The Montreal Canadiens started the 2024-25 season with the goaltending tandem of Samuel Montembeault and Cayden Primeau. While Montembeault has had a bit of a up-and-down season, he has generally done well, and was named to Canada's Four Nations team. Cayden Primeau could make no such claim, and struggled through the entire season, and was ultimately sent down in favor of rookie goalie Jakub Dobes.
Dobes, a native of Ostrava, Czech Republic, played one season in the USHL before being selected in the fifth round by the Canadiens. He took another year in the USHL before playing two seasons at Ohio State University where he put up good numbers before making the jump to the AHL, where he played a season before making his first NHL call up.
Dobes debuted against the defending Stanley Cup Champions Florida Panthers, whom he promptly shutout. About a week later, Dobes got the start against the Colorado Avalanche, and Dobes won again, by a score of 2-1. Another week, another win, this time against the Eastern Conference leading and best goalscorer ever Alexander Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals in overtime.
Six days later, Dobes got the start against fellow hottest team in the league Dallas Stars, and he once again held the strong offensive team to just one goal. And in the shortest gap between his games, three days later Dobes started against the New York Rangers. It was one of the wildest games of the season, and Dobes doubled his goals against total in one game, but still won in overtime, on the strength of two fantastic overtime saves.
And that is where we stand right now. Dobes has played 5 games and won 5 games, 3 of those games went to extra time. But how does that compare with other Montreal Canadiens and league wide great goalies?
But don't take this as a prediction of Dobes' career. It is notoriously difficult to predict where goalies will end up on the quality scale, and this is still really early in Dobes' career. Remember when Andrew Hammond had that incredible run with the Ottawa Senators to drag that team into the playoffs?
Yeah, Andrew Hammond finished the 2014-15 season with a record of 20-1-2. And unfortunately, Hammond was never able to stick around in the NHL and be a quality NHL starter after that season.
Montreal Canadiens Goalie Greats
You cannot talk about the greatest NHL goalies without talking about the Montreal Canadiens. From the greatest of their times, to the greatest of all time, to the most innovative goalies ever, the Montreal Canadiens had it all.
Like, for example, Carey Price. Price made his debut in 2007-08 and he had a good start. His first four games were back-and-forth, winning two and losing two. He ended up with a record of 24-12-3. In the playoffs, Price and the Canadiens beat the Bruins in 7 games, before being eliminated by the Philadelphia Flyers, where Price went 1-3. All in all, a pretty good start to a career.
Patrick Roy played one game in the 1984-85 season, beating the Phoenix Coyotes 6-4. Roy had a decent real first season, but still started the season after 6 games at .500. However, Patrick Roy rolled into the playoffs, beat the Bruins in the first round, beat Hartford in 7 games, knocked off the New York Rangers in 5 games, and beat the Calgary Flames, again in 5 games, to win the Stanley Cup.
Its pretty hard to beat a Stanley Cup and Conn Smythe in a rookie year. And the craziest thing is that Patrick Roy was not the first Montreal Canadiens goalie to accomplish that feat.
Ken Dryden was not your average goalie. He was drafted by the Boston Bruins, but was traded so fast that he didn't even know that Boston had actually drafted him. He is a smart guy, and spent a long time in school after he was drafted, plaing for Cornell University.
And then Dryden played in the NHL. In the 1970-71 season, Dryden recorded 6 wins in 6 games. That was good enough for him to take the full starting role in the playoffs, which paid off big time, and the rookie Ken Dryden also won the Stanley Cup and Conn Smythe.
Outside of the Montreal Canadiens, Dobes still has quite a bit to go to catch some of the greats. Ray Emery won nine games in a row, although that was over a couple of years, so take that as you will. When looking at the longest unbeaten streak, Patrick Lalime went 16 games before losing in 1996-97.
So Jakub Dobes still has a long way to go to make his mark in history, and even longer as his full career expands. The good news is that the team seems invested in his development, and are keeping his usage low, and are not just riding the hot hand. Time will tell where Dobes' career goes, but the team is putting him in the best situation to succeed and he certainly has had a fantastic start.