On Monday, The Athletic released its annual NHL Goalie Tiers rankings, and Montreal Canadiens’ starter Samuel Montembeault has made a significant jump in the rankings compared to where he was last year.
Jesse Granger’s ranking includes five different tiers of goaltenders: world-class, high-level starter, strong tandem starter, Unproven or tandem goalies, and 1B or quality backups. Only four masked men found their way to the top tier: Igor Shesterkin, Connor Hellebuyck, Andrei Vasilevskiy, and Sergei Bobrovsky. Six netminders are in the second tier: Jake Oettinger, Ilya Sorokin, Jordan Binnington, Jeremy Swayman, Juuse Saros, and Calder Trophy runner-up, Dustin Wolf.
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Canadiens’ starter Montembeault finds himself in the third tier and takes 18th place overall in this year’s edition of the rankings. Last season, he was in the fourth tier and in 26th place overall. There’s no denying that the goalie improved by leaps and bounds last season, posting a goals-against average of 2.80. It was the first time in his career that he found himself under the 3.00 mark. His save percentage stood at .902, just one point below his 2024-25 record. He also posted four shutouts; before that season, he only had a single one to his name from the 2021-22 season.
He was third in goals saved above expected last season behind the Winnipeg Jets’ Hellebuyck and the Toronto Maple Leafs’ Anthony Stolarz. Montembeault received high praise from the panel used by The Athletic, with one retired goalie stating that not many goaltenders can steal a game with a 50-save shutout, but that the Canadiens’ starter can. Another panelist said that he was close to a high-level starter for him.
The article goes on to suggest that what he could improve on, however, is the number of acrobatics saves he’s forced to make. Better positioning and a focus on the technical aspects of his craft could refine this. Still, going from 26th to 18th overall is a big jump, and there’s no doubt that his inclusion on the Team Canada roster for the 4 Nations Face-Off must have helped as well.
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