Since the announcement of his probable absence for the next season, and probably the end of his career, the debate has been launched on the place of Carey Price in the history of the team.
Posted at 11:15 a.m.
His selection in fifth place in the repechage in 2005, when José Théodore was at the height of his career and many were salivating at the idea of seeing a forward, Gilbert Brule, drafted by the Canadiens (before they realized that ‘Anze Kopitar would become an interesting player), had caused controversy.
Pierre McGuire, on TSN, then spoke of a choice completely off the mark.
Price came to Montreal very early, at age 20, not yet quite equipped to carry an average team on his shoulders. Many fans preferred underrated little goaltender Jaroslav Halak to him and ripped their shirts off when he, not Price, was traded to the St. Louis Blues in 2010.
Price has braved all the storms, criticism, questioning, in a very complex market for goalkeepers.
Seventeen years after that famous 2005 draft, Carey Price ranks first in team history in terms of games played and victories, ahead of Jacques Plante, Patrick Roy, Ken Dryden and Bill Durnan.
He is one of three goaltenders in NHL history to have won the Hart Trophy (2015) as MVP, along with Dominik Hasek and José Théodore. He also won the Vézina trophy awarded to the best goaltender that same year and the Ted-Lindsay trophy, awarded to the best hockey player following a vote by NHL players. No other goalkeeper has ever won this honor created in 2008.
He finished among the five finalists for the Vézina Trophy in 2011, 2014, 2015 and 2017.
He has long been criticized for fading in the playoffs, rightly or wrongly. He ranks fourth on the team in playoff wins, behind Jacques Plante, Ken Dryden and Patrick Roy, who had legendary teams ahead of them (especially Plante and Dryden). He has the best goals against average in the playoffs (2.39) after Jacques Plante among goaltenders who have played at least 50 games.
Against all odds, Carey Price led the Canadiens to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2021, even though the team gave him a backing of just 2.32 goals per game, in 12e rank out of 16 clubs, and last among the eight teams that made it through the first round.
Who knows if he wouldn’t have made it to a second final in 2015 if Chris Kreider hadn’t screwed up his knee in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals? The Canadian lost in six games to the Rangers with Dustin Tokarski in goal. That spring again, the CH scored an average of only 2.08 per game, in the 13e rank out of 16 teams in this regard.
Price also won the Calder Cup in the American League in 2008, just 19 years old, with a club led by Corey Locke, Dan Jancevski, Andre Benoit, Kyle Chipchura, Matt d’Agostini and Maxim Lapierre.
Among the goaltenders who have played at least 10 seasons in Montreal, he is the only one to have spent his entire career with the Canadiens. Georges Vézina and Ken Dryden played eight years for the Habs and never elsewhere either. Price played 14 seasons and would have added another 15e last year if he hadn’t been injured.
At the international level with Canada, Price won the World Junior Championship in 2007 (1.14 average, .961 save rate), gold at the Sochi Olympics in 2014 (0.59 average, save rate .972 save percentage) and won the World Cup of Hockey in 2016 (1.40 GAA, .957 save percentage).
What more will it take to consider Price among the immortals once his career is officially over?