Montreal Canadiens: Jakub Dobes Posting Eye-Popping Numbers in NCAA

The Montreal Canadiens already have a solid group of prospects in their pipeline.

With them about to host the 2022 NHL Draft, and the team looking to sell some veterans between now and draft day, they should only continue to add to that lengthy list of promising young players.

Some of their are well known names like Kaiden Guhle, Mattias Norlinder, Cayden Primeau and Logan Mailloux. Others, are a little more off the radar, but are still having incredible seasons in their respective leagues.

Take goaltender Jakub Dobes for example. He was an unknown when he was selected in the 5th round of the 2020 NHL Draft. He had played 21 games in the USHL in 2019-20 before being drafted and his 3.09 GAA and .891 SV% were not dazzling numbers. He was much better last season for the Omaha Lancers, putting up a 2.48 GAA and a .908 SV% in 47 contests.

This season, the 6’4″ and 198 pound netminder is putting up some of the best numbers in all of college hockey during his freshman season.

He seems to be getting even better as the season moves along. For the second consecutive weekend, he was named the First Star of his Big Ten Conference.

Last weekend, Dobes shut the door on Penn State. The Habs prospect was quite busy, facing 48 shots on Friday night but turning aside 46 of them, helping the Ohio State Buckeyes earn a single point in the standings. He figured if that wasn’t good enough, he would just be even better the next night. So, he stopped all 51 shots he faced in the rematch on Saturday night, carrying the Buckeyes to victory.

That is 97 saves on 99 shots over the weekend and just two goals against in 125 minutes of hockey. That is a 0.96 GAA and a .980 SV%. It was only slightly better than his previous weekend’s work when he stopped 71 of 74 shots in a pair of games against Michigan State. That was a 1.50 GAA and .959 SV% weekend.

Dobes has been on quite the hot streak. Over his past 12 starts, for a team that was not expected to be very good this season, the 20 year old has a 1.64 GAA and a .955 SV%.

On the season, Dobes has an 18-6-2 record with a 1.98 GAA and a .938 SV%. His save percentage is the third best in all of college hockey this season and he is playing his first year at that level.

Dobes was an unknown commodity when the Canadiens used a later round draft pick on him. This season has been his first on a bigger stage and he is producing ridiculous numbers.