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Samuel Montembeault is currently with the Laval Rocket. As you probably know, he was traded to the Rocket for conditioning purposes.
He will play in Cleveland on Thursday and/or Saturday before joining the Canadiens in Pittsburgh on Sunday. It's a long way from the Olympic dream at this point… but hey.
Of course, Martin St-Louis publicly defended his goaltender, saying he was confident the Québécois would regain his confidence. The coach wasn't going to say otherwise, but still: it's worth noting.
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But what next?
If things go well for Samuel Montembeault, he could regain his confidence to become an NHL-caliber goalie again. A bit like Tristan Jarry, in fact.
I'd counter that last year, Tristan Jarry was put up for waivers by Pitts before being passed over by the 31 other teams. He has just been acquired by the Oilers, who paid a big price for him. As Yogi used to say: it ain't over till it's over #habs https://t.co/vWjpF3ia5y
– Francois Gagnon (@GagnonFrancois) December 17, 2025
What if things don't go well (which wouldn't be good for his confidence) in Cleveland?
There's a world in which the Canadiens, eventually, might consider sending Monty to waivers. I don't think the club is at that point, since the risk of losing him is too great in my eyes, but the question does arise.
Yes, it does. And if Montembeault finds his feet and can share the workload with Fowler, Dobes can go to Laval without any administrative headaches (waivers). If Montembeault doesn't get his act together, he could be submitted to waivers… #habs https://t.co/pHJ9uEF9xw
– Francois Gagnon (@GagnonFrancois) December 17, 2025
As I said, I don't believe in waivers. Kent Hughes knows he needs his veteran and the Habs GM hates to lose assets for nothing in his organization.
But at this point, we have to talk about it.
And on that subject, it's interesting to note that on TSN, people in Toronto started asking the question: would Samuel Montembeault be an option for the Leafs if Anthony Stolarz were to go on the long-term injured list?
The question concerned waivers, since the guys are talking about “claiming” Montembeault in a fairly hypothetical scenario.
You can listen to it here, right after the guys don't get the bit about Monty being in a reconditioning stage “because they can't read French” and not making it clear that the goalie isn't currently on waivers.
What a great TV moment. And what a great understanding of the game being played on the second floor.
“Let's get crazy. If Stolarz goes on LTIR, would the Maple Leafs claim Samuel Montembeault?”@mike_p_johnson and the guys hypothetically discuss if Toronto would go after Samuel Montembeault. #GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/U7AH601OiJ
– OverDrive (@OverDrive1050) December 16, 2025
extension
But hey. Regardless of how it came about, to see that the idea of getting Montembeault out of Montreal is starting to gain traction across the league shows that the situation is being talked about on a larger scale than just Quebec.
For Toronto to be interested in the Canadiens, it has to be big. Right?
