Cowan: Canadiens’ Samuel Montembeault has earned a chance to relax

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Samuel Montembeault is hoping to relax a bit this summer after landing the No. 1 goalie job with the Canadiens.

After last season, Montembeault accepted an invitation to play for Team Canada at the IIHF World Championship in Finland and Latvia. In seven games, Montembeault posted a 1.42 goals-against average and a .939 save percentage, helping Canada win the gold medal.

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Team Canada invited Montembeault to return for this year’s world championships, scheduled for May 10-26 in Czechia, but he decided not to.

“It’s been a long season,” Montembeault said last Wednesday as Canadiens players met with the media for the final time this season after missing the playoffs for the third straight year. “Last year I returned (from the world championships) on June 1 and didn’t start training until almost July. This year, I just want to take more time to rest my body and have a full summer of work.”

What are your summer plans?

“I’ll probably go on a trip to Europe with my girlfriend,” he said. “I’ve been there before to play hockey, but never on vacation. We also want to buy land at home (in Trois-Rivières) to build a house. So we will try to do it this summer.”

Montembeault deserves a break, both physically and mentally, after a roller coaster ride in the Canadiens’ backcourt this season that included a three-goalie rotation with Jake Allen and Cayden Primeau until Allen was traded to the New Jersey Devils at the deadline. of NHL trades. The 8th of March.

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Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes decided to keep three goaltenders to start the season because he believed Primeau would be claimed by another team if they attempted to send him to the AHL’s Laval Rocket and Montembeault was heading into the final season of his contract and had he has yet to solidify himself as a legitimate number one goalie. Allen still had one more season left on his contract.

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Montembeault’s contractual situation was resolved on December 1 when the 27-year-old agreed a three-year, $9.45 million contract extension which extends through the 2026-27 season with an annual salary cap of $3.15 million. Montembeault also showed he could be the number one goalie and Primeau did enough for Hughes to trust him as a backup heading into next season. Jacob Fowler waiting in the wings after an impressive season at Boston College. Fowler, 19, posted a 32-6-1 record with a 2.14 GAA and .926 save percentage as a college freshman after being drafted by the Canadiens in the third round (69th overall). overall) from last year’s NHL Draft.

Montembeault finished this season with a 16-15-9 record, a 3.14 GAA, and a .903 save percentage. There are three games he would like to make up: a 9-4 loss to the Bruins in Boston on Jan. 20, when he allowed eight goals on 30 shots, a 7-4 loss to the Rangers in New York on Feb. 15. when he allowed seven goals on 31 shots, and a 4-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Bell Center on April 6 when he allowed four goals on 12 shots before being replaced by Primeau. But Montembeault showed that he can give his team a chance to win almost every time he is in goal, which is what is expected of a number one goalkeeper.

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When asked if there was one word he could use to describe this season, Montembeault said, “One word… I don’t know? But I tried to be consistent all that time. That’s really something I tried to focus on from the beginning, trying to get better at that.”

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Montembeault has come a long way since former Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin claimed him off waivers from the Florida Panthers 11 days before the start of the 2021-22 season after realizing Carey Price wouldn’t be ready. to start the year due to a knee injury. Five days after Montembeault was claimed, Price announced that he would voluntarily enter the NHL/NHLPA player assistance program to deal with what he later said were alcohol problems.

Montembeault’s path to where he is now has not been easy. He wasn’t even invited to a Midget Triple-A tryout camp, but instead played one season of Bantam Double-B, followed by a year at Midget Espoir. He wasn’t even listed among the prospects for his first year of eligibility for the QMJHL Junior Draft in 2012 and was selected by Blainville-Boisbriand Navy in the third round (40th overall) the following year. The Panthers selected Montembeault in the third round (77th overall) of the 2015 NHL Draft.

Now Montembeault has one of the most pressured jobs in the NHL as the Canadiens’ number one goaltender, especially for a French-Canadian from Quebec. His calm personality fits the bill perfectly.

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“It’s crazy,” Montembeault said of his journey to where he is now. “When I play, I don’t really think about it. “I just try to stay focused on the game.”

But he has fully embraced the position he now occupies.

“There are times when I just try to take it all in and look everywhere (around the Bell Centre) and see that I am truly privileged to wear this jersey.”

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