Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis is faced with a dilemma — his No. 1 goaltender isn’t playing like a No. 1 goaltender.
Samuel Montembeault was Montreal’s workhorse in goal last season. He appeared in 62 games, which ranked third in the NHL behind Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyck and Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy.
The plan this season was to cut Montembeault’s workload to 50 games while hoping that Jakub Dobes could pick up the slack. There’s also a segment of the fan base that expects rookie Jacob Fowler — he’s off to a strong start in Laval — to be with the Canadiens at season’s end.
It’s a good plan, but things haven’t worked out in the early going. The Canadiens are the surprise leaders in the Atlantic Division with a 9-3-2 record, but it is Dobes who has led the way.
Dobes, who was named the NHL’s third star for October, won his first six starts before he was on the losing end of a 4-3 count in overtime Thursday in New Jersey. He ranks No. 4 in the NHL in goals-against average (2.25) and save percentage (.920). Those numbers say he’s the No. 1, particularly since Montembeault has struggled.
Montembeault’s numbers are not good. He has a 3.67 GAA, which ranks 50th among the 53 goaltenders who have played at least four games, and his .855 save percentage ranks No. 52.
St. Louis displayed his faith in Montembeault when he started the veteran Tuesday in a home game against Philadelphia. Montembeault allowed three goals on six shots in the first eight minutes, and the Canadiens as a team had a slow start, but he made some excellent saves to allow Montreal to rally for a 4-3 lead. The Canadiens lost 5-4 in a shootout when Montembeault failed to get his paddle down to stop Trevor Zegras’s shot through the five hole.
The result left Montembeault with a 3-3-1 record, which has a lot to do with the Canadiens’ offence. Montreal is the third-highest scoring team (3.64 goals per game) in the NHL despite ranking 30th in shots per game (25).
Montreal Canadiens goaltender Jakub Dobes (75) protect the net from New Jersey Devils center Luke Glendening (14) during the first period of an NHL hockey game, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025, in Newark, N.J.
Olympic fallout: The goaltending situation in Montreal could have an effect on the team selections for the Winter Olympics, which begin in three months.
Montembeault was one of three goaltenders on the Team Canda roster for the 4 Nations Face-off and the trio — Adin Hill, Jordan Binnington and Montembeault — were the only goaltenders invited to the summer training camp.
But that doesn’t guarantee Montembeault a trip to Italy. Binnington, who backstopped Canada to a gold medal in the 4 Nations event, is guaranteed a spot, but someone will have to be dropped to make room for Washington’s Logan Thompson, who was inexplicably left off the 4 Nations roster. It will be difficult to ignore him this time because he leads the NHL in GAA (1.45) and save percentage (.938).
Meanwhile, Dobes has entered the picture for goaltender-rich Czechia.
Anaheim’s Lukas Dostal, who won a gold medal at the 2024 world championship with shutout wins over the U.S. and Switzerland, has already been awarded a roster spot, while Dobes is in a group with Philadelphia’s Dan Vladar, Utah’s Karel Vejmelka and the New York Islanders’ David Rittich.
The major drawback for Dobes is that he left Czechia as a 16-year-old and his only international experience was at the 2019 World Junior A Challenge.
Kapanen the No. 2 centre: The Canadiens are counting on a healthy Kirby Dach to reach his potential as the second-line centre and he has looked impressive, with three goals in the past two games. He is developing chemistry with Zachary Bolduc and veteran Brendan Gallagher, and looks more comfortable in the faceoff circle. He won all five of his draws Thursday and has an okay 45.2 per cent success rate.
But, in terms of production, the trio of Oliver Kapanen, Ivan Demidov and Alex Newhook has Dach and friends beat. While Demidov is living up to his billing as a No. 5 overall draft pick, second-rounder Kapanen has been a pleasant surprise. After spending most of last season in Sweden, the 22-year-old is proving to be a strong two-way player. He has five goals and three assists, contributes to the penalty-killing units and is the second-ranked faceoff performer among regular centres on the team with a success rate of 54.5 per cent.
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