Montreal Canadiens Suddenly Have Plethora Of Great Goaltending Prospects

Quentin Miller

Quentin Miller was drafted by the Canadiens in the fourth round with the 128th overall selection. He was a hometown pick as he is from the city of Montreal and had been playing his hockey with in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.

Miller was part of a championship team with the Quebec Remparts last season, but played a backup role. William Rousseau, the team’s 19 year old starter played 47 games in the regular season and carried the mail during the QMJHL Playoffs, leading the Remparts to a league championship as well as a Memorial Cup win.

Miller earned plenty of experience playing 20 games at the top Junior level in the country, and had solid numbers with a 2.11 goals against average and a .911 save percentage. In a relatively high scoring league, those are impressive totals, but they also came while playing behind a stacked team.

This season, Rousseau is gone and Miller has taken over as the team’s number one goalie. Not only Rousseau, but most of the Remparts top performers from last season are gone as well, leaving behind a team that was predicted to be near the bottom of the QMJHL standings. This was going to be a much different test for Miller, who looked good on a good team, but could he hold up without a wall of great defenders in front of him?

So far, the answer is absolutely yes he can. Miller has played the lion’s share of games for the rebuilding Remparts this season, and has maintained a .910 SV% to go with his 2.64 GAA in 17 games played. He ranks 7th in the league in GAA and is 8th in SV% as an 18 year old, though he will be 19 just before the new year making this his 19 year old season as far as Junior leagues are concerned.

The Remparts are still struggling, and sit 9th in the ten team Eastern Conference. That really just makes Miller’s performance all the more impressive as he is playing behind a team that is among the worst in the league, and he is putting up numbers among the best in the league.

It will be interesting to see if he gets moved to a contender at the Christmas trade period and how he performs as a started on a good team. It will also be interesting to see if the team elects to send him back to Junior next season as an overager to continue playing a lot and developing his game, but that is a question for the future.

For now, we know he is playing terrific hockey and that is great news for the Canadiens.

Yevgeni Volokhin

One of the biggest surprises at the Habs 2023 NHL Draft was them taking a third goaltender in the same draft. Yevegeni Volokhin was taken in the fifth round with the 144th overall pick which was a bit of a surprise as the team had already taken a pair of goaltenders.

Volokhin played the 2022-23 season in Russia’s MHL, which is their top Junior Under-20 league and he had impressive numbers. He posted a 2.12 GAA and a .927 SV% in 31 games with Mamonty Yugry and then had a 2.52 GAA with a .931 SV% in five playoff games.

Volokhin has been ever better this season. The 18 year old netminder has posted a ridiculous 1.57 GAA with a .937 SV% in 15 games to begin this summer. He leads the league in GAA among regulars and also has the fourth best SV% in the MHL.

The bonus to drafting a player out of Russia is that the NHL team retains their rights basically forever. There is no rush to sign him and bring him to North America and the Canadiens can just allow him to continue developing in Russia for several years if they choose. He will eventually take on a role in the KHL, which has proven to be a great development league for goaltenders recently.

Of course, there is also the risk that the player just decides to stay in Russia forever as many players have done in the past. But, if he is the third goalie you are drafting, you can afford to roll that dice.

All we know for now is that Volokhin is absolutely dominating the top Junior league in Russia and that is fantastic.

Jacob Fowler

The best of the three goaltenders that Canadiens drafted was also the first one off the board. Jacob Fowler was selected in the third round with the 69th overall selection. He was one of the top ranked goalies in the draft, and slipped just a bit into the third round and the Canadiens were happy to grab him where they did.

Fowler had posted a 2.28 GAA with a .921 SV% with the Youngstown Phantoms of the USHL in 2022-23. He also helped them win a championship and earned a reputation as a fierce competitor and winner at a young age.

He has done nothing at Boston College so far this season to shake that reputation. The 18 year old has been incredible and is backstopping one of the top college hockey teams in the country. He just showed up for his first game and looked like a three year veteran at the NCAA level.

In 12 games this season, Fowler has posted a 9-2-1 record with his 2.14 GAA and .926 SV%. His first ever college game was against Quinnipiac, the defending national champions, and he stopped 28 of 29 shots as Boston College won in extra time. His most recent game was a 31 save shutout against Connecticut and he has been sharp every night in between.

Fowler greatly trimmed down his weight over the offseason and is a quick, explosive goaltender but he rarely needs to be diving all over the net. He is a very controlled, centered goaltender who reads the play well and is almost always in the right spot, square to the shooter and making it as difficult as possible for the opposing team to put the puck behind him.

Seeing him dominate at the college level immediately has been extremely exciting for Canadiens fans, and of the three goaltenders that the Habs drafted last spring, he is the most promising.

Want your voice heard? Join the A Winning Habit team!

Write for us!