Montreal Canadiens goaltender Jakub Dobes has found his way on the NHL Network top 10 goaltender list on the back of a great rookie season and an impressive playoff run.
After seeing Cole Caufield make the NHL Network’s top 20 wingers right now list in ninth place and Lane Hutson land in sixth place on their top 20 defensemen right now list, the Montreal Canadiens saw Jakub Dobes crack the top 10 goaltenders list on Sunday night.
It’s surprising to see the rookie goaltender land on the list after just one full season in the league and one in which he did experience some struggles, despite leading all rookie goaltenders in wins. Still, the fact that he was able to crack the list speaks to the fact that there aren’t that many superstar goaltenders these days in the NHL. Gone are the days of Patrick Roy, Martin Brodeur, Dominik Hašek, and Curtis Joseph. A lot of teams now bet on a tandem of goalies rather than put all their eggs in one main goaltender's basket.
To justify Dobes’ selection, NHL Network notes that he dominated all rookie goaltenders with 29 wins, while posting a 2.78 goals-against average and a .901 save percentage. While that is impressive, it’s worth mentioning that only four rookie netminders, including Dobes, started over 30 games last season and could therefore hope to have as many wins as the Habs’ goaltender. Yaroslav Askarov had 21, Artus Silovs had 19, and Jesper Wallstedt had 18.
The article also mentions the fact that Dobes started all 19 playoff games for the Habs and took them all the way to the Eastern Conference final, on top of becoming the fifth goaltender in franchise history to win a Game 7, joining Carey Price, Patrick Roy, Ken Dryden and Jacques Plante, which is some pretty elite company. The article seems to have forgotten that Jaroslav Halak also won a couple of Game 7s with the Habs against the Washington Capitals and the Pittsburgh Penguins back in 2010.
Dobes is not the only rookie to have found his way into the top-10 list, as Wallstedt lands in ninth place. Dan Vladar grabs the eighth spot, Jake Oettinger the seventh, Logan Thompson the sixth, Jeremy Swayman the fifth, Ilya Sorokin the fourth, Igor Shesterkin the third, Connor Hellebuyck the second and Andrei Vasilevskiy the first.
It will be interesting to see what the list looks like next year, especially if Dobes can make his sophomore season as successful as his playoff run. As things stand, the Czech netminder will without a doubt be the Canadiens’ first-choice goaltender this season, whether he is backed up by Samuel Montembeault or by Jakub Dobes.
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