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The Montreal Canadiens have begun to explore their options to address their poor goaltending issues. Montreal is currently allowing 3.54 goals per game at around the one-third mark of the 2025-26 season. Only two NHL teams have worse averages at the moment.

Along with allowing plenty of goals, the Canadiens have unsurprisingly posted poor goaltending stats as well. The tandem of Sam Montembeault and Jakub Dobes has a combined save rate of just .872%. This particular figure ranks 29th out of the 32 NHL teams. Montreal is also one of a dozen teams in the league without a shutout this campaign.

As a result, the Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta is claiming that Montreal is testing the waters in the goaltending trade market. “We’ve started to hear that (the Habs) are at least gauging the market to see what options may be available to them if they do decide to do something (in goal),” Pagnotta said on Inside Sports with Brenden Escott.

The Canadiens are not the only NHL team, particularly north of the border, to be interested in a new goalie. The Edmonton Oilers and Toronto Maple Leafs have both been linked with netminders in recent weeks. Nevertheless, Montreal holds a key advantage over these specific teams for multiple reasons.

Montreal Canadiens Have Cap Space, Highly-Rated Prospect Pool

GettyThe Montreal Canadiens are in a solid position to make a major move.

As Pagnotta pointed out, the Canadiens have some cap room to work with at the moment. “I don’t expect (Montreal) to do something significant yet, unless something totally falls into their lap,” continued the reporter. “But different from the Oilers, they’ve got cap flexibility to perhaps do something more bold.”

According to Puckpedia.com, the Canadiens have over $3 million in current cap space. The Oilers, on the other hand, have the second-lowest financial flexibility in the entire league with just $159,000 in current cap space. Toronto’s figure is also only barely better. Because of this, Edmonton is more likely to make a major move between the pipes in the summer of 2026.

Along with cap flexibility, Montreal also has an abundance of talented prospects to help entice other teams in a potential trade. In fact, ESPN recently ranked the Canadiens fifth among all NHL prospect pools. Edmonton and Toronto were ranked 29th and 27th, respectively, by the news outlet.

Canadiens Might Focus Their Goalie Search on St. Louis

While the Montreal Canadiens will be careful in their search for a new goaltender, they could ultimately hone in on St. Louis Blues star Jordan Binnington. The Blues are currently open for business, and the Canadian netminder may very well move before the March 6 trade deadline.

Pagnotta hinted that the idea of Montreal being interested in Binnington makes sense. “The interesting thing to me is that they’ve had a lot of talks with St. Louis about a few players,” Pagnotta said on the aforementioned podcast. “We haven’t heard much about Jordan Binnington in Montreal, but I do wonder with the Habs sort of exploring things, if that’s an avenue that they at least inquire about to see if that’s an option for them.”

Binnington’s 2025-26 stats are currently not much better than Montreal’s options. Dobes even has better save percentages and GAA at the moment. However, Binnington has shown throughout his career to be a capable netminder. He previously helped the Blues collect the 2019 Stanley Cup and Canada win the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off.

Christopher Moore Christopher Moore has been a Heavy.com contributor since 2025. With over a decade of experience in the industry, he has published thousands of articles reporting on multiple professional sports. He was previously a sports writer for World Soccer Talk, the Yahoo! Contributor Network, and the Maryland Sports Blog. More about Christopher Moore

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