Key Takeaways
- Montreal Canadiens EVP Jeff Gorton has the utmost belief in his team's goaltending future.
- Gorton sat down with RG and discussed the development of Samuel Montembeault as their No. 1 while also expressing confidence in Jakub Dobes as his backup.
- The Habs also signed Kaapo Kahkonen this offseason, adding more depth to their netminder group.
Montembeault with Canadiens teammates (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images)
The Montreal Canadiens are confident and invested in the present and future state of their goaltending.
After a breakthrough season for goalie Samuel Montembeault, the Canadiens are confident the 6-foot-2, 218-pound, 28-year-old native of Becancour, Quebec, can be even better this season. However, they’re also not opposed to giving Montembeault, who went 31-24-7 with a 2.82 GAA and a .902 save percentage, more relief this season.
Five days before the Canadiens locked up restricted free agent goalie Jakub Dobes to a two-year, $1.9 million ($965,000 AAV), one-way contract, the Canadiens also signed veteran unrestricted free agent goalie Kaapo Kahkonen to a one-year, one-way, $1.1 million contract on July 1. With Montembeault entering the second year of a three-year, $9.4 million one-way contract that carries a $3.1 million AAV, the Canadiens now have the most salary cap space between the pipes, $14.8 million, in the NHL. As of now, no other NHL team has more salary cap space locked up between the pipes than the Canadiens at $14.8 million.
In his recent one-on-one interview with RG, Canadiens Executive Vice President Jeff Gorton expressed plenty of confidence in Montembeault but is also happy with the depth behind him on the NHL roster, specifically with Dobes.
“I think we approach every position with that possibility in mind, but I think Sam has established himself as a very good NHL goalie, and I think Dobes showed us a lot,” Gorton said when asked if a slightly lower workload would be good for Montembeault, who was crucial to the team’s push into the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
“He got us a lot of big points down the stretch, he came in relief in the playoffs and got us a win, and he played pretty well in the playoffs under difficult circumstances,” continued on Dobes. “But, we’re in the position where our team’s at that if somebody comes in and wins a job, then I think we’ll always look at that and try and promote from within and let some of these young guys play when they’re ready. So, if they’re ready, if they want to show us they’re ready, we always will make the necessary moves to accommodate them.”
Gorton did acknowledge a plan to get Dobes, or potentially Khakonen, more starts to spell some relief for Montembeault, who did go through some apparent fatigue mid-way through the season.
“I mean, yeah, that’s the goal. When you go into a season, you talk about how many starts it could look like, but the play will always dictate that,” Gorton pointed out.
The Canadiens have always believed that Montembeault could be a No.1 goalie, as they proved when they signed him to a contract extension back on December 1, 2023, instead of trading him to potential suitors, like the Edmonton Oilers or Philadelphia Flyers, or the Arizona Coyotes, who all reportedly had interest in acquiring Montembeault. So if Montembeault gets on a hot streak as he did after the Four Nations break, then the Canadiens will have no issues riding him as far as he can take them.
“I mean, Sam was very good and solid and consistent, and when you have to make that decision and you need wins, and basically after Four Nations, every game was a playoff game for us,” Gorton said.
“So, you kind of have to roll with who’s the hot hand and that’s kind of how he ended up playing so many games, but the goal is to never play someone anymore into the sixties, so we’ll see how it goes, but I have to say with Sam, he really acquitted himself very well, he was consistent pretty much from Game 1 to Game 82 and beyond.”
Gorton and the Canadiens are also confident they will see young goalie phenom Jacob Fowler go on runs like Montembeault as he prepares for his first full pro season, likely starting with the Laval Rocket again in the American Hockey League. Gorton loved the small sample size he saw from Fowler at the end of the Rocket’s 2024-25 regular season and in the team’s run to the Eastern Conference Final of the 2025 Calder Cup Playoffs.
“The thing I liked about Fowler right away is that he’s a confident kid,” Gorton pointed out. “You can see why he’s won at different levels. The moment was never too big for him. He stepped right in from Boston College, we put him in there, and he was really solid. He got in three regular-season games, and it never really looked like a big jump for him. It looked like he could handle it, no problem.
Then in the playoffs, actually in the second series there against Cleveland, he got all the wins. So, I think it’s just the fact that he’s got so much swagger and confidence and ability that whenever he really thought, ‘This is too big for me. I’m ready for this, and he’s got his eyes on some bigger things, and we’re excited about what that could be. Obviously, the potential’s there to be very, very good."
Sometimes, too much confidence or eagerness to take the next step to the NHL can backfire, but Gorton isn’t worried about that with the 20-year-old Fowler, who will be playing in the first year of his three-year, $2.7 million ($923,000 AAV) entry-level contract.
“I think what has happened with so many people in player development these days is you're having these conversations and managing expectations all the time,” Gorton pointed out.
“You just have to say, ‘Hey, listen. This is the path we have in mind, and not everyone’s the same, so we’ll see how it goes. With the history of goaltending, the more successful goalie have taken their time and haven’t gone directly to the NHL and had success.
So, he knows that. The kid’s pretty bright, and I was really impressed with how he went down there and fit in really well. Right from Day 1, guys rallied around him and played well in front of him. He doesn’t have a big ego. He’s got swagger, he’s got confidence, but he handles it the right way. So, we’ll see and I think he kind of knows what the path looks like for him, but deep down I’m sure all these kids think ‘maybe I can get there a little quicker’ but we’ll see.”
