Canadiens grab a new goaltender off waivers.

The Habs have a new goalkeeper.

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HockeyFeed
Published 2 years ago
Canadiens grab a new goaltender off waivers.
Steve Mitchell-USA Today Sports

The Montreal Canadiens have acquired themselves a new goaltender.

According to a breaking news report from National Hockey League insider Elliotte Friedman, the Canadiens have claimed goaltender Samuel Montembeault off of waivers. Montembeault, along with a significant number of other players, was placed on waivers on Friday as teams begin to sort out their rosters ahead of the upcoming regular season.

Prior to being waived Montembeault had spent his entire career as a member of the Florida Panthers, the team that waived him Friday. The Panthers drafted Montembeault in the 3rd round (77th overall) of the 2015 NHL Entry Draft and he has bounced around between the NHL and the American Hockey League ever since. 

Montembeault's numbers in the NHL are nothing to write home about. The 24 year old goalkeeper has 25 career NHL games under his belt, split across two seasons, and a career 3.20 goals against average and an .892 save percentage over that stretch of play.

His numbers in the American Hockey League last season, as a member of the Syracuse Crunch, did not inspire a great deal of confidence either. Montembeault would appear in 13 games for the Crunch and over those games he posted a 2.86 goals against average and a .898 save percentage.

It has to be mentioned, because we are talking about the Montreal Canadiens here, that Montembeault is a native of Becancour, Quebec. I have no knowledge that would lead me to suspect that the Canadiens have made this move because Montembeault is from Quebec, but given the organization's history on this particular topic I do believe that it likely did play a role in the decision to claim him.

It was not very long ago that a big fuss was made in the city of Montreal, especially in the French speaking media, about the fact that the Canadiens had for the first time fielded a roster without a single player born in Quebec featured on it. No doubt the Canadiens would like to avoid that kind of negative publicity again in the future, and adding a potential backup goaltender from the area would certainly be one way to potentially get around that issue moving forward.

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