The Montreal Canadiens' 2025-26 season was categorically a success, but that cannot be said for every individual player on the roster. Some players were coming into the year with an elevated level of expectations, while others were looking to rebound from either a tough previous season or one riddled by injuries. Players like Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, and Lane Hutson all had high expectations coming into the season and were able to exceed them, but there was another group of Canadiens players whose seasons you can largely label as disappointments.
Samuel Montembeault
Samuel Montembeault was expected to build off his strong 2024-25 season, where he helped the Canadiens make the playoffs and featured on Team Canada’s 4 Nations Face-Off roster. He set career highs in games played (62), wins (31), shutouts (4), and goals against average (2.80). He posted his second-best career save percentage (.902) and was in the top five in the NHL with 24.6 goals saved above expected. However, instead of building off his play from the previous season, Montembeault's form took a nose-dive, so much so that by the end of the season, he was out of the goalie rotation entirely.
Montembeault struggled out of the gate this season, losing three of his first five starts, while averaging 3.82 goals against average and a .842 save percentage. Montreal tried its absolute hardest to play Montembeault into form early, taking starts away from Jakub Dobes, who had an incredibly hot start to the season. Montembeault’s play took such a hit that the Canadiens were forced to call up top goalie prospect Jacob Fowler, and later optioned the Quebec goaltender to the Laval Rocket on a conditioning stint. Once returning from his conditioning stint, there was some optimism that Montembeault could rediscover his form from the previous season, but that quickly faded, and by the end of the season, the Canadiens chose to roll with their two young goaltenders. The writing is clearly on the wall for Montembeault, and we have likely seen his last game in a Canadiens sweater.
Kirby Dach
New year, same struggle for Kirby Dach. His time in Montreal has been riddled with injuries, and this season was no different. Dach has missed 129 games over his first three seasons with the Canadiens, with the most games he has ever played with Montreal being 58. This season, managed just 15 games before suffering another injury that sidelined him for a large chunk of the season. Dach fractured his foot in the game against the Boston Bruins, causing him to miss 31 games. Then in March, Dach suffered an upper-body injury that sidelined him for 11 games.
With being in and out of the lineup so much, it is difficult to find your form when you are consistently rehabbing from injuries. That is something we have seen with Dach over the years. We have seen him play well for stretches, then he gets hurt, and once he returns, he has to work his way back to game shape in the middle of the season. In round one of the playoffs, we saw a Dach looking back to his best, forming a line with Zachary Bolduc and Alexandre Texier, which was one of the Canadiens' best in the series. However, for the next two rounds, Dach was relegated to the fourth line. He finished the season with eight goals and 15 points in 37 games, adding four goals and five points in 19 playoff games. Not the production the Canadiens thought they would be getting in year four with the organization from the former third overall pick.
Patrik Laine
Patrik Laine's season with the Canadiens can only be categorized as a disappointment. He played in just five games this season. There was a lot of hype when the Canadiens acquired him prior to last season, and despite being injured for much of the year, he showed that he still does one thing extremely well, putting the puck in the net. He hit the 20-goal mark while playing in just 52 games last season, and coming into this season healthy, expectations were that he could be a real contributor. However, just five games into the season, Laine suffered a core muscle injury that sidelined him for the rest of the season, or so we thought.
During the Canadiens end-of-season interviews, Laine opened up about his health and whether there was a point at which he felt he was healthy enough to make his return. Laine told reporters that he was given the green light after January to return to play, but the Canadiens chose to keep him on the IR. It became clear that Laine was no longer in the team’s plans, and by keeping him on IR for the rest of the season, he is now eligible for a bonus-laden contract, which makes him a much more attractive free agent. The Canadiens wanted to do well by him, but that does not make it any less disappointing that we only got to see Laine dress in five games this season.
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