It’s not talked about too much, but the Montreal Canadiens are deep organizationally when it comes to goaltending, and we’ve seen how much that’s helped.
Anyone who knows anything about hockey will say the same thing. If you don’t have good goaltending, you have absolutely no chance at winning. The course of a team’s whole season can be changed based on the status of their netminder. Think back to the Montreal Canadiens when Carey Price went down for the rest of the 2015-16 season.
Despite the fact that the team had two 30 goal scorers, Mike Condon wasn’t enough to get the team through the year. The Habs also had the likes of Ben Scrivens and Dustin Tokarski play for them, but they aren’t necessarily big names.
Fast forward to the present day, and the Montreal Canadiens’ goaltending looks pretty good. Carey Price will be the team’s starting goaltender for the next eight years. He’s given the Habs a chance to win every night since returning from injury (well maybe not in the Edmonton game two weeks ago) making the big stops to keep them in games. If Montreal continues to string wins together and they make the playoffs, fans can’t look any further than Price as the reason why.
Then there are the goalies at the AHL level in Charlie Lindgren and Michael McNiven. Lindgren could still be in the NHL right now. He filled in very well in place of Price while he was injured. There’s no doubt that Lindgren has the potential to be a starting goaltender in the NHL in the future which may be a problem for management once extensions come up, but for now, they’re lucky to have him.
The same goes for McNiven. The 20-year-old started the season in the ECHL playing for the Brampton Beast but was called up after Lindgren was. He’s settled in well with the Laval Rocket, so much so that he’s locked up the number two spot on the team.
As much as we criticize Marc Bergevin, the fact that he and the team scouts were able to find and sign these players as free agents is pretty incredible.
Finally, there’s Zachary Fucale who was just sent back down to ECHL Wednesday night.
The Montreal Canadiens assigned goaltender Zach Fucale to the ECHL's @BramptonBeast
— Rocket de Laval (@RocketLaval) December 21, 2017
Potential and consistency are two words that come to mind when you think about him. Although he’s momentarily lost the battle to McNiven, Fucale has shown in the past that he has the ability to be a steady goaltender in professional hockey. It’ll just take some time to make it an everyday thing. Additionally, playing in Brampton may be the best place for him right now as it will give him more chances to play.
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The sky is the limit for Lindgren, McNiven, and Fucale. At the same time, the logjam created among the three can only do good things for them as it creates an element of internal competition. Fucale will fight to get back to the AHL, while McNiven will fight to stay there. Lindgren wants to continue to cement his place as the best goaltender in the organization outside of the NHL but also prove that he’s too good for the AHL.
Having so many capable goalies is a good problem to have to be honest. Considering that other organizations in the NHL are desperately trying to add goaltending to their systems, it’s comforting to know that the Montreal Canadiens don’t have to worry about that.
Next: Lehkonen Back With Drouin
What do you make of the Habs’ goaltending at all levels? Let us know your thoughts down below.