Canadiens

Goalie #2: Samuel Montembeault appears to have edged out Jacob Fowler
Maxime Truman
Goalie #2: Samuel Montembeault appears to have edged out Jacob Fowler
Credit: Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images

When people ask me to make a prediction, I always ask myself: Would you bet $1,000 on that?

Will the Canadiens make the playoffs in 2026? Since I'd be willing to bet $1,000 on “yes,” I'll go ahead and predict that they will.

Will Cole Caufield score 50 goals again? Will Nick Suzuki reach the 100-point mark again? Will the Canadiens earn more points than last season? Will they have a better playoff run? I'm not ready to bet $1,000 on any of those possibilities. So I'm tempted to say “no,” but I'm still optimistic.

However, even with this $1,000 rule, I do sometimes get it wrong. It keeps me from saying just anything for the sake of reach or clicks, but that doesn't mean I'll always be right.

On June 1, I would have bet $1,000 that Samuel Montembeault would start the season in a uniform other than the Canadiens'. Yet, with eight days to go before the season begins, Montembeault is still a Montreal Canadiens player.

And that's not all!

Martin St-Louis has decided to bring pretty much all of his healthy regulars—except for his four oldest veterans, Chris Kreider, Joah Anderson, Phillip Danault, and Mike Matheson—to Trois-Rivières for tonight's preseason game.

When you look at it objectively, you come to the conclusion that Brett Berard, Sacha Pastujov, Florian Xhekaj, David Reinbacher, and Adam Engstrom are the players who will be fighting to survive the final roster cuts this weekend. The others (Owen Beck, Jared Davidson, Samuel Poulin, and Luke Mittelstadt) all seem to have already been ruled out of the running.

Except that something intrigues me: the two goaltenders who made the trip to Trois-Rivières are Jakub Dobes and Samuel Montembeault. Jacob Fowler stayed in Brossard with Kaapo Kahkonen.

I can only think of two possible explanations.

1. Samuel Montembeault still has a good chance of being Jakub Dobes' backup to start the season; management likes how Montembeault looked at camp and plans to give him another chance.

Fowler can return to Laval without having to clear waivers, and we know there won't be a three-way rotation to start the season (in Montreal, at least).

Montembeault played well against the Maple Leafs, and if he plays well tonight AND on Saturday, Monty might prove me wrong. And prove several other people wrong, both in the media and among the fans.

Reminder: Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton preferred to bring Fowler with the team into the playoffs rather than let him play playoff games with the Rocket—that's how little confidence they had left in Montembeault.

But anyway… seeing Arpon Basu, who's a big fan of the team, raving about the Fowler–Kahkonen duo this morning in the NY Times makes me think that Montembeault's Montreal adventure might not be over yet.

Will he rise from the ashes?
(Credit: Getty Images)

2. We're still trying to trade Montembeault, and we're hoping that strong performances this week might help us do so. Plus, we know Montembeault is from Trois-Rivières—why not let him play in front of his hometown crowd at the Colisée Vidéotron?

I know the Oilers and the Jets have shown interest in Montembeault over the past few months. Could a trade involving him be finalized in the days leading up to the start of the season?

From what I've been told, the chances of Montembeault being placed on waivers are relatively low. Why would a team agree to lose him for nothing when they have room under the salary cap?

It's worth noting that Montembeault could also be traded early in the season following a major injury elsewhere. His contract is pretty “friendly” for coming to the rescue of a GM in a tight spot.

Nevertheless, since this morning, I've been thinking that Samuel Montembeault might very well play another regular-season game in the blue, white, and red uniform.

I didn't see this possibility happening back in June, but things have changed—or haven't changed, I should say—as we approach the end of September.

We'll see what happens, as they say.