Jakub Dobes took over the starting job midway through last season with the Montreal Canadiens and never looked back. As the season went along, he seemed to get better, and that culminated with some incredible performances in the playoffs. The Canadiens saw enough to give him a contract extension this summer, and he is now getting some league-wide recognition by being included in a recent Top 10 goalie ranking on NHL Network.
Dobes was ranked as the 10th-best goalie, with goalies like the Minnesota Wild's Jesper Wallstedt at nine, the Philadelphia Flyers' Dan Vladar at eight, and the Dallas Stars' Jake Oettinger at seven. It shouldn't be much of a surprise that the Tampa Bay Lightning's Andrei Vasilevsky was first.
In 42 starts during the regular season, Dobes went 29-10-4 with a save percentage of .901 and a goals against average of 2.78. However, he elevated his play in the playoffs and really showed how good he could be with a save percentage of .908 and a goals against average of 2.66.
There were points during the playoffs that Dobes seemed to be single-handedly keeping the Montreal Canadiens in games. In the first series against the Lightning, there is a case to be made that he outperformed Vasilevsky. He carried a shutout into overtime in Game 6 that the Canadiens eventually lost 1-0 but then in Game 7 stopped 28 of 29 shots to win 2-1 while the Canadiens could only register nine shots on goal.
Jakub Dobes will have the crease early in the season
When looking ahead to next season, the Montreal Canadiens are going to need more of the same from Jakub Dobes. As it stands at this point in the offseason, Samuel Montembeault is still on the Canadiens' roster, and that leaves a major question for Jacob Fowler.
Fowler certainly looked ready for the NHL last season, but the Canadiens are not going to have three goalies on their roster. That leaves Montembeault as the backup for the time being and means Dobes is going to get a majority of the work to begin the season.
There is no denying that Montembeault struggled last season as he saw his save percentage drop from .901 to .873 and his goals against average jump from 2.82 to 3.43. It felt almost certain that they would trade him this offseason, but they either didn't want to just give him away with little return or there wasn't a market after the season Montembeault had.
If at some point the Canadiens do trade Montembeault, then Fowler has a path to the NHL, and the responsibilities in the crease might be split a little more evenly. Until that happens, Dobes has to play at a level that he did last season if Montreal wants to get off to a fast start.
Add us as a preferred source on Google