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.

Cayden Primeau, the Canadiens Third Goalie

There isn’t much to say about Cayden Primeau, as he only got into three games this year, starting two. His numbers definitely aren’t pretty, posting a .852 sv% and a .346 GAA. But his first start of the year against the Flyers was great, despite picking up the loss. In that contest, he gave up just two, stopping 24 of 26 shots and doing enough to keep the Canadiens in the game.

Remember, at this point in the year, the Canadiens resembled less of an NHL squad and more of a pre-season one, with more than ten regulars out of the lineup. His second start against the Red Wings was not as pretty, at least on paper, giving up five in a 5-0 loss to Detroit. But take a look at the goals and ask yourself how many of them can you expect him to stop. There are breakaways or guys open in front on every goal allowed. Just a mess defensively.

At this stage, Primeau likely isn’t a goalie of the future for the Canadiens, but he is a goalie worth keeping around in the meantime. When Jakub Dobes signed his ELC, I talked about the organizational depth at the position. Keeping Primeau around provides that. Plus, he’s been huge for Laval in getting to the playoffs. His ability to make the occasional spot start, to prevent Dobes from getting called up too early, as Primeau was when he first started, is essential.

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.

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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