The Canadiens announced that they’ve relieved goaltending coach Eric Raymond of his duties. They’ve promoted AHL Laval goalie coach Marco Marciano to the big club for the remainder of the season in an interim capacity.
After receiving spectacular goaltending on their way to a surprise playoff berth last year, Montreal’s crease has been in disarray for much of the season. Sam Montembeault rode a breakout season in 2024-25 to a spot on Team Canada at the 4 Nations Face-Off, and deservedly so. He was one of the most-used goalies in the league at 60 starts and two relief appearances, and he backed that up with a 31-24-7 record, .901 SV%, 2.82 GAA, and a spectacular 24.6 goals saved above expected, per MoneyPuck. He finished eighth in Vezina Trophy voting and looked to be a surefire starting option heading into this year.
Instead, the 29-year-old has played poorly enough to surrender the lion’s share of starts to 24-year-old Jakub Dobes, who’s still been below-average in his own right. Montembeault has a porous .869 SV% in 20 starts while Dobes, who’s ridden some strong goal support to a 16-5-3 record in 24 outings, has a .890 mark with a 2.96 GAA. Together, they’ve combined to allow 9.2 goals above expected, with Montembeault accounting for 7.9 of them, per MoneyPuck.
Regardless of whether Raymond is the one taking the brunt of the blame for that regression, the Habs clearly feel a change is needed. Raymond, a Montreal native, had been with the club since the 2021-22 season and was in his fifth year in the role. It was his first stop as an NHL goalie coach, but he’d spent time in the Rangers organization as their AHL goalie coach and had extensive experience in the role in the QMJHL.
They’ll now turn to Marciano, who got his start in the organization way back in 2013 as the video coach for their AHL affiliate, then the Hamilton Bulldogs. When the team relocated to St. John’s in 2015, he was promoted to assistant goalie coach and again to goalie coach for Laval after another relocation in 2017. This year, he’s overseen an exceptional transition to pro hockey for top prospect Jacob Fowler, who’s posted a .912 SV% and 2.35 GAA in 19 showings with a 12-7-0 record and three shutouts. The 21-year-old also spent some time up with the Habs in December and January and outperformed both Montembeault and Dobes, logging a .902 SV% in 10 outings with 1.8 GSAx.
Not his fault. Montembeault is a jag.
Montreal is a playoff team even with poor goaltending, imagine if Montembeault had been even marginally acceptable.
If the playoffs started today , canadien would take the Canes and would be out in 5 🤣