Pat Hickey: Pondering the Canadiens future of Cayden Primeau and Lane Hutson (2024)

There’s little chance Cayden Primeau will be the next Carey Price, but the Canadiens will be happy if he develops into the next Charlie Lindgren.

Eight years ago, Lindgren was Cayden Primeau, an All-Amercan who left college early to sign with the Canadiens. Over the next five seasons, he bounced back and forth between the NHL and the AHL. He was stuck behind Price, Al Montoya, Antti Niemi and Keith Kinkaid. He won his first three NHL starts, but when he left to sign as a free agent with St. Louis in 2021, he had appeared in only 24 NHL games with a 10-12-2 record.

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Lindgren found himself behind Jordan Binnington and Ville Husso in St. Louis but he did make the most of a handful of opportunities. He posted a 5-0-0 record with a 1.22 goals-against average and a .958 save percentage. That was enough for the Capitals to offer him a three-year deal and, at age 30, he has edged Darcy Kuemper out of the No. 1 job in Washington.

While the Canadiens have been spoiled by goaltenders like Ken Dryden, Patrick Roy and Price, who jumped into a starting role without a lengthy apprenticeship, most goaltenders need time to develop. Sam Montembeault is having a career season at 27 and Primeau is 24. Their development was hampered a bit this year because the Canadiens were afraid to place Primeau on waivers because they thought another team would claim him. The result was a three-goaltender rotation with Montembeault, Primeau and Jake Allen sharing the work.

It was difficult for any of the goaltenders to find a rhythm and it was particularly difficult for Primeau, who received the fewest assignments. Montembeault and Primeau have both played better since Allen was traded to New Jersey at the deadline.

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Primeau has an 8-9-2 record with a 2.91 goals-against average and a .910 save percentage this season, but his numbers have improved since Allen’s departure. He is 3-3-0 with a 2.65 GAA and a .925 save percentage.

It will be interesting to see how the goaltending situation plays out next season. Primeau will finish the season with better numbers, but Montembeault has made a team-high 40 appearances this season He is 3-4-3 since the Allen trade, but there were a nights when he deserved better.

While the Canadiens backed him with nine goals when Montreal played the spoiler against playoff hopeful Philadelphia, he could have used some of those goals Thursday against the surging New York Islanders. Montembeault kept the Canadiens in the game before Kyle Palmieri scored in overtime for a 3-2 win. The Islanders outshot the Canadiens 31-14.

The was the sixth in a row for Patrick Roy’s Islanders, who tightened their hold on third place in the Metropolitan Division with 89 points, three more than Pittsburgh.

Lane Hutson come on down: The Canadiens signed highly touted U.S. college defenceman Lane Hutson to a three-year deal on Friday after his second-ranked Boston University team dropped a 2-1 overtime decision to No. 3 University of Denver in the semifinals of the NCAA championships Thursday night in St. Paul, Minn. Hutson could make his NHL debut next week in one of the Canadiens’ final two games against Detroit, which would burn up the first year of his contract.

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Canadiens prospect Luke Tuch opened the scoring for BU in the first period, but Mirabel native Tristan Lemyre tied the game in the second period and Tristan Broz scored the winning goal at 11:09 of overtime.

Denver will meet top-ranked Boston College in Saturday’s final (6 p.m., TSN). Jacob Fowler, who may be part of the Montreal goaltending conversation a few years down the line, was the difference as BC shut out Michigan 4-0. The freshman goaltender had to be at the top of his game because the Wolverines outshot BC 32-18. It was the 14th consecutive win for Fowler and an NCAA-record 32nd win this season.

Fowler, who was drafted by Montreal in the third round last June, is one of the three finalists for the Mike Richter Award, which goes to the top goaltender in U.S. college hockey. Primeau won the award in 2019 while playing at Northeastern University in Boston.

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