When he had confirmation that the details of his contract were settled, Samuel Montembeault did what he does every time an important event occurs in his life.
After acting as an assistant goalie for the November 30 game, a tough 5-1 defeat at the hands of the Florida Panthers, he took the road to Bécancour to reveal the news first to his parents.
When the news became public the next morning, the entire family was quickly inundated with congratulatory messages. We were expecting lavish celebrations. However, a night shift awaited Mario, Samuel’s father, at the aluminum smelter where he is an operator.
“Sam stayed over, we ate shepherd’s pie, changed into our pajamas and watched a Christmas movie. That was the celebration,” said Manon Royer, the goalkeeper’s mother, laughing, as she met her partner a few days ago at the Bell Centre.
“But we’ll get back together,” the father promptly promised.
If a single anecdote can sum up Samuel Montembeault, it’s probably this one. A shepherd’s pie to highlight a three-year contract worth a total of $9.45 million.
“That’s really it,” confirms the main person concerned, in an interview with La Presse, in a café in the city center.
Simplicity is probably the theme that comes up most often when we listen to Montembeault speak or when we hear about him. During the press briefing following the signing of his contract, he revealed that he intended to buy land in Trois-Rivières with his girlfriend, also from the region.
“We would like that, to have our dream house in that area to build a family and see it grow there,” specifies the 27-year-old athlete. It’s just an hour and a half from Montreal. […] All my friends and all my family are still there, I like that, being close to my people. »
What he especially acquired was “stability”. Within the Canadian organization, which showed its confidence in him by partnering with him until 2027. And, of course, on a financial level. Having never felt “the need to flash” – he still drives the car he bought in 2016 after signing his first professional contract with the Florida Panthers – he is delighted, above all, to have peace of mind for a long time.
“Growing up, and we weren’t the family with the most money,” he says, “my parents made so many sacrifices to allow me to play hockey. A guard, in addition, we know that it costs more…”
We therefore understand that it is not him who will get a big head with his new status. It would, at the very least, be a shock to those around him if it happened.
That would be a stark contrast to the one who can still be seen, in pajamas, walking his two French bulldogs in the streets of the small area of Bécancour where the family home is located. Or with the one who made deliveries for the pharmacy of which his mother is manager, during the summer of 2022, to replace a sick employee.
“He doesn’t realize that he has become Samuel Montembeault of the Montreal Canadiens,” says his mother Manon. He is Samuel Montembeault from Sainte-Gertrude. It doesn’t stress him out at all. »