Jacob Fowler is the NHL’s Rookie of the Month for October, and it is hard to argue with the choice. The 21-year-old started the season in Laval. By the end of the month he was the biggest reason the Canadiens finished 9-3-2: a 7-1-0 record in eight starts, a 1.84 goals-against average, a .932 save percentage and two shutouts.
The seven wins also matched the NHL record for wins by a rookie goalie in a single October, a mark shared by Michal Neuvirth (Washington, 2010), Ed Belfour (Chicago, 1990) and Jacques Plante (Montreal, 1954). Each of them needed 11 games to do it. Fowler needed eight. Only two goalies in the league won more games in the month, Pyotr Kochetkov (9) and Jesper Wallstedt (8). Here is what he did, how he did it, and what it means going into November.
Fowler’s October at a glance
| Starts | Record | GAA | SV% | Shutouts | Shots faced | Saves | Goals saved above expected |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | 7-1-0 | 1.84 | .932 | 2 | 220 (27.5 per game) | 205 | +9.8 |
The goals-saved-above-expected number comes from MoneyPuck and counts all situations. It compares the goals Fowler allowed with the goals an average goalie would have allowed on the same shots. We come back to it below, because it explains why this month was more than a hot streak.
Game by game
| Date | Game | Result | Shots against | Saves | Goals against | SV% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct. 8 | vs Nashville | L 2-5 | 18 | 15 | 3* | .833 |
| Oct. 10 | vs Detroit | W 1-0 (SO) | 30 | 30 | 0 | 1.000 |
| Oct. 13 | vs Buffalo | W 4-3 (SO) | 16 | 13 | 3 | .813 |
| Oct. 17 | vs Buffalo | W 4-3 (OT) | 26 | 23 | 3 | .885 |
| Oct. 23 | at Chicago | W 4-1 | 21 | 20 | 1 | .952 |
| Oct. 25 | at Winnipeg | W 2-1 | 34 | 33 | 1 | .971 |
| Oct. 27 | at St. Louis | W 2-0 | 46 | 46 | 0 | 1.000 |
| Oct. 31 | vs Pittsburgh | W 5-4 | 29 | 25 | 4 | .862 |
| October | 7-1-0 | 220 | 205 | 15 | .932 |
*Nashville also scored twice into an empty net after Fowler was pulled for the extra attacker. Those two goals are not charged to him.
How he got the net
Fowler did not arrive as the plan. The Canadiens opened the season with Samuel Montembeault and Jakub Dobeลก as the goalie pairing, and Fowler began the year with the Laval Rocket. With Samuel Montembeault hurt and Jakub Dobeลก struggling, Fowler got his first start of the season on October 8 against Nashville. It did not go well. He allowed three goals on 18 shots in a 5-2 loss.
He has not lost since. Fowler won each of his next seven starts, from October 10 to October 31, and the Canadiens went from a team searching for answers in goal to a team with a starter it could count on.
The games that made the month
Three starts stand out. The first was October 10 against Detroit, a 1-0 shootout win where Fowler stopped all 30 shots he faced through regulation and overtime. It was his first shutout of the season, and a one-goal game is the kind that punishes any mistake in net.
The second came October 25 in Winnipeg, at the 2026 Heritage Classic. Fowler stopped 33 of 34 shots in a 2-1 win in front of an outdoor crowd, the kind of game that can swallow a young goalie. At 21 years and 335 days old, he became the youngest goalie to start and win an outdoor NHL game. He is also only the fourth rookie goalie to win one, joining Nico Daws, Matt Murray and Mike Condon, who did it for the Canadiens in the 2016 Winter Classic. The week also earned him Third Star of the Week for October 19 to 25, going 2-0-0 with a 1.00 goals-against average and a .964 save percentage.
The third was October 27 in St. Louis, and it was the best goaltending performance the Canadiens got all month. The Blues outshot Montreal 46-21 and Fowler stopped every one of them for a 2-0 win. His 46 saves are the most by a Canadiens rookie in a shutout since shots on goal began being tracked in 1955-56, ahead of the 41 saves by both Cayden Primeau (March 12, 2024, against Columbus) and Tony Esposito (December 21, 1968, against Boston). Fowler is the ninth rookie goalie since 1955-56 with at least 46 saves in a shutout and the first since Arizona’s Connor Ingram made 47 against Tampa Bay on February 15, 2023.
A month for the record books
The record Fowler matched is a rare one. In the history of the league, only three rookie goalies had won seven games in an October before him, and one of them was a Canadiens goalie, Jacques Plante in 1954. Plante, Neuvirth and Belfour each needed 11 games. Fowler did it in eight, with a single loss.
