Montreal Canadiens: A real slap in the face for Samuel Montembeault
Since winning gold with Team Canada at last year's World Championship, Samuel Montembeault has gained considerable recognition and is now seen as a good goaltender.
Despite the Canadiens finishing 28th in the overall standings, he ended the season with a positive record of 16 wins, 15 losses, and 9 overtime losses. This is remarkable considering the team in front of him, and he is expected to share the net with Cayden Primeau for the next three seasons.
Montembeault's goals-against average has been decreasing yearly, and his save percentage has been improving, which is very positive news despite the Canadiens' static position in the standings.
Returning to his gold medal, Samuel was regarded as one of the best goalies in the world by his peers, which is significant.
However, in a recent poll involving 1,837 fans, Samuel did not fare well. It seems the poor quality of the Canadiens has led to him being underestimated, as he didn't even make the list of the top 32 goalies in the league.
This means that even some backup goalies are ranked ahead of him, which is a real slap in the face. Frederik Andersen and Stuart Skinner are ranked 13th and 14th, respectively, while Montembeault is at 34th.
This makes little sense, especially since these two teams would have loved to have Samuel in net during the last playoffs.
As for Cayden Primeau, he didn't even make the top 64, meaning that even some third-string goalies are ranked higher than him.
| POLL | ||
In your opinion, should Samuel Montembeault be considered one of the top 20 goaltenders in the NHL? | ||
| Yes | 237 | 58.8 % |
| No | 166 | 41.2 % |
| List of polls | ||
