The Canadiens announced Friday morning that they have called up goalie Jakub Dobes from the AHL’s Laval Rocket.
In 14 games this season with the Rocket, the 23-year-old Dobes has a 9-3-1 record with a 2.44 goals-against average and a .910 save percentage.
Samuel Montembeault has started in goal for the Canadiens’ last 10 games as the team lost confidence in backup goalie Cayden Primeau, who has a 2-3-1 record this season with a 4.70 GAA and an .836 save percentage. Montembeault has a 12-14-2 record with a 2.94 GAA and a .900 save percentage.
Montembeault has played in 28 games this season, which is tied for the NHL lead with the Winnipeg Jets’ Connor Hellebuyck and the Nashville Predators’ Juuse Saros. Montembeault is the only NHL goalie to make 10 consecutive starts this season.
The Canadiens are coming off a three-day Christmas break and were flying to Florida Friday morning with a practice scheduled for 2 p.m. ahead of Saturday’s game against the Panthers (1 p.m. TSN2, RDS).
The Canadiens will play the Lightning Sunday in Tampa (5 p.m., TSN2, RDS). With the back-to-back games, expect Dobes to make his first NHL start in one of them.
The Canadiens selected the 6-foot-5, 215-pound Dobes in the fifth round (156th overall) of the 2020 NHL Draft. Dobes, who played two seasons at Ohio State University, played 51 games last season with the Rocket, posting a 24-18-6 record with a 2.93 GAA and a .906 save percentage.
Last season the Canadiens went with a three-goalie system that included Montembeault, Primeau and Jake Allen.
The reason the Canadiens kept three goalies is because GM Kent Hughes was convinced another NHL team would select Primeau on waivers if he tried to send him down to Laval. Hughes traded the veteran Allen to the New Jersey Devils ahead of last season’s NHL trade deadline on March 8 in exchange for a conditional third-round pick at the 2025 NHL Draft.
This season Allen has a 5-5-1 record with the Devils, along with a 2.70 GAA and a .900 save percentage.