It also puts him on a short list inside the organization. Fowler is the third Canadiens rookie since 1985-86 to win at least seven games in a calendar month, following Jakub Dobeลก (7-3-0 in 10 games in March 2026) and Carey Price (7-3-0 in 10 games in March 2008). That is a useful reminder of how quickly the picture can change. Jakub Dobeลก had his seven-win month last March, and Fowler matched it in October with a better record and fewer games.
What the numbers say
The save percentage is good, but the expected-goals data is what makes the month convincing. Based on the quality of the shots he faced, Fowler should have allowed about 24.8 goals in his eight starts. He allowed 15. That is +9.8 goals saved above expected, or roughly 1.2 goals per 60 minutes better than an average goalie. His goals-against average of 1.84 compares with an expected 3.04.
The best comparison is the other goalie on his own team. In our Habs Monthly Report for October, we showed that Fowler and Jakub Dobeลก faced almost the same quality of chances, about 3.1 expected goals against per game for Fowler and 3.0 for Jakub Dobeลก. Jakub Dobeลก went 2-2-2 with a .853 save percentage and a 4.05 goals-against average, and finished at -6.2 goals saved above expected. Same team, same system, similar shots. The difference was the goalie.
The rookie goalie class
Fowler leads all rookie goalies in wins, save percentage, goals-against average and shutouts. Among rookies with at least five games played, the next best in wins is Dylan Garand of the Rangers with four.
| Rookie goalie | Team | GP | Record | SV% | GAA | SO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jacob Fowler | MTL | 8 | 7-1-0 | .932 | 1.84 | 2 |
| Dylan Garand | NYR | 10 | 4-5-1 | .899 | 2.69 | 1 |
| Colten Ellis | BUF | 5 | 3-1-0 | .880 | 3.11 | 1 |
| Sebastian Cossa | UTA | 5 | 3-1-0 | .855 | 3.20 | 0 |
| Sergei Murashov | PIT | 5 | 0-4-1 | .871 | 3.83 | 0 |
The skater side of the rookie race is tighter. Gavin McKenna of Toronto and James Hagens of Boston share the lead in rookie scoring with 11 points each, and Ivar Stenberg and Trevor Connelly are right behind with nine. A goalie winning this award over those names says how far ahead of the other rookie goalies Fowler was, and how much a 1.84 goals-against average can change a team’s month.
The honest part
Eight starts is a small sample, and not every one of them was clean. Fowler allowed one goal or fewer in four starts and three or more in the other four. The Canadiens still won three of those four, because the offence scored 4-3 twice against Buffalo and 5-4 against Pittsburgh. Three of his seven wins also needed extra time, two in a shootout and one in overtime. A goalie who gives up three goals needs his team to answer, and in October it did.
The Pittsburgh game on October 31 is the one to watch. Four goals on 29 shots (.862) is a result a goalie in a hot month can survive, but two of those goals came in the first eight minutes, and a fourth came late with Pittsburgh’s goalie pulled. The Canadiens won 5-4, but a goalie wants to start games quieter than that. That is a coaching point, not a criticism. It is how a rookie turns a good month into a good career.
Hot goaltending also tends to come back toward the middle. A +9.8 swing in eight games is rare, and the Canadiens should not plan around it repeating. What they can plan around is a goalie who has shown, at 21, that he can handle the NHL pace and the pressure of big games.
What comes next
The workload is the question for November. Fowler started eight of the Canadiens’ 14 games in October, and November is the harder month: ten of the team’s 14 games are against clubs in the playoff race, with a back-to-back, a stretch of three games in four nights and five games in eight nights from November 14 to 21. Samuel Montembeault is day-to-day, and Jakub Dobeลก will get his starts, so the Canadiens have a decision to make about how much of the load a 21-year-old can carry.
The first test comes Tuesday, November 3, when the Canadiens host Winnipeg at 7:00 PM ET, the same team Fowler beat in the Heritage Classic. Nick Suzuki is expected to return this week, and a fuller lineup in front of Fowler is the best way to keep his numbers where they are.
Bottom line
Rookie of the Month is the NHL recognizing what the Canadiens already knew: Jacob Fowler was the best thing about their October. Seven wins, two shutouts, a goals-against average of 1.84 and a +9.8 goals-saved-above-expected rating tied a league record for rookie goalies and changed the month. The job now is to keep doing it for six more months, and for the Canadiens to give him the help and the rest that a 21-year-old needs to do it.
Sources: NHL official data; MoneyPuck (expected goals).
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