Is a goaltending controversy brewing for the Montreal Canadiens?

The Montreal Canadiens are off to a great start to kick off the 2025-26 NHL season, sitting on a 3-1-0 record. Their only loss came against rival Toronto Maple Leafs on the opening night of the season. So far, the offseason moves by Jeff Gorton and Kent Hughes have played out perfectly. Zachary Bolduc has three goals in his first four games, and Noah Dobson has formed a partnership with Mike Matheson on the blueline that looks to be a match made in heaven. The centre depth was a big topic of conversation over the summer, but Oliver Kapanen has done his best so far to ease that conversation. However, even though the Canadiens are winning, the play in nets leaves a lot to be desired, specifically with the team’s number one netminder.

Samuel Montembeault's play has been rocky to start the year; he does have a 2-1 record, but some of the goals he has let go by him have raised some eyebrows. Not to say he has been poor overall, just inconsistent. He plays well in stretches of games, but a few soft goals have undercut otherwise solid performances. A perfect example would be Sam Rinzel’s goal in the game against the Chicago Blackhawks. Montembeault gets caught out of position, leaving the left side of the net wide open for a perfectly placed shot by the rookie Blackhawks defender.

Against the Seattle Kraken, Montembeault played well to start, keeping the Canadiens in it early on. However, as the game went on, he began to fade. He was on the opposite end of some unfortunate bounces, but the Kraken’s third and fourth goals were probably two he would like back, specifically the fourth one.

His season numbers do not flatter him either. Montembeault currently has a 2.97 goals against average and a .870 save percentage. The Canadiens are winning right now, but if you are expecting your team to score four goals a game to win, it might become a problem sooner or later. Right now, the starting job is not in jeopardy, but if things do not get better, there is a guy sitting on the bench waiting for the opportunity to steal the job away from him.

We have only seen Jakub Dobes once so far this season, but he put in an excellent showing against the Detroit Red Wings. He stopped 30 out of 31 shots he faced as the Canadiens routed the Red Wings. The truth of the matter is, Dobes has been great since he took over the backup goalie duties from Cayden Primeau last season. He won his first five starts to kick off his NHL career and has not looked back. If he continues to play like he has so far in his career, the Canadiens might have to have some serious talks about whether the best move going forward is to have Dobes take over as the number one goalie in Montreal.

Montembeault is not on a short leash. He still has plenty of time to prove that he is the true number one goalie in Montreal, but if the team starts losing games they really should have won, his seat might start to get hot.