The Montreal Canadiens officially called up goaltender Samuel Montembeault from his conditioning stint with the Laval Rocket on Saturday. However, because of the Christmas break, he hasn’t played with the Rocket since last Saturday, when he was informed that he would return to Montreal to work with the AHL goalie coach Marco Marciano for the couple of days leading up to Christmas and continue to work on his game in preparation for his return to the Canadiens. Now that he’s officially joined the Habs on their trip to Florida, which begins on Sunday against the Tampa Lightning, it’s time to discuss what would be a good plan for the struggling veteran netminder.

Les Canadiens ont procédé au rappel du gardien Samuel Montembeault de son affectation pour conditionnement au Rocket de Laval.

The Canadiens have recalled goaltender Samuel Montembeault from his conditioning assignment with the Laval Rocket. pic.twitter.com/8Ev6I2R8AN

— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) December 27, 2025

Head coach Martin St. Louis mentioned that Jacob Fowler will be getting the start on Sunday against the Tampa Bay Lightning, but that Montembeault should be getting a chance to play and prove that he still belongs with the Habs at some point in the next few games. With that being said, the Quebecois goaltender should likely get an opportunity to play for the Canadiens during this 5-game road trip (Tampa Bay, Florida, Carolina, St. Louis, and Dallas), before returning to the Bell Centre on January 7th.

Martin St. Louis makes it clear the plan is to get Sam Montembeault back into a game soon.

— Eric Engels (@EricEngels) December 27, 2025

If we look at the games that the Canadiens are playing during this road trip, the best game for Montembeault to play would be on Saturday, January 3rd, against the St. Louis Blues for a few key reasons. The first reason is because it’s one of the two non-conference games, so a bad performance won’t hurt the team as much by giving up points to a team within their division or conference.

Next, the 2nd reason is that the Blues are the only team below .500 that they are playing throughout this trip and therefore could be the easiest opponent for the struggling goaltender to slowly regain his confidence at the NHL level.

#Habs Samuel Montembeault on loan to #Rocket

“I had good practices every day. We didn’t try to reinvent the wheel with Marco (Marciano). We looked at some small things and correct some habits. We did a lot of tracking and work on my hands to try to get better and make quality… pic.twitter.com/rnohmoCZxS

— Chris G (@ChrisHabs360) December 28, 2025

Finally, the 3rd reason is that they are playing a back-to-back that weekend, which means that one goaltender can be made fresh to play in case of a bad showing where St. Louis decides to pull Montembeault and play either Fowler or Jakub Dobes instead. Meanwhile, the other goaltender who is sitting in the press box for that game can start on Sunday night against the Dallas Stars.

The Canadiens are a competitive team, and they won’t want to give up a chance to win against another good team in their division or conference, which is why the only real option would have to be the Blues. If they do end up giving him the game on the 3rd, it would mean that Montembeault would get his first start with the Canadiens in 32 days after a 5-2 loss against the Ottawa Senators back on December 2nd. Montembeault did come in for an overworked Dobes, who was playing his 3rd game in 4 nights, but he played worse than Dobes did after coming in relief for him. Therefore, if he only plays on January 3rd, it would be 25 days since he last played in an NHL game before he gets his chance again.

#Habs Martin St. Louis on building Samuel Montembeault’s confidence

“You gotta give him the net. You got to make sure that the team plays in front of him to our standards. And slowly, you going to build that back up and confidence going to rise again. That’s the plan and he’s… pic.twitter.com/kH0Lh8qSXF

— Chris G (@ChrisHabs360) December 27, 2025

In the case that Montembeault plays really well in his start and shows that he has the ability to bounce back, he could find himself back in the rotation where each goalie gets a game over the next three games until they know for sure if he can continue playing for the Habs and his teammates have his trust again. Over his last few starts, the way everyone has played around him shows that they don’t have trust in the veteran goaltender this year.

At the end of the day, the Canadiens should continue to run with both Fowler and Dobes over the next few games, but Montembeault should continue to do extra reps with Habs goaltending coach Eric Raymond over the next week, similar to what he did the few days before the Christmas break with Marciano earlier this week.

When would you play Montembeault to give him a potential last chance with the Canadiens?