Canadiens: Three Teams That Need One Of Habs Goalies

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The Montreal Canadiens are in the midst of one of the busiest parts of their schedule for this entire season.

After playing back to back games on Saturday and Sunday evening against the Boston Bruins and Vancouver Canucks, they host the Calgary Flames on Tuesday and will take on the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday before a rematch with the Bruins on Saturday night.

Even in a five game in eight night stretch of games, the Canadiens don’t really need three goalies on their roster. Yet, just over a month into the 2023-24 season, the Habs are still carrying three netminders, with Cayden Primeau getting the short stick and only suiting up for two games so far.

It seems inevitable that someone is going to get moved. Whether that is pending unrestricted free agent Sam Montembeault, realiable veteran Jake Allen or the youngest of the bunch, Primeau remains to be seen. There is a case to be made for each being kept, but it doesn’t make sense to hang on to all of them.

So, a trade is surely in the works, but teams often start the season with a tandem of goaltenders they trust. This leaves little room on the trade market for netminders in the early part of a season.

Of course, injuries and performance issues can quickly change this, and that is definitely the case early this season. There are a handful of Stanley Cup contenders that suddenly have bigger questions in goal than they thought they did when the season began.

The Edmonton Oilers are one such example, but they seem to be staying in house for now and hoping high priced Jack Campbell can find his game in the AHL and return in short order, or that Stuart Skinner can play much closer to the goalie everyone saw last season.

Even if the Oilers are off the table, these three teams find themselves searching for answers in goal and could come calling on the Canadiens to help fix the issue soon.

Oct 30, 2023; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Frederik Andersen. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports /

Carolina Hurricanes

The Carolina Hurricanes entered the year with a solid veteran tandem of Frederik Andersen and Antti Raanta. They have been a pairing in Carolina for the past two seasons and have provided solid netminding for the Hurricanes.

The only possible downfall of the pairing is they both have dealt with injury issues in the past. That trend has already continued this season with Andersen out long term and there is no timetable yet for his return. The 34 year old has had his fair share of injuries in his career and sometimes they seem to linger longer than anyone expected.

The other problem going on in Carolina this season is that Raanta has not been playing all that well in Andersen’s absence. The 34 year old has posted a 3.01 GAA with an .877 SV% in six games behind a stacked group of defenders and a team that is a legitimate Stanley Cup contender.

With Andersen’s status uncertain and Raanta not filling in well, the Hurricanes need to do something to upgrade in goal. They are 9-6-0 so far so their record isn’t being crushed, but they have allowed 49 goals in 15 games which is well over three goals against per night. That’s not Hurricane hockey and they have to dip in to the shallow goaltending pool to grab someone.

Scooping up Montembeault would make a lot of sense as he would look better behind a better defensive team and could help them win a lot of games.

Oct 24, 2023; Los Angeles, California, USA; Pheonix Copley. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports /

Los Angeles Kings

The Los Angeles Kings are definitely a Stanley Cup contender. They have tremendous depth at key positions like center where they boast Anze Kopitar, Pierre-Luc Dubois and Phillip Danault as well as on defense where Drew Doughty still shoulders a heavy load and Mikey Anderson, Vladislav Gavrikov, Jordan Spence and Matt Roy provide terrific depth.

Their plethora of options continues on the wing where Kevin Fiala, Adrian Kempe, Quinton Byfield and Trevor Moore are all scoring at nearly a point per game pace. That only leaves one position, but the Kings don’t have all their bases covered and it is an important area where they are lacking.

Cam Talbot arrived in Los Angeles as a free agent this summer. The 36 year old goalie signed a one-year contract with a cap hit of $1 million which kind of signals the team wasn’t expecting him to be a Vezina Trophy winner. He has played extremely well, with a 2.21 GAA and a .923 SV% but the team has been forced to rely heavily on the veteran.

Talbot has played 11 games this season while his backup Pheonix Copley has played just four. Copley pretty much couldn’t lose last season, but is struggling with a 4.58 GAA and a .792 SV%. They need an upgrade in goal.

The Kings are still winning almost every night and have a record of 8-3-1, but can’t expect Talbot to play almost every night at his age. Another veteran goalie that can share the workload and give the Kings reliability behind a great team would push this team into the top seed in the Western Conference possibly.

Jake Allen would make a lot of sense for them, and Marc Bergevin, who initially brought Allen to Montreal is still working in the Kings front office. An excellent teammate and steady goalie would be a perfect fit for the Kings.

Apr 9, 2023; Anaheim, California, USA; Pavel Francouz. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports /

Colorado Avalanche

The Colorado Avalanche are a team that is definitely in a go for it status at this stage. They won the Stanley Cup just two seasons ago and boast one of the best forwards in the world with Nathan MacKinnon as well as probably the best all around defenseman in the game as well with Cale Makar.

Adding to Makar on the back end the team also has Devon Toews, Bowen Byram, Sam Girard and Josh Manson giving them an embarrassment of riches on the blue line. Starting with the best group of defensemen in hockey allows a team to have a good, but not elite goaltender, but the Avalanche are struggling to get enough saves right now.

Their crease tandem is supposed to be Alexandar Georgiev and Pavel Francouz but Francouz was just ruled out for the entire season. He was expected to miss some time this year, but him being out for the whole year would have come as somewhat of a surprise.

The Avalanche have been using Ivan Provsetov as their backup this season, and he has a 2.90 GAA and a .899 SV% in four appearances. For his part, Georgiev has played 11 games and has a 3.29 GAA with a .887 SV%. He was never expected to be a “workhorse” goalie and would be at his best if he played about 45-50 games so the Avs need a great backup.

Enter Montembeault or Allen. Both would be great fits as a 1B option with Georgiev, and would put up drastically better numbers in Colorado playing behind that incredible defense. Knowing Francouz is out for the year, and knowing they can place him on long term injured reserve and use that extra cap space gives the Avalanche options.

The market meanwhile, does not give them a lot of options, so they may be calling on the Canadiens immediately to see if they can find their next goaltender.

dark. Next. Bold Trades To Take Advantage of Struggling Contenders

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