Canada is still the dominant force in the NHL. It is not quite the superpower that it once was in terms of the position of goalie, notably those who have come out of Quebec. At one point it almost seemed like you could not make it as an NHL goalie unless you were from Quebec.
Although there is still some phenomenal talent out on the ice from Quebec, think Paul Stastny, David Perron, Jonathan Huberdeau or the recently retired Patrice Bergeron, the NHL goalie these days tends to be European-born. Is it too late for Quebec to win their crown back, is there a future or as some have surmised, was the death of the Nordiques the start of the end?
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It is hard to narrow down the string of great goalies from Quebec that have graced the NHL to just a few but we have done our best to. Some of the greatest of all time have been born in our largest province, the mark they left on the great game of hockey will be remembered forever.
The man that statistics say is the finest goalie to ever play in the NHL. He has 691 career wins, 125 shutouts and has played in 1,266 regular season games. They are numbers that have every chance of never being broken by any NHL goalie.
With 70+ appearances in 10 of 11 seasons from the 1995-96 season to the 2007-08 one, Brodeur was a workhorse that modern hockey just does not see anymore. In contrast, 64 games led the NHL in the 2022/23 season, Brodeur hit 78 in 2006-07 as well as 77 on three separate occasions.
Born in Montreal, he spent 21 seasons with the New Jersey Devils before playing seven games for the St Louis Blues in his final NHL season. Even Blues fans will admit that it just wasn’t Brodeur’s colour, not looking right at all without the synonymous red.
He would lift the Stanley Cup on three separate occasions, 1995, 2000 and 2003, be awarded the Vezina trophy four times and be made an all-star on nine separate occasions. There are few players who have played his position at any point in history who have made the same impact on the game that he has. One of the greatest of all time at any position, his career stands atop the NHL goalie tree.
No goalie has played in or won as many playoff games as Patrick Roy did over a long career with the Montreal Canadiens and the Colorado Avalanche. 551 regular season wins is good for second all-time to go along with four Stanley Cup wins, three Vezina Trophy successes and all the other awards that found themselves magnetically drawn to Roy as the puck was to his glove.
A colourful character, Roy never worried about dropping the gloves for a fight. His temper became a thing of legend and while it did not diminish what he achieved on the ice, there are some who do not hold him in the regard that he deserves purely on his playing ability because of his behaviour.
The 11-1 defeat to the Red Wings in December 1995 that marked the end of his time as a Canadiens player is a great example. Playing poorly for a head coach he despised, a ‘Bronx Cheer’ from the crowd when Roy made a simple save saw the goalie raise his arms in a mock salute in return.
There is no doubt that he is one of the greatest ever to don a mask, perhaps the most naturally gifted to ever start between the pipes. He may not lead the league in stats like Brodeur does but Roy was a trailblazer whose influence on the game can never be diminished.
While not the very first goalie in the NHL to wear a mask to protect his facial features, Plante was the man who made it commonplace after a broken nose whilst playing for the Montreal Canadiens.
Aside from that, Plante was an excellent goalie. He won 437 games in the NHL with a career GAA of 2.38 (2.12 in playoff action), both remarkable figures. The first even more so given that he retired for a few years in the 1960s so he could perhaps have been the first to hit 500 wins rather than Roy if things had been different.
One of the very first in the goalie ranks to make any attempt at handling the puck, it is fair to say that Plante was a pioneer and a man well ahead of his time. Without a doubt one of the finest to play his position from Quebec.
There are just two goalies with significant experience currently playing in the NHL, though a mention should be given to both Jonathan Bernier and Louis Domingue who are not currently in the league but have seen plenty of action in the NHL in the last decade.
There is no doubt that when the time comes, Fleury will be heading to the Hall of Fame at the first time of asking. Now aged 38, he enters his 20th season as an NHL goalie, a season that might end up being his last with no long-term decision made on his future just yet.
The season will begin for Fleury with 544 wins to his name which is good enough for 3rd on the all-time list, just seven behind Patrick Roy for second. While the team will always be first for him, there will be one eye on that personal milestone that will cement his place as one of the best of his generation between the pipes.
