #sports #shaunstarr