For almost 10 years, Marc Bergevin built his team around Carey Price. After only a few days in office, his successor Kent Hughes also knows that his goalkeeper will dictate his game plan. Except that he doesn’t really have a choice.
Posted at 7:00 a.m.
From the moment the Bergevin era ended, at the end of November, a word was spoken on a daily basis in the public space: reconstruction. Neither the owner and president of the organization, Geoff Molson, nor its vice-president of hockey operations, Jeff Gorton, ruled out the possibility. And as Gorton has already been there in the recent past with the New York Rangers, the idea has quietly made its way among amateurs.
Now that Hughes is in charge, the club’s senior management will be able to clarify the real direction they want to take. However, insisted the new general manager in an interview with The Press, nothing will be decided as long as we do not have the right time on the state of health of Carey Price. It is true today, it will be tomorrow, next October and even after.
The goalkeeper, let’s remember, underwent knee surgery last summer. His rehabilitation, which was initially to last 10 to 12 weeks, has just reached the threshold of six months, a consequence in particular of two regressions. During a press briefing on Sunday, Price himself said that the next few weeks would be decisive for his chances of aspiring to a return to the game this season, if not at all. According to his boss, it is not impossible that his career is over.
Reinforcement or not?
The short-term impact, first of all, could not be more concrete. Simply because if the news is good for Price and he can play in a few weeks, Hughes won’t be looking to strengthen his team in goal.
The Canadiens’ coaching staff has made no secret of its desire to better “protect” young Cayden Primeau, whose confidence has been shaken by difficult performances. The general opinion is that the 22-year-old American would benefit much more from returning to the Laval Rocket in the American League, rather than accumulating failures in the NHL.
By getting confirmation that Price won’t be back, “we could go get another goaltender instead of putting Primeau in the context we’re putting him in right now,” Hughes said. But if he went ahead with this option and Price returned to training, the Habs would suddenly lose room for maneuver in their management of the salary cap and would be entangled in addition to an additional contract.
This last detail is important: each team on the circuit is entitled to 50 NHL contracts. The Canadian is currently at 48, very close to the limit.
A few weeks before the deadline for transactions, and with several veterans who could change address, management wants to keep as much latitude as possible. Even after the March 21 deadline, we want at least one vacancy left for a college player who wants to make the leap to the pros after the NCAA season is over. Defender Jordan Harris, for example.
That’s why Hughes maintains that “if we’re able to pull it off,” he’ll pass on a back-up keeper.
That’s what he did just recently, when Aaron Dell of the Buffalo Sabres went on waivers. Anyway, the recruiters and coaches of the Canadian who knew him did not see the veteran as a “solution”, added the DG.
” Problem ”
In the medium to long term, Hughes is adamant that with no certainty about Price’s health, he doubts he’ll be able to assemble a team that will have “a good chance of making the playoffs” next season.
The report he draws up is not tender: “We have a problem in front of the net: Jake Allen is injured and we fall to the third or fourth goalkeeper. »
Call-in shows and social networks can therefore continue to speculate on all sorts of trading scenarios involving Price. But by lending themselves to this exercise, they are well ahead of the direction of the Canadian.
Because Hughes assures that in the light of the discussion he had with number 31 on Saturday, the question of his future, in Montreal or elsewhere, was not addressed.
We had a good discussion, a positive discussion, but what interests us above all is whether he is able to return to action.
Kent Hughes, general manager of the Canadiens
If the answer is yes, then Hughes can sit down with the shadowy Cerberus and assess his plans for the future. Depending on the priorities of the goalkeeper himself, who has a full no-move clause until his contract ends in 2026, and those of the team, especially if the long road to reconstruction was considered and that ‘we wanted to free ourselves, in one way or another, from our pharaonic contract.
If the answer is no, then the CEO can begin to consider alternatives. And initiate, once and for all, the post-Carey Price era.
With Guillaume Lefrancois, The Press