There Is Something Magical About A Habs Goaltender Starting Their NHL Career vs. The Penguins

When a Montreal Canadiens goaltender comes in to make their NHL debut against the Pittsburgh Penguins, there seems to be magic in the air that the netminder gets a victory as well as eventually becomes the team’s franchise goaltender. For Jacob Fowler, the 2nd half of that fact has yet to be accomplished after only playing one NHL game, but he seems to have the attributes to become that guy, and Thursday’s 4-2 victory against the Penguins helps solidify the fact that he’s not only the top goaltending prospect in the Habs system but also arguably in the entire NHL.

• Ken Dryden’s 1st NHL start, in Pittsburgh: Habs win (1971)

• Patrick Roy’s 1st NHL start, in Pittsburgh: Habs win (1985)

• Carey Price’s 1st NHL start, in Pittsburgh: Habs win (2007)

• Jacob Fowler’s 1st NHL start, in Pittsburgh: Habs win (2025) pic.twitter.com/MGzUrPxVWp

— /r/Habs (@HabsOnReddit) December 12, 2025

Fowler joined an incredible group of Habs legends, featuring Ken Dryden, Patrick Roy, and Carey Price, all of whom began their careers with starts against the Penguins, where they helped the Canadiens secure a victory in their debut. In fact, no other goaltenders in Habs history have started their NHL debuts against the Penguins, meaning that Fowler is the 4th goalie in a list that includes Hall-of-Fame netminders (Carey Price will get in someday).

That’s not saying that we should expect Fowler to become a Hall-of-Fame calibre goaltender, but it is a very promising coincidence that the Canadiens’ top goaltending prospects who start their careers up against the Penguins end up becoming the best goaltenders in the NHL at one point or another. Fowler likely won’t ever be the very best goaltender in the NHL, but he could end up being among the top 10 in the league at some point, given his intangibles, such as his competitiveness and ability to stay calm under pressure from his opponents. However, maybe we should temper expectations for him, as one game can’t tell us exactly how he will be for the rest of his career. Although the Pittsburgh Penguins’ connection with the Habs legends is still a very cool link to them for Fowler.

Most saves in an NHL debut: Canadiens history

Rogie Vachon (Feb 18, 1967) 41
Jacob Fowler (Thursday) 36
Ken Dryden (Mar. 14, 1971) 35
Jakub Dobes (Dec. 28, 2024) 34 #GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/ZDKep2F2oW

— Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) December 12, 2025

Fowler also surpassed Ken Dryden for the 2nd most saves made by a Habs netminder in their NHL debut. Dryden had 35 saves in his debut back on March 15th, 1979, so Fowler just narrowly surpassed him on Thursday night with 36 stops. The record is still held by Rogie Vachon, who made 41 saves in his debut on February 18th, 1967.

The adrenaline of Fowler’s first NHL start will run out eventually as he continues to get used to playing NHL games, and it will be around that point where you can really judge just how good he is at this point. Just like with Jakub Dobes, in the first few starts of a season, he comes in on a heater looking like he can be a starter, but as the appearances start to accumulate for him, we see that he is better off as a 1B tandem goaltender that will play a little less than half the games.

Jacob Fowler with an incredible 36-save win in his NHL debut 🙌 pic.twitter.com/XfaXcXJY8l

— BarDown (@BarDown) December 12, 2025

With Fowler, if he is here long enough, the same situation could arise that he plays on adrenaline for 3-4 games before he falls back to earth. Now, Fowler will be better than Dobes when all is set and done, given his pedigree of being able to be a winner at almost every level he’s played at.

For now, we should just live in the moment about how good Fowler could be and hope he continues to progress into the star goaltender that he has often shown flashes of at such a young age. Needless to say, we shouldn’t expect him to pull a 1986 playoff miracle that Patrick Roy was able to achieve, but if handled properly, Fowler could be an amazing NHL starter sooner rather than later. With that being said, they shouldn’t put the pressure on him to be the starter at the NHL level just yet. There is a world where he and Dobes can successfully split games if Samuel Montembeault doesn’t figure things out. One thing for sure is that Fowler looks to be a special talent.

There are two invaluable skills the best goalies have:

Efficiency of movement & staying square to the puck.

Price had it. Shesterkin has it. Vasilevskiy has it. Wolf has it.

Jacob Fowler has shown it in college & the AHL. Last night, he showed it on the NHL big stage. pic.twitter.com/qOtUnfd3D1

— /r/Habs (@HabsOnReddit) December 12, 2025

The pieces seem to be falling into place for the Habs as they approach the end of the rebuild. Fowler looking like a potential star goaltender in his first pro season is just another part of the puzzle that they are seeing that will make them a dangerous team that could potentially win a Stanley Cup within the next decade.

Are you excited to watch Fowler develop over the next few years?