After a few days without being able to talk to each other, I’m certainly glad the site is back up and running again so we can enjoy talking about hockey together on the Habs thread.

Despite the holiday break slowing things down in the NHL, the Canadiens announced that Jakub Dobes had been recalled from the Laval Rockets.

This decision shouldn’t come as a surprise considering the troubles Cayden Primeau, who’s currently the statistically worst goaltender in the NHL with a 4,70 GAA and a .836 save percentage, has been having all season long. Martin St-louis pretty much confirmed the team didn’t trust Primeau between the pipes anymore as Samuel Montembeault started the team’s last 20 games, including back-to-back and three games in four nights situations.

The team has yet to announce Primeau will be put on waivers but that’s likely only until the NHL roster freeze ends tomorrow. Despite Montreal keeping three goaltenders for most of the 2023-2024 season by fear of losing Primeau on waivers, it’s fair to say it’s unlikely a team picks him up in the current circumstances. And if somehow a team does believe in him enough to pick him up and keep him in the NHL, I don’t think management and fans here will lose much sleep over it.

It will be a first callup for Dobes who’s shown significant improvement since his AHL debut last season. It’s fair to say he will get a start sooner than later so the coaching staff can see how much they can trust him moving forward this season. He always had the athleticism and the size to look like a potential NHL goaltender and I do believe we’re looking at the first step of a very interesting goaltender prospect in the NHL, despite not being surrounded by much hype from anyone.

The impact of Carrier

We talked a few weeks ago on this blog about how it became obvious to me and many others that Justin Barron’s future as a hockey player was not going to be in Montreal. Well either Kent Hughes is an avid reader of this thread or he simply came to the same conclusion and decided to move Justin Barront to the Nashville Predators in exchange of Alexandre Carrier.

I see this trade as an absolute win for the Canadiens as Carrier is not only a more proven, steady defenseman that has already shown to be a stabilizing force on the Habs right side, but he’s a local player that always wanted to play in Montreal which, I believe, can only help him perform even better than ever.

This is the second young defenseman the Habs management decided to trade this year after moving on from Jordan Harris in the Patrik Laine trade and I have to say, in both cases, it seems the return is greatly superior to the player we decided to part ways with. I wish Justin Barron all the best and even if he were to find success in his new home, I really doubt it would have happened here in Montreal.

Meanwhile, despite a disappointing loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets before christmas, the Candiens have been playing some pretty good hockey lately. Let us hope Patrik Laine leaving that game is nothing serious so we can keep having a great show to watch as our players gain their confidence in their ability to win back.

Sometimes, a small break with the family can set your head on straight, it happened with Caufield (which also coincided with Martin St-Louis’s arrival) in 2022 and let us hope it can also happen with other players currently looking for their best selves (right Kirby Dach?).

In the meantime, I wish you all a very nice end to the holidays, enjoy a happy new year 2025 and hopefully we keep this fun and unique community together for as long as possible.

Thank you for reading and have a nice day.

Hugo Brossoit (Scabeh)

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» Laine returns

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