Drafted number one overall in the 2003 class by the Pittsburgh Penguins, Fleury became one of the faces of the franchise. The Penguins would take Evgeni Malkin number two the following year before Sidney Crosby was the number one pick in 2005 and a franchise was reborn.
Three times Fleury has won the Stanley Cup, those coming in 2009, 2016 and 2017. He has also been a beaten finalist twice, in 2008 with Pittsburgh and in 2018 in the Vegas Golden Knights’ inaugural season.
The Wild made it no further than the first round of the playoffs last season, beaten in six games by the Dallas Stars. If this is to be the final year that we see Fleury in an NHL jersey, how fitting would it be to see him go out on the ultimate high, as unlikely as that might seem?
Fresh off a gold medal for Team Canada at the World Hockey Championships, Sam Montembeault will be looking forward to his third season as part of the Canadiens franchise. He played in 40 games last season going 16-19-3 with a 3.42 GAA and a 0.901 save percentage.
Those figures are better than they look on paper as his 11.8 goals saves above expected put him comfortably in the top echelon of goalies in the league. Plainly speaking, those figures could have been an awful lot worse than they were, Montembeault played a solid part between the pipes for a team whose defensive work was well below par.
Montembeault first came into the NHL for the Florida Panthers, playing 25 games for them across two seasons before moving on. He had similar issues there as he has had so far in Montreal, a blue line that has not been able to stop him from seeing too many clear-cut, goal-scoring opportunities.
It is going to be another difficult campaign with the Habs still in rebuilding mode. It is the final year of his contract, however, and as an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season, it is time for him to put himself in the shop window in the search of a contract and get paid next year. A strong campaign can set him up for that.
The hopes of a future for Quebec-born goalies is still alive and kicking. There are a couple who played in the NHL last season who will be hoping that they are heading into the league at the right time with both of their clubs coming to the end of a rebuilding process.
The 21yo from Dollard-des-Ormeaux set a new record for Northeastern University for shutouts in a season when he blanked the opposition 10 times in the 2021/22 season. He gained another 6 last season before he made his NHL debut for the Sabres in Detroit on April 6.
It was not the start that he was hoping for, conceding six goals on 32 shots but it was enough to pick up the win. He beat the Carolina Hurricanes two days later on his home debut, also doing enough to pick up wins against the New York Rangers and the Columbus Blue Jackets before the end of the season.
Levi appeared in five games overall down the stretch in his audition for the Sabres, producing a 4-1 record with a 2.94 GAA and a save percentage of 0.905. They are fair stats for a player of his age but there will be lots of pressure on him this season.
He is slated to be the Sabres starting goalie, a huge task to undertake with so little experience so it will be interesting to see how he takes to the challenge. He is a little smaller than most goalies these days but his college numbers were exceptional so there is a good chance that he can take the permanent step up in his stride.
Raised in Ottawa, it must have been quite an experience for the 22yo to pull on a Sens jersey for three games last season. He went 1-2 in those appearances, his win coming against the New York Islanders on his NHL debut in February, making 46 saves in the process.
While the other two games were losses, he ended the season with a 3.29 GAA and a 0.916 SV%, primarily due to that exceptional debut. He has been seen with the Belleville Senators in the last few years but played well in seven games for the Allen Americans in the ECHL in the 2022/23 season.
It will be the minors where he starts the 2023/24 season having signed a one-year, two-way deal in July but there would be no surprise if he sees NHL action again this season and if he can channel that debut performance on a more regular basis, he can give the Sens a headache with regards to sending him down again.
All is not dead and buried when it comes to the Quebec goalie just yet. While Marc-Andre Fleury is the last of the Hall of Fame calibre class for now, who is to say that there will not be another in the shape of Devon Levi who has the chance this season to really lay down a career marker at a very young age?
The junior leagues in Quebec will continue to churn out top talent for as long as skates are laced up, sticks are meticulously taped up and bodies are put on the line in search of the biggest trophy of all, the Stanley Cup.
That is what dreams are made of and while the dreams of Quebec’s kids have turned more towards scoring goals in the last 20 years rather than stopping them, so much in life comes back full circle. We have no doubts that Quebec will reign supreme between the pipes once more in the future.
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