MONTREAL — The Montreal Canadiens made a difficult and debatable call in net Sunday, trimming their roster to the maximum 23 players ahead of the regular season and keeping veteran Sam Montembeault over rookie Jacob Fowler. Montreal sent down 19 players in total, with nine placed on waivers, and elected to carry Montembeault after he allowed a single goal on 35 shots in three preseason appearances for a .971 save percentage, compared to Fowler's three goals on 28 shots for an .893 save percentage.
The decision was as much logistical as statistical. Fowler is exempt from waivers while Montembeault would have to clear them, and the Canadiens took the easier route. The club also went with seven defensemen, keeping prospect Adam Engstrom — who played 15 NHL games last season — over 2023 fifth-overall pick David Reinbacher, and carried 14 forwards after promoting Florian Xhekaj. Montembeault has a single year left under contract before becoming an unrestricted free agent, while Fowler had begun to establish himself as an NHL regular last season and is viewed as the goalie of the future.
The preseason margin was slim — just two goals separated the two goalies against incomplete NHL rosters. On Saturday against the Ottawa Senators, Montembeault faced only three NHL regulars in Ben Hutton, Nikolas Matinpalo and Ridly Greig, with Greig the lone forward and the only one of the three to score more than six goals last season when he tied his career-high with 13. Context also cuts against a definitive read: Montembeault is coming off a difficult 2025-26 regular season with a 10-8-4 record, 3.43 goals-against average and .872 save percentage, and his 2025 preseason .877 save percentage in three appearances looks different if you remove the five goals allowed in a 7-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs — a team that did not make the playoffs — which would lift that preseason mark to .938.
History cautions against overreading September. Hockey Hall of Famer Carey Price infamously told fans to "chill out" back in 2010 as a 23-year-old after allowing four goals on nine shots in a 4-2 preseason loss to the Boston Bruins, then posted a 38-28-6 record with a 2.35 GAA and .923 save percentage in 2010-11, his best season to that point. With the Canadiens having traded Jaroslav Halak the previous offseason, Price was always going to make that team. The same applies this year to Jakub Dobes, who helped lead Montreal to the playoffs and to Round 3 last season and was always going to make the roster despite posting the worst preseason numbers of the three goalies at .857 save percentage. Montembeault last played on the night of last season's trade deadline, allowing five goals on 33 shots in a 6-5 shootout loss to the Anaheim Ducks.
Montreal consciously went with a Dobes-Fowler tandem in the playoffs, the two goalies the team trusted most when the stakes were highest. Montembeault did put together a strong 2024-25 at 31-23-7 with a 2.80 GAA and .902 save percentage, finishing among the league leaders in goals saved above expected, but that stands as the only season in his five with the club in which he stood out statistically. By keeping Montembeault, who was the starter for most of last season, the Canadiens are signaling a 1A/1B split with Dobes, and any significant starts given to Montembeault are starts that, from a big-picture view past 2026-27, could have gone to Fowler.