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Canadiens: Jake Allen Trade Marks Return to Solid Backup, Relief for Price

By Scott Cowan

EDMONTON, ALBERTA - AUGUST 19: Jake Allen #34 of the St. Louis Blues leads his team out to face the Vancouver Canucks in Game Five of the Western Conference First Round during the 2020 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at Rogers Place on August 19, 2020 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. (Photo by Jeff Vinnick/Getty Images)
EDMONTON, ALBERTA - AUGUST 19: Jake Allen #34 of the St. Louis Blues leads his team out to face the Vancouver Canucks in Game Five of the Western Conference First Round during the 2020 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at Rogers Place on August 19, 2020 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. (Photo by Jeff Vinnick/Getty Images) /
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Montreal Canadiens, Jake Allen
EDMONTON, ALBERTA – AUGUST 19: Jake Allen Montreal Canadiens (Photo by Jeff Vinnick/Getty Images) /

Jake Allen has seen a lot of changes this year. However, with his recent trade to the Montreal Canadiens, they might finally have their solid backup option.

For Jake Allen, stability is something he hasn’t been too familiar with as of late. The same can be said for the Montreal Canadiens. From losing the starting job last season to third-stringer Jordan Binnington to settling into a role as a solid backup and veteran presence this season, to outplaying Binnington in this year’s playoffs, the situation in the Blues net was a complicated one.

Binnington’s confidence, and to an extent, arrogance regarding his abilities, is one that hockey fans had become familiar with since last season when he led the Blues from dead last in the Western Conference to a Stanley Cup Championship.

Posting a sparkling 1.89 GAA in the regular season, and a 16-win performance in the postseason, the Blues are now seemingly set on Binnington as their starter for the foreseeable future, and in the process, have given Habs fans something that’s been sorely missing in recent years.

This Wednesday, the Blues traded Allen, and a seventh-round pick in 2022, to the Canadiens in exchange for a third and seventh-round pick in 2020. With this, the Blues starting job is Binnington’s to lose, with either AHL starter Ville Husso or a free agent acquisition set to take on the backup’s role. For the Canadiens, it gives them a solid backup for the first time in nearly four years.

My colleague Emmanuel did a piece last year on the recent track record for backups in Montreal, and its something I have also touched upon in other publications. Ever since fan-favourite Peter Budaj was traded to the Winnipeg Jets in October of 2015, the Habs have used eight different goaltenders to backup starter Carey Price. The last arguably reliable one was former 2004 first rounder Al Montoya, who in 2016-17, posted an 8-6-4 record as Montreal finished first in their division with a 47-26-3 record.

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