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.