The Montreal Canadiens went more than a decade without adding many goaltending prospects to the organization.
When you have Carey Price in goal winning a Hart Trophy and carrying the team to any level of success it does achieve, you don’t need to be using many draft picks on goalies. The Habs did pick Zach Fucale in the second round of the 2013 NHL Draft, but other than that, it wasn’t a priority from 2005 until recently.
Once Price hit 30 years old, the team started to invest in goaltenders a little more. They didn’t use their top draft picks or anything, Price is signed long term, but they did buy a few penny stocks in goal and they look to be paying off.
In 2017, the Habs used a 7th round pick on Cayden Primeau who is the starting goalie for the Laval Rocket after a tremendous college career. In 2019, the Canadiens picked goaltender Frederik Dichow in the 5th round. In 2020, Jakub Dobes was taken in the fifth round and last year the Canadiens used a 7th round pick on Joe Vrbetic.
Dobes is playing well for Notre Dame in NCAA and Vrbetic is having a solid season for the North Bay Battalion in the OHL.
Dichow is already playing pro hockey in Sweden and his efforts just earned him a trip to the Olympics.
The 20 year old from Denmark has been playing in Allsvenskan this season which is basically Sweden’s AHL. It is the second best pro league in the country. The Canadiens prospect has played 19 games for Kristianstads, putting up a 12-6-0 record to go with a 2.23 GAA and a .927 SV%.
He was called up for one game to the SHL, which is Sweden’s best league and he posted a shutout for Rogle.
Those are some pretty impressive numbers for a 20 year old netminder playing his first season of pro hockey.
The 6’5″ goaltender is one of three goalies named to Denmark’s Olympic team that will participate in the tournament next month. It sounds like 30 year old Sebastian Dahm is going to be the starting goalie for Denmark, but just participating in the event would be valuable experience for a young Canadiens prospect.