The NHL Network has already released a top-20 wingers and a top-20 defensemen list right now, with Montreal Canadiens Cole Caufield (ninth) and Lane Hutson (sixth) cracking those rankings. On Sunday night, they’ll be releasing their top-10 goalies list right now, and one can wonder if the Habs will have a player on that list as well. After the year he’s had, Samuel Montembeault is obviously as far away from the list as a goaltender could be, but what about Jakub Dobes?
The Czech netminder started the year as the backup goaltender, and as coach Martin St-Louis kept giving Montembeault second chances, it looked like Dobes’ confidence was affected. However, once the Habs realized that this just wasn’t Montembeault’s season and called up Jacob Fowler before also bringing on Marco Marciano as a goalie coach to replace Eric Raymond, he bounced back and grabbed the number one job.
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At the end of the regular season, Dobes had a 2.78 goals-against average and a .901 save percentage. He was 22nd in GAA amongst goalies who had played at least 35 games, and his SV was 20th amongst the same group. However, he was 12th in wins, claiming 29 wins in just 43 games for a 67% winning percentage. He might not have always done it perfectly, but Dobes found ways to win games. Andrei Vasilevskiy, who had the highest number of wins with 39, needed 58 games to get there. That’s also a 67% winning percentage. Karel Vejmelka, who had 38 wins, did so while playing in 64 games, meaning he won 60% of his duels. Jake Oettinger wraps up the top three in wins with 35 in 54 games for a 65% winning percentage. From that standpoint, Dobes deserves to be in the top-10 goalie conversation.
Furthermore, in the playoffs, he was sixth in GAA among goalies who played at least 10 games, with a 2.66 GAA and fifth in SV among the same group, with a .908 SV. As we’ve seen in the last two rankings released by the NHL Network, recent playoff performance can have an impact on those. Winger Mitch Marner landed in fourth place in the wingers ranking after putting off what would likely have been a Conn Smythe-worthy performance (29 points in 22 games, seven points ahead of the second-highest scorer) had the Vegas Golden Knights won the Stanley Cup. However, someone like Marner has a 10-year track record.
Dobes has only played in the NHL for two seasons (he played 16 games in 2024-25 and had a 2.74 GAA and a .909 SV), so the panel might feel he doesn’t have enough of a track record. Last season, the top 10 goalies according to NHL Network all had a lot of mileage. Connor Hellebuyck finished first and had played in 10 NHL seasons. Vasilevskiy was second and had played in 11 seasons; Igor Shesterkin was third and had played in six seasons; Sergei Bobrovsky was fourth, having played for 15 seasons; and Oettinger wrapped up the top five while having played in five NHL seasons. Looking at the rest of the top 10, no goaltender had less than five seasons of experience.
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Taking that into account, it seems unlikely that NHL Network will put him on the list. It may be called the top 10 goalie list right now, but past performances do have an impact. However, if Dobes puts together a season as good as his last playoff performance was, I wouldn’t be shocked to see him on the list next year despite his limited experience because he would have proven he wasn’t a flash in the pan. In other words, it’s a no for now on Dobes, but that could change.
In the years to come, if Jacob Fowler develops as expected, it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibilities to see two Canadiens goaltenders crack that list, as long as Kent Hughes doesn’t decide to sacrifice a goalie to fill another need, of course.
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