Now-ex-Montreal Canadiens goaltending coach Eric Raymond, who was let go Wednesday, had arguably both the good and bad fortune of having joined the team after its run to the 2021 Stanley Cup Final. In a season in which the Habs first faced life without Carey Price in net (for the first time in a decade and a half) and Shea Weber “retired,” expectations had been lowered significantly.
Montembeault Climbs Canadiens’ Depth Chart
With Price playing only five games that (final) season (of his playing career), the Canadiens relied largely on then-backup Jake Allen and waiver-wire pick-up Sam Montembeault. Of the total six goalies the Habs played that 2021-22 season, those were the two they leaned on the most, with Montembeault eventually emerging as the best in class, despite having effectively been a third-stringer American Hockey League goalie at the time, albeit one with some potential.
The Canadiens responded as you would expect considering the circumstances. The absence of two of the franchise’s pillars on top of the divisional realignment led to a last-place season during which their goalies put up underwhelming results to say the least. In 35 games, the since-departed Allen was 9-20-4 with a 3.30 goals-against average and a .905 save percentage. In a sign of things to come, Montembeault, a veteran of just 25 NHL games at the time, made a team-high 38 appearances, going 8-18-6 with a 3.77 GAA and .891 SV%, which obviously aren’t very good numbers.
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Ironically though, if Montembeault’s save percentage were around there, instead of the .868 it is currently, it’s possible Raymond, who was replaced by Marco Marciano (who’s being promoted from the AHL’s Laval Rocket on an interim basis) is still with the Canadiens. To illustrate, those 3.3 percentage points translate to 12 less goals allowed, and, while Montembeault has struggled significantly, if just one of the two he allowed late in his last start (a 4-3 loss to the divisional-rival Boston Bruins) fails to find the back of the net, head coach Martin St. Louis is probably playing him against the league-leading Colorado Avalanche on Thursday night as the team’s No. 1 for all intents and purposes.
The Laval Rocket do not have a replacement in place for goalie coach after Marco Marciano’s promotion.
— Marco D’Amico (@mndamico) January 28, 2026
Instead, after Jakub Dobes got the net against the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday and won, giving him a 6-0-1 record in his last seven games, it was clear what needed to happen, despite his pedestrian .890 SV% on the season. Firstly, Dobes must get the start. Secondly, the Canadiens need to rely on the Czech rookie more, because expectations have simply put heightened.
Canadiens Face Heightened Expectations
A season after surprisingly making the postseason, the Canadiens obviously have designs on improving on that finish in some capacity in 2025-26. And they’re not going to get there with Montembeault’s 80th-ranked -7.9 goals saved above expected (per MoneyPuck.com). It’s a dramatic change in fortune based on how he performed last season, when he was among the league’s leaders in that category, going on to make Team Canada at the mid-season 4 Nations Face-Off tournament.
While Montembeault didn’t play (with Team Canada deferring to St. Louis Blues goalie Jordan Binnington, who’s actually playing worse than the former this season), that honour along with how he backstopped his country to a gold medal at the 2023 Internal Ice Hockey Federation World Championship both show Montembeault’s aforementioned potential. Further proof comes in the form of how, after returning from briefly working with Marciano last month after a “conditioning assignment,“ he immediately starting putting up decent numbers. Starting Dec. 30, he went 3-0-1, with a .917 SV%. He even won his next game against the Ottawa Senators, just much less impressively.
Montembeault allowed five goals on 34 shots in that game, as the team in front of him rallied to overcome a two-goal deficit in the final five minutes. The Canadiens forced overtime and took advantage of an opposing goalie having an even worse go of it this season than him for the victory. That the Habs gave the net back to him after Dobes won the next game went to show he was still their guy and that results matter the most. After he then lost his two next games to the Buffalo Sabres, yet another division rival, and Bruins, a change was necessary.
If this is how Montembeault plays after spending extended periods of time being coached by Raymond, clearly he head to be replaced, because the issues in net for the team extend beyond Montembeault. He’s just the worst example, unfortunately. However, if Montembeault can be as good as he was coming back from working with Marciano, it’s at least worth taking a chance on him at the NHL level.
Dobes Must Be the Guy in Canadiens’ Net
In the meantime, Dobes is the guy in net. He has to be for the foreseeable future, until the Olympic break at least. And, if it so happens that the team’s goaltending improves drastically, similar to the Toronto Maple Leafs’ power play after they fired assistant-coach Marc Savard earlier this season, that’s something to revisit, with their next set of back-to-back games scheduled for March 6-7 (Anaheim Ducks, Los Angeles Kings, both on the road).
Keep in mind, when the Canadiens fired ex-goaltending coach Stephane Waite back in 2021, replacing him with Sean Burke, Price had an .893 SV%. He rebounded to post one of .901 in the regular season before putting up a Conn Smythe Trophy-calibre performance in the postseason, during which he had one of .924. Raymond came on soon thereafter. And the rest, for better or worse, is history. It shouldn’t be lost on anyone that the Canadiens’ offense is near the top of the league and the defense is giving up a ninth-ranked 27.0 shots against per game.
The defense may not be perfect, but the goaltending is clearly the team’s weak spot and it needed to be addressed. Now that it has, at least with a Band-Aid? Things should get better, which would be impressive, based on their current 29-17-7 record. Clearly, “good enough” isn’t. And that should be applauded, even if that applause comes at Raymond’s expense. Regardless, something had to happen sooner or later. After one too many Montembeault slumps, sooner was the better option. And he hasn’t been playing nearly well enough to be traded. Someone else had to go.
