The Canadiens’ season is over.
The club has a travel day today, and we can expect the players to empty their lockers tomorrow (meeting with management and the media).
From there, many will head home. But who will still be playing this season?
One has to wonder if any of the players will be heading for the World Championship. Lane Hutson, Cole Caufield, Nick Suzuki, Kaiden Guhle, Mike Matheson, Juraj Slafkovsky, Joel Armia and Patrik Laine are candidates.
But others will be heading for Laval. And I’m not talking about Ivan Demidov.
No
– Anthony Marcotte (@anthonymarcotte) May 1, 2025
The three most likely candidates to go and play with the Rocket are Oliver Kapanen, Jakub Dobes and Cayden Primeau. All three are eligible, and the CH should take advantage.
And it’s the goaltending tip that interests us most. After all, even if we send Luke Cavallin back to Trois-Rivières and try to account for Carey Price ‘s injury Samuel Montembeault Connor Hughes, there’s still a lot to do down there in front of the net.
In addition to Dobes and Primeau, who played down low during the season, the Rocket are currently counting on Jacob Fowler, a top CH prospect.
With Samuel Montembeault injured and Cayden Primeau recalled, Fowler had the net yesterday. And in his first playoff game in the pros, he went out and won.
The Rocket scored three unanswered goals to defeat the Monsters 3-2 and take a 1-0 series lead
The Rocket scored three unanswered goals to win 3-2 over the Monsters and take a 1-0 lead in the series
– xyz – Rocket de Laval (@RocketLaval) May 1, 2025
But the question for the Rocket, who are two wins away from advancing to the next round, is whether Pascal Vincent will want to give the net back to Cayden Primeau, who has been historically good since Christmas for the club-school.
In Anthony Marcotte’s eyes, the answer is yes. He’s said it many times (even before Game #1): the net belongs to Primeau.
Good question. I think the net belongs to Primeau, no matter how Game 1 turns out. But I’m not the one making those decisions.
– Anthony Marcotte (@anthonymarcotte) April 29, 2025
Pascal Vincent is in a position where he can potentially, if Dobes is really an option, send three excellent goalies in front of the net. There’s potentially no wrong answer here.
We’ll see what happens.
But you’d understand why he’d give Primeau, who took him to the playoffs, the chance to take over his net… without giving him all the leeway in the world if things go wrong.
i expect Primeau to be the #1 goalie, but I don’t think we’ve seen the last of Fowler in the playoffs this season.
– Will the 2007 scenario be repeated?
No pressure or anything, but last time the Montreal Canadiens’ AHL affiliate had a young goaltender start for them in the playoffs after joining the team was Carey Price in 2007, and we know how that went. No pressure, Jacob Fowler. pic.twitter.com/WznfYAO2Jg
– Andrew Zadarnowski (@AZadarski) April 30, 2025
– Nice moment yesterday.
Pierre-Luc Dubois feels like he’s come full circle in the most beautiful way with his “brother” David Savard
https://t.co/2XgJL4 GuYx pic.twitter.com/DIB7vSYCEO
– NHL (@NHL_EN) May 1, 2025
– Finally.
It’s about time. https://t.co/1s76WDl30H
– Passion MLB (@passion_mlb) May 1, 2025
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