![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/2025-votes-18.png\")
<\/p>\nIntroduction<\/p>\n
The 2023-24 season saw Jakub Dobe\u0161 get his first taste of professional hockey. After posting a decent 2.93 goals-against average and .906 save percentage in 51 games, he was primed to build upon that to present himself as a potential NHL goalie. His hot start in the AHL \u2014 and Cayden Primeau\u2019s atrocious stint in the NHL \u2014 earned him his first start in the NHL.<\/p>\n
And what a start it was. He was called upon to start the first game for Montreal after the Christmas break in Florida versus the defending champion Panthers. He was tested 34 times and stopped every shot he faced to open his career with a shutout. Going without a regulation loss in his first six starts with the Habs, the backup role was secured for the remainder of the season.<\/p>\n
His path to the NHL has been a surprising one, to say the least, including a stop in the North American Hockey League where he ultimately caught Montreal\u2019s attention as an over-ager. A year ago, I mentioned Dobe\u0161 would need to show the organization that he was a worthwhile goaltending prospect entering his fifth year as a prospect, What he went out and achieved last year made him a legitimate option between the pipes for Montreal.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s difficult to get a perfect read on goaltenders, but as of right now it\u2019s fair to say Dobe\u0161 may represent the Canadiens\u2019 second- or third-best hope among goaltending prospects.<\/p>\n
Voting<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
There were essentially two different camps among the panellists. I and several others, including the community vote, placed Dobe\u0161 in the upper teens, while another group has him down around 20th position. There seem to be two mindsets on the value he holds in the organization.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/18-Jakub-Dobes-C.png\")
<\/p>\n
That story isn\u2019t reflected in the spread of community votes, with a fairly standard distribution centred around the 14th spot.<\/p>\n
Top 25 Under 25 History<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Dobes-2020-25-1.png\")
<\/p>\n
Dobe\u0161 has moved up the list throughout his time with Montreal despite the pool of eligible players continuing to grow. Last year he stayed at the same spot at 24, but in his final year of eligibility jumps up six spots for a total of 21 places since his debut in 2020.<\/p>\n
History of #18<\/p>\n
Year
\n #18<\/p>\n
2025
\n Jakub Dobe\u0161<\/p>\n
2024
\n Justin Barron<\/p>\n
2023
\n Filip Mesar<\/p>\n
2022
\n Jayden Struble<\/p>\n
2021
\n Rafa\u00ebl Harvey-Pinard<\/p>\n
2020
\n Jan Mysak<\/p>\n
2019
\n Michael McNiven<\/p>\n
2018
\n Michael McNiven<\/p>\n
2017
\n Brett Lernout<\/p>\n
2016
\n Lukas Vejdemo<\/p>\n
2015
\n Tim Bozon<\/p>\n
2014
\n Dalton Thrower<\/p>\n
2013
\n Darren Dietz<\/p>\n
2012
\n Tim Bozon<\/p>\n
2011
\n Brendon Nash<\/p>\n
2010
\n Gabriel Dumont<\/p>\n
Strengths<\/p>\n
Dobe\u0161 always had the size for the job, standing at 6\u20194\u201d and weighing in at 201 pounds. He plays his position very aggressively, challenging shooters way out of his crease. He skates well and is quick and nimble. Good instincts and an understanding of the right moments to use his size let him present a stone wall to opponents. He shows good tracking vision to make sure he\u2019s staying square to the play.<\/p>\n
A helpful trait when it comes to the goaltending position is his competitive nature. He rarely gives up on a play and will do whatever it takes to stop pucks. Sometimes he finds himself out of position, but he always puts in the effort to try to recover and make a save.<\/p>\n
Weaknesses<\/p>\n
Despite his size, body strength is still something the netminder needs to work on. He still relies heavily on his athleticism to carry him, foregoing sound technique at times. He\u2019s an aggressive goalie who can cover up some of his deficiencies, but this type of goaltending won\u2019t lead to consistent results in the pro game. You need a solid technique coupled with good reflexes and strong lateral movements. There are a few cases where athleticism will carry a goaltender for a long time (Marc-Andre Fleury\u2019s career come to mind) but generally speaking, you need both.<\/p>\n
Dobe\u0161 sometimes makes small mistakes, such as not getting to his post and transferring his backward momentum laterally. In the overall picture, it doesn\u2019t look like much, but smaller mistakes tend to pile up and can become bad habits. He doesn\u2019t have any glaring issues, but smaller decision-making errors could be costly at the NHL level. As long as he keeps polishing himself and refining his strong toolkit, he should have success as a pro.<\/p>\n
Projection<\/p>\n
In the last few years, things changed a lot for the Canadiens. What was once a barren depth chart for goaltenders is starting to have quite a few interesting options now. The Canadiens currently have Kaapo K\u00e4hk\u00f6nen, Jacob Fowler, Yevgeni Volohkin, Quentin Miller, Mikus Vecvanags, Emmett Croteau and two new goaltender prospects drafted this year in Arseni Radkov and Alexis Cournoyer. The road forward to the NHL is becoming harder.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s tricky to faithfully project the ultimate landing spot for a goaltender like Dobe\u0161. We saw that with Primeau over his seven years with the organization. There is no sure way to know if a netminder will keep improving and succeeding in all professional challenges, or if one will stay stuck a level or two below the NHL.<\/p>\n
We have seen plenty of good amateur goaltenders peak at the AHL level, unable to take that final step. This year will be very helpful in determining which side the needle begins to tilt toward for Dobe\u0161. If he keeps progressing, he may be able to establish himself as the next backup in Montreal.<\/p>\n
Click the play button below to listen to our latest podcast episode, where Matt Drake and Patrik Bexell discuss the performance of Jakub Dobes. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Introduction The 2023-24 season saw Jakub Dobe\u0161 get his first taste of professional hockey. After posting a decent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83694,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-83693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}