Player Discussion Sam "Dikembe" Montembeault

[Tetragrammaton]

26 years old, 6'3" 215 lbs, fast reflexes, athletic, very high compete level, never gets rattled.

We have a good one here. Montreal always finds a way to get good goaltenders. He fits our core window perfectly.

 

[Tyson]

26 years old, 6'3" 215 lbs, fast reflexes, athletic, very high compete level, never gets rattled.

We have a good one here. Montreal always finds a way to get good goaltenders. He fits our core window perfectly.

Cautiously optimistic and I see some good upside.

 

[Tetragrammaton]

Cautiously optimistic and I see some good upside.

With a solid defense in front of him I think he's the real deal.

 

[Tyson]

With a solid defense in front of him I think he's the real deal.

He has really improved. You may be right. I would be ecstatic

 

[Tetragrammaton]

He has really improved. You may be right. I would be ecstatic

He passes the eye test, even with a bad defense. Even when hes hung out to dry and gets blown out he still battles hard. Great attitude. He continues to improve, 26 is a great age for a goalie, he potentially has another 6-7 or more prime years left in him.

The 2024 / 2025 season roster: Ready for the playoffs and to start competing for the Cup if everything goes right.

Dubois - Dach - Caufield
Slafkovsky - Suzuki - Michkov/Dvorsky
Roy - Beck - Mesar
Harvey P - Farrell - Anderson

Guhle - Barron
Hutson - Xhekaj
Matheson - Mailloux

Montembault
Primeau

 

[Nedved]

With a solid defense in front of him I think he's the real deal.

I hope he plays 80% of the 2nd half of the season.

He passes the eye test, even with a bad defense. Even when hes hung out to dry and gets blown out he still battles hard. Great attitude. He continues to improve, 26 is a great age for a goalie, he potentially has another 6-7 or more prime years left in him.

The 2024 / 2025 season roster: Ready for the playoffs and to start competing for the Cup if everything goes right.

Dubois - Dach - Caufield
Slafkovsky - Suzuki - Michkov/Dvorsky
Roy - Beck - Mesar
Harvey P - Farrell - Anderson

Guhle - Barron
Hutson - Xhekaj
Matheson - Mailloux

Montembault
Primeau

that d is just awful. Markov, hammer, subban, days are long gone.

 

[Tetragrammaton]

Sam "the real deal" Montembeault

26 years old, fits our core just fine.

 

[Tyson]

Sam "the real deal" Montembeault

26 years old, fits our core just fine.

I am starting to think it's very possible. You put a good team in front of him and he won't disappoint

 

[Goalfield13]

Thanks for this one, MB!

 

[Rapala]

I am starting to think it's very possible. You put a good team in front of him and he won't disappoint

Anderson said RHP is making a name for himself you have to think Montembault is getting discussed in a good way as well.

 

[Lshap]

Full credit to Montembeault. In 15 months he's gone from terrible to solid to good. No idea if he'll be consistent enough to be our next Starting Goalie, but he's earned a spot somewhere on the roster moving forward.

 

[The Great Weal]

Full credit to Montembeault. In 15 months he's gone from terrible to solid to good. No idea if he'll be consistent enough to be our next Starting Goalie, but he's earned a spot somewhere on the roster moving forward.

He's already a good backup. I don't think the consistency is there for a starter. He had some good stretches last year too. People calling him an AHLer and that he sucks are out to lunch.

 

[Tetragrammaton]

He's already a good backup. I don't think the consistency is there for a starter. He had some good stretches last year too. People calling him an AHLer and that he sucks are out to lunch.

What extra consistency could he have possibly showed us with the bad defense he's had in front of him? If he was on a contending team he'd be in the Vesina discussion.

 

[Dach Vader]

It's great to see him having success. Easy player to like,

Really curious to see how he looks next year.

 

[Tetragrammaton]

@zeeto His saves above expected are one of the best in the league, he doesn't have any obvious flaws, he's a tough goalies to beat WITH a bad defense in front of him.

 

[HabzSauce]

I'm spoiled because of Price - my standards now for goalies is basically we need a top 5 goalie. Like Vasy, Sheshterkin, Sorokin, Ottenger, Saros. No better feeling than having a stone wall in the net backing your team up.

Montembault ain't that guy, but in fairness he's playing very well behind a systemless rookie defence corps. If it weren't for him, we'd easily be bottom 5 I think.

I've always liked him from his Florida days and was very happy when we signed him. Thought he would be the best backup in the league. I like how solid he looks. Always in position. Never shaky either - seems very mentally sound. So calm.

I only question his ceiling, and consistency/ability to handle a starting workload. He still has to prove that.

If he can handle more games, and he maintains this level of play from this season - are we happy with him as our starter moving forward?

I'd imagine his cap hit would still be cheap too! Personally I'd love that. Assuming he maintains level + increase in games.

With that said, I'm really hoping he has another gear to him. He'd solve all our goalie problems just like that! At a cheap cap so we have more space for rest of the team.

 

[Tyson]

No one saw Montembeault developing this well after the Habs claimed him.

Really happy that he is becoming a decent NHL goalie for the Habs.

 

[Leon Lucius Black]

The tough thing about Monty is he'll become a UFA after next year. If he continues to improve, he could generate some interest around the league due to only being 27 and showing he might have some untapped potential. Just last summer, a 27 year old Ville Husso turned one decent 40 game season and getting lit up in the playoffs into a 3 year deal at almost $5M a year. Jack Campbell was another late bloomer who got paid as a UFA and now sucks ass.

Monty has definitely improved a lot, but he's playing on a team not expected to win and also he's on a cheap deal so he doesn't have high expectations.

If he continues to progress I would want to keep him on an Anton Forsberg type of deal (~3 x $2.75M) before he becomes a UFA. But with several young players needing to get paid in the future, I would be skeptical about getting into a bidding war for him given no one knows how he'll handle the additional pressure of playing on a more competitive team and having higher expectations with a larger deal.

 

[Team_Spirit]

Just saw the latest Harvey-Pinard interview on RDS...Sam's nickname is: SNACKS

mfw someone ate the last cookie

 

[Vachon23]

Montembeault is gonna be the goalie for Team Canada

 

[Whitesnake]

I received the info yesterday about Monty but was told not to share it...lol

 

[Artaud]

I received the info yesterday about Monty but was told not to share it...lol

Thanks for sharing after the news broke though!

 

[Whitesnake]

Thanks for sharing after the news broke though!

Well at the very least....it's a confirmation. Monty hesitated 'cause at some point, he thought relaxing was in order but just couldn't pass over that opportunity.

 

[Mad]

Last season I was pretty vocal about him. I liked that he never gave up after a bad goal, and he would always make big saves before giving an other bad one.

Didn’t expect him to be more than a number 2 (and not a great one at it), but this season he did show a lot of improvement in his lateral movement and technique.

Not sure how much of it is real, or if it’s mostly smoke from a player who overachieved.

It’s good that he took the invitation for the world championship, he’ll get to play on one if not the best team of the tournament, so no excuses of playing behind a bad team that gives a lot of chances.

Hopefully he does well and keeps trending in the right direction, even though I still believe that if he’s your number 1 next season you’re in trouble.

 

[expy]

Montembeault is gonna be the goalie for Team Canada

Welp