Montreal Canadiens: Positional Grades – Goaltenders

With the Montreal Canadiens season officially behind us, many people are looking ahead, with the NHL Draft Lottery being the next big event on the Canadiens hockey calendar. And while we here at A Winning Habit are excited about that as well, we first want to look back at the season and evaluate the team, position by position. So today, we’ll be looking back at how the goaltenders performed for the Canadiens this season.

I don’t think it’s an outlandish thing to say the goaltenders were the best and most consistent part of the Montreal Canadiens this year. That’s largely thanks to health, a rare theme for the Habs, with Jake Allen missing some time but still starting in 41 games this year. Sam Montembeault started in 39, and Cayden Primeau made two starts towards the end of the year.

When evaluating the position, it’s important to remember that the team in front of them also plays a role in a goaltender’s success. You can only ask so much of the netminders if the guys around them aren’t playing well. So with that, let’s look at the goalies and how they performed this year.

Jake Allen is the Canadiens #1… For Now

Nothing about Jake Allen’s numbers suggests he had a good season, but he was relatively solid for the Canadiens. As discussed in the final edition of “By the Numbers,” the goaltending began to fall off towards the end of the season, hence why Allen finished the year with a GSAx of -1.9. For most of the year, he had a positive GSAx. Allen had the majority of stars this year, despite missing some time due to injuries. This suggests that Allen is still viewed as the 1A in the Canadiens’ goalie rotation, at least for now.

Allen played well, too well at times if you were hoping for better draft odds, helping lead the team, sometimes even dragging them to victory. Allen’s best game of the season came on December 1st in Calgary, when the netminder stopped 45 of 46 shots en route to a 2-1 victory. Allen had 3.409 GSAx in a game where the Habs got outshot 46-19 and was easily the best player that night.

There was still a lot to like about Jake Allen’s play, as he battled hard and competed despite rough patches. For a veteran with little to prove, he still played with his heart on his sleeve and showed his commitment to the team. I can’t imagine it was easy being in net for this team, as a lot was asked of them, especially in Allen’s case, who, as mentioned, isn’t trying to make a name for himself or is necessarily worried about a potential demotion. In theory, these starts don’t matter to him the way they would to a Cayden Primeau or Sam Montembeault.

Overall, if the Canadiens can shore things up in front of their net and take the load off their goalies, I think Allen can have a much better year next season. Of course, the Habs may move him, but it certainly appears as though Allen will be in Montreal next season. I think he did well given the circumstances, but I’m not sure Allen is turning many heads and seeing that Allen is under contract for next year, and I’m not sure I see anyone trading for him with compensation worth accepting from the Habs perspective.

Sam Montembeault, the Goalie of the Future?

It’s hard to envision saying that a goalie with a GAA of 3.42 had a good season, but Sam Montembeault did. We’ve talked extensively about it, but the Habs did not have a great defensive team this year, and that’s really what GAA is, a team stat. It doesn’t account for the degree of difficulty in a save, nor does it account for the quality of scoring chances. But GSAx does, and that reflects much more kindly on Montembeault.

This year, Montembeault ranked 13th in the NHL in GSAx with 11.8, which is impressive. Despite numerous quality scoring chances per game, Montembeault was able to stand tall. Coming into the year, there were still doubts about whether he was even an NHL calibre goaltender. Those concerns should be gone. Instead, Montembeault sent a message to Kent Hughes and staff that he can play at this level, and even Hockey Canada got the memo.

Now the question is, can Montembeault be a starting goalie in the NHL moving forward? When the Canadiens are ready to start winning, can he be the guy between the pipes? I’ve posed this question before, and it remains to be seen. Trying to project goalies from one year to the next is essentially a near-impossible task, one that I’m not even going to pretend I’m capable of doing. But he showed flashes in the 2021-22 season and seemed to take a massive step this year. I’m certainly not counting him out, and he should get the opportunity to take another step next season.

Montembeault was the Canadiens’ best goalie this year and arguably their best player, with multiple big-time performances. He was asked to do a lot and delivered more than fans could have expected. Without him, the Canadiens probably lose four or five more games. There was the Canadiens’ 3-2 victory over the Sabres back in October in which Montembeault stopped 43 of 45 to help steal a win. Or his 2.91 GSAx performance against the Leafs on home ice, leading the Canadiens to a 3-2 win in overtime.

Montembeault deserves a lot of recognition for his season, recognition he likely won’t get, at least from the media outside of Montreal. Don’t let the stats fool you. If you swapped Montembeault with another goalie, things could be different. For instance, let’s say Tristan Jarry (-2.8 GSAx) and Montembeault swapped places, I’d bet the Penguins would be in the playoffs right now, and the Canadiens might be picking in the top three. I’m dead serious about that.

It’s been a while since the Canadiens have had to “worry” about their goaltending, with Carey Price no longer tending the goal. But don’t get it twisted. The goaltending position is still probably the least of the Habs’ concerns, at least in the short term. Perhaps a conversation about the future of the position needs to be had, but it’s definitely not the top priority.

The goal should be to build an excellent team and worry about goaltending later, and I believe it is. Was the Canadiens’ goaltending this season perfect? No. Was it the best in the league? Not even close. Was it more than serviceable? Absolutely. And perhaps best of all, it only cost them $3.875 Million. So they got way more than what they paid for.

FINAL GRADE: A-

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