MONTREAL — Samuel Montembeault’s redemption tour has been postponed.
That news appeared imminent when the goaltender suffered a non-contact injury at Wednesday’s practice and limped off the ice unable to put the bulk of his weight on his right side, and it was confirmed by the Montreal Canadiens Friday.
It’s a tough blow for them, no doubt.
But it’s a tougher one for Montembeault, who went from being just 31 hours away from making his first start for the Canadiens in 216 days to suddenly needing to undergo an MRI.
Nearly every second in between was focused on rebuilding the confidence shattered from last October to March, and now the 29-year-old must undertake another rehabilitation process.
Thankfully it’s much shorter than what it could’ve been.
But you still can’t help but feel for Montembeault.
Cole Caufield agreed on Thursday morning when he was asked about seeing Montembeault go down at Wednesday’s practice.
“It was tough,” the Canadiens winger said. “Honestly, nobody really knew what happened, and still not too sure honestly. Wish him the best right now.”
The best would’ve been for Montembeault to take to the starter’s net at Bell Centre against the Nashville Predators after a brilliant training camp and pre-season appeared to set him up to begin authoring a great comeback story.
He had the NHL’s fifth-best goals-saved-above-expected average in 2024-25—a season that saw him make 62 appearances and carry the Canadiens to an unexpected playoff berth just three years into their rebuild—and was determined to climb his way back up to that level.
But this injury knocked Montembeault back into the opening of the hole he had worked so hard to get out of.
It was dug deep, as he fell from starter to third stringer — posting a 10-8-4 record and an extremely unflattering .872 save percentage — and now he must dust off the pickaxes again just to grind his way back up to the surface.
Montembeault was standing there before Wednesday.
“I feel really good,” he said to Sportsnet during the first week of camp. “When I wasn’t playing during the playoffs, I had a lot of time to work in the gym and build my body back up. Did work with our mental coach, focused on my breathing and just battling more for every shot.”
The work was setting the goaltender up to give the Canadiens a veteran presence behind 25-year-old starter Jakub Dobes and buy them time with 21-year-old Jacob Fowler, who started the season strong in the American Hockey League before being recalled to Montreal Wednesday afternoon.
The Canadiens stood to benefit from Fowler playing more frequently in Laval rather than backing up Dobes in Montreal through the first few weeks. It would’ve helped them to have Montembeault back up Dobes while also building on his strong showing through September to start building his value back up right away in October.
In the last year of a deal paying him only $3.15 million, the chances of Montembeault netting the Canadiens a decent asset ahead of the March trade deadline would’ve greatly increased with his rebound.
But unfortunately for them, that’s all on pause now.
“You never want to see anybody go down with an injury,” Caufield said. “Especially a guy like that that’s worked to get his game back and looked pretty good.”
At least Montembeault won’t be out too long.
And provided his rehab goes according to plan, there’s hope he can pick up where he left off, which was in a much better place than when we last saw him in regular-season action.
