Montreal Canadiens: The Three Easy Steps to Contend for Connor Bedard
Give Sam Montembeault 60 Starts
The biggest predictor of success in the NHL is great goaltending. It is hard to lose a lot of games with a great tandem of goalies hitting the ice every night.
Who is going to win the Vezina Trophy this season? Probably Igor Shesterkin, but Frederik Andersen, Jacob Markstrom and Darcy Kuemper will be in the running as well. Where did all of their teams finish in the standings? Aside from Shesterkin, they all won their division, while Shesterkin’s team has home ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs as well.
Great goaltending gives a team a chance to win every night, and the Habs have chance of heading into next season with a terrific goaltending tandem of Carey Price and Jake Allen. The problem is Price’s health, but he battled all season to play this year and couldn’t play more than five games.
Price was often injured before the offseason knee surgery that caused him to miss 77 games last season. He only returned because the season was extended later than it usually would be. His first game was played on April 15th and the regular season usually ends in the first week of April.
Seeing as he is likely to spend a considerable portion of next season on injured reserve as well, the Canadiens need to consider trading Jake Allen this offseason, and crowning Samuel Montembeault as the team’s starting netminder for the 2022-23 season.
Montembeault started 30 games for the Canadiens this season and posted a 3.77 goals against average and a .891 save percentage. He needs to start twice as many games next season, and though he sometimes has a terrific night and steals a win, his numbers suggest the Canadiens would lose far more often than they win next season if he played 60 times.
That would put them at the front of the line for Connor Bedard next season.
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