The Montreal Canadiens made a shocking move after their embarrassing loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning by calling up star goalie prospect Jacob Fowler. The Canadiens are clearly in panic mode about their goaltending. Samuel Montembeault has been inconsistent all season, struggling to string together quality starts. Jakub Dobes began the season strong, but is now struggling under a heavier workload.
The Habs were hoping for Fowler to spend the entire season with the Laval Rocket to further his development, which is why they signed Kaapo Kahkonen in free agency. The Canadiens called up Kahkonen for the St. Louis Blues game, while Montembeault battled illness, but sent him back to Laval immediately after the game. That is what makes it an even bigger surprise that the Canadiens called up Fowler because we never got to see Kahkonen get a chance in net. However, that does not mean Fowler is not deserving of the opportunity to play with the Canadiens.
In Fowler’s first full season in Laval, he has been nothing short of sensational. The 2023 third-round pick has played in 15 games for the Rocket, holding a 10-5 record, while posting a 2.09 goals against average and a .919 save percentage with three shutouts. The Rocket currently sits first in the North Division thanks in large part to their goaltending tandem of Fowler and Kahkonen.
JACOB FOWLER ❌ pic.twitter.com/FFhi6VnxEK
— Rocket de Laval (@RocketLaval) December 3, 2025
Fowler entered this season with high expectations, as many analysts pencilled him as the Canadiens' goalie of the future, with the potential of being a star goalie in the NHL one day. So far, he has been everything analysts have envisioned, and he will be given an opportunity with the Canadiens earlier than anyone could have predicted.
Canadiens reporters Eric Engels and Marco D’Amico both believe that Fowler could be making his NHL debut on Thursday night against the Pittsburgh Penguins, which has a lot of significance for both the player and the organization. For Fowler, his debut comes against the team he grew up supporting. The significance for the Canadiens is that the franchise's last two all-time great goalies, Patrick Roy and Carey Price, both played against the Penguins in their NHL debuts.
While Roy hit the ground running to kick off his career, Price, on the other hand, struggled early before becoming arguably the best goalie of his generation. Fowler is already being thought of as the saviour for this team, but no one was quicker than Brendan Gallagher to pump the brakes on that thought. "One thing I can say to that for fans is to understand how good Carey Price was, how many great years he had, and understand how tough it was at the start for him.”
It is not always easy for a goalie to go from the AHL to the NHL, and it is probably even more difficult when you have less than a full season of professional hockey under your belt. However, the Canadiens made the call to bring him up in the hopes that he could stabilize the goaltending position.
Maybe the organization is thinking he can not perform worse than how Montembeault and Dobes have been playing recently. The one thing you hope for is that bringing him up so soon will not negatively affect his development, something we have seen happen to the Buffalo Sabres with another collegiate standout, Devon Levi.
The future is now for the Canadiens, and while the team will not say they are hoping for Fowler to correct the ship, that is the feeling you will get when you make this type of move soon.