Habs re-sign Jakub Dobes to two-year deal

Jakub Dobes was eligible to file for salary arbitration on Saturday but elected not to.  It turns out that he didn’t need to as the Habs announced on Sunday that they’ve signed the goaltender to a two-year contract.  It’s a one-way contract in both seasons and carries a cap hit of $965,000.

The 24-year-old was a fifth-round pick by the Canadiens back in 2020 and has slowly but steadily worked his way up the depth chart.  After spending one year in the USHL following his selection, Dobes spent two years at Ohio State before turning pro in 2023.

Dobes spent his first professional season exclusively with Laval, getting the bulk of the playing time with the Rocket as their starter.  He fared pretty well in that role after a shaky start, putting up a 2.93 GAA and a .906 SV% in 51 games.

Last season, Dobes remained with the Rocket to start, serving as the starter once again for the first couple of months of the season, putting up a 2.44 GAA and a .910 SV% in 14 outings.  But when Cayden Primeau faltered as the backup in Montreal, Dobes was brought up in late December and never looked back.

Dobes got off to a solid start to his NHL career and did enough to give the coaching staff some confidence in him, allowing Samuel Montembeault to not be quite as overworked in the second half of the season.  Dobes got into 16 games with Montreal, putting up a 2.74 GAA and a .909 SV%, numbers that were actually better than Montembeault’s but in a much smaller sample size.

When Montembeault was injured in the first round of the playoffs against Washington, Dobes was pressed into action, making three postseason appearances.  He picked up Montreal’s lone victory of the round and played okay given the circumstances.  While the Habs papered Dobes to Laval at the trade deadline, they elected not to send him down when they were eliminated, leaving Primeau and Jacob Fowler as the Rocket’s tandem for the AHL postseason.

As things stand, Dobes should be viewed as the favourite for the backup position behind Montembeault for next season with recently signed veteran Kaapo Kahkonen also in the mix.  Notably, Dobes has one more year of waiver exemption and if he’s sent down at any point (be it losing the backup battle or some short-term demotions to get spot starts in Laval), his cap hit will come off the books entirely.

When this contract expires, Dobes will still be a restricted free agent with salary arbitration eligibility but will be one year away from unrestricted free agent rights at that time.