The Canadiens have added to their goaltending depth as Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman is among those reporting (Twitter link) that they’ve claimed goaltender Samuel Montembeault off waivers from Florida.
The 24-year-old spent last season with Syracuse of the AHL on a split affiliation between the Panthers and Lightning. As a result, he was limited to just 13 games, posting a 2.86 GAA with a .898 SV% in that span. However, Montembeault does have some NHL experience under his belt, playing in 25 contests with Florida between 2018-19 and 2019-20. He started as Florida’s backup in 2019 before Chris Driedger forced his way onto the NHL roster, pushing Montembeault down at that time.
The Canadiens are currently without starting goaltender Carey Price who is still recovering from offseason knee surgery and this move would suggest that Montreal is at least hedging their bets against him not being ready to start the season. As things stand, Montembeault will back up veteran Jake Allen with prospects Cayden Primeau and Michael McNiven likely to be assigned to AHL Laval.
Montembeault is on a one-year, two-way contract that pays $750K in the NHL, $250K in the AHL, and has a guaranteed payment of $350K. He will be a restricted free agent with arbitration eligibility this summer.
Seems like an odd claim with Mcniven and Primeau on hand for depth.
Allen is going to start in Price’s absence. They want Primeau to play every night in Laval. It’s just a contingency option. McNiven could ride the pine In MTL but Montembeault has more NHL experience.
Canadians claim “insert french player name”
And the Blues traded for Logan Brown, who is from St. Louis. What’s your point? Teams always go for local guys. It appeases the natives and the player is more likely going to want to stick around. It’s the same reason the Leafs go after every Toronto-born player.