Jake Allen's Canadiens complaint now looks like evidence in Samuel Montembeault's standoff

It reads more like evidence in Samuel Montembeault's current standoff.

Speaking with Daily Faceoff, Allen revisited the 2023-24 Montreal Canadiens crease he shared with Montembeault and Cayden Primeau. He said the arrangement left the two of them feeling left out.

That is the part everyone is treating as a throwaway line about a bad winter. It is actually corroboration.

Richard Labbé of La Presse reported this month that Montembeault has told management he will not go through another three-goalie rotation.

Two different veterans, three years apart, describing the same structure the same way.

Stu Cowan added on The Sick Podcast that Allen was not a fan of goalie coach Eric Raymond.

Raymond is already gone. Jeff Gorton relieved him of his duties on January 28, 2026, with Marco Marciano promoted from the Laval Rocket on an interim basis.

So the personality Allen disliked was removed. The workload structure he actually described was kept.

The Associated Press noted at the time that Jakub Dobes, Montembeault and Jacob Fowler had combined for an .884 save percentage, 28th in the NHL.

Montembeault finished 10-8-4 with a .872 save percentage.

Kent Hughes has said publicly that camp could open with three goaltenders if nothing changes.

Allen's quote makes that plan expensive in a way no cap sheet shows. Every rival general manager now has a former Canadiens goalie on record describing what the third-goalie stash does to the men living it.

Dobes is locked in at $5,357,575 starting in 2027-28. Montembeault carries $3.15 million and reaches free agency next summer, which means Montreal is negotiating from behind.

This is a league-wide lesson, not a Montreal one.

Any team keeping a third goalie in the room to protect a prospect's development is quietly taxing the veteran's trade value.

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