His best years are probably behind him. He missed almost the entire season. And we don’t know what the future holds. But one fact remains: Carey Price continues to command respect from his peers.
Posted at 12:30 p.m.
The NHL Players Association released its annual survey on Wednesday. Some 500 of its members were questioned on a multitude of serious and fun subjects.
To the question “If you have to win a match, which goalkeeper would you like to count on? “, the name of Price is the choice of 13.9% of respondents, behind Andrei Vasilevskiy (37.4%) and ahead of Marc-André Fleury (6.7%). John Gibson, Jacob Markstrom, Jonathan Quick and Juuse Saros follow in order. Obviously, players like to turn to established veterans, while neither Igor Shesterkin nor Ilya Sorokin, probable candidates for the Vezina Trophy at the end of the current season, are not on the list.
Vasilevskiy thus wins the title of the most formidable goalkeeper for the second year in a row. No doubt helped by his performance in the last playoffs, Price, 34, has moved up a rank since last year.
Among skaters, Connor McDavid is seen as the player most likely to win his team. Patrick Kane receives the title of the best stick handler, Leon Draisaitl, that of the best passer, Alexander Ovechkin that of the most dangerous shooter, and Sidney Crosby that of the most complete player. Brad Marchand, for his part, is logically “the player you hate to face the most, but that you would like to have on your team”.
Price is the only Canadian player to stand out in an individual category. With 39.6% of the votes, however, the Bell Center easily won the title of best ice on the circuit ahead of Rodgers Place in Edmonton (13.7%). Moreover, Quebecer Marie-Philip Poulin is considered by 43.2% of NHL players to be the best player in the world, far ahead of American Hilary Knight (20.7%).