The Montreal Canadiens had to recall Jacob Fowler from the AHL Laval Rocket after Sam Montembeault injured himself in practice on Wednesday. He will be out 10-14 days, according to head coach Martin St. Louis. Heading into the season, the plan was for Montembeault to back up Jakub Dobes. It makes sense not to carry three goalies, given how hard it is to find enough playing time.
Fowler played well in his first appearance of the 2026-27 season as the Montreal Canadiens fell 5-2 to the Nashville Predators, but the team wants to see how Montembeault can respond after a subpar performance to end last season.
As Dave Pagnotta of The Fourth Period said when he joined SiriusXM NHL Network Radio with Steve Kouleas and Martin Biron. He says the Montreal Canadiens want Sam Montembeault to back up Jakub Dobes so Jacob Fowler can develop into a backup or starter one day.
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Steve Kouleas: “Montembeault’s banged up. We don’t know how serious it is. Obviously, (Jacob) Fowler, because he could, didn’t have to clear waivers. Went to the minors. We saw Dylan Garand go through. Clay Stevenson did not, and now he’s the backup goalie in Winnipeg. How do you think the Montreal goalie situation plays itself out? (Jakub) Dobes had a good first game, but not the last two. What do you think about the crease possible conundrum in Montreal?”
Dave Pagnotta: “Well, Montembeault proves that he’s okay, and I think somebody in the locker room this morning joked that it was around the leg, so that it may have caught him in a rough spot, and that’s why he went down. But well, if he’s going to be good to go overall, then they still want to utilize him kind of as the backup. They want to allow Fowler to play consistent minutes as a number one and gain that positioning as the number one goaltender in terms of responsibility.
If Montembeault is still up to the task and is healthy, clearly priority number one, but also up to the task performance-wise. Then, best-case scenario for the Canadiens, you have Dobes as your guy and Montembeault backs him up, and Fowler kind of hones some skills and equals out. So we’ll see kind of how that evolves.
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But I think the Canadiens, for the most part, have been pretty okay with going into the season with this direction. Now it’s just a matter of making sure that Montembeault will be healthy and ready to go. But even if Fowler comes up for a bit and has to play a little until Montembeault is healthy, if he is hurt for an extended period, I still think that’s kind of the direction they’d love to go in this season. That would be a perfect world for them.”
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