Is Price’s Present And Future With Habs About To Become Clearer?

The mystery surrounding Montreal Canadiens goalie Carey Price’s present and future with the team could, in the next month, become clearer than it’s been for a while.

“I would think that while we still may not know the future for Carey and the Habs, we will know more about this season and have a better idea of the future within the next month or so, March 1 at the latest,” an NHL source close to the situation told Montreal Hockey Now on Monday morning.

As the Montreal Canadiens continue to shuffle through goalies like Dunn’s Famous does with smoked meat and bagels, Habs star goalie Carey Price remains at home, champing at the bit to start skating again and begin his comeback in earnest. Since exiting the NHL/NHLPA player assistance program back in early November, Price began to rehab but had to suddenly stop with the COVID pauses for the NHL and Montreal Canadiens over the holidays. Price has not spoken publicly since the conclusion of the 2021 Stanley Cup Final last July.

The team was vague at best until earlier this month when the Montreal Canadiens hired longtime RDS Sports Reporter and Host, Chantal Machabee, as their new Vice President of Communications. Since then, the media and fans have been given three more and more detailed updates on Price, and on Friday, new general manager Kent Hughes was blunt and honest with regards to his communication with and plans for Price. Hughes was asked by longtime TSN 690 host Mitch Melnick if the Price situation is ‘really as murky as it looks from the outside’:

“I don’t know. I can’t answer that question; honestly, I haven’t had a conversation with regards to Carey Price or with Carey Price,” the new Montreal Canadiens GM admitted. “We had the press conference; we got up very early [Thursday] and got to Vegas in time to shower and head to the rink, and hopped back on a plane, and here we are in Colorado. So that’s certainly something that I need to learn more of and get brought up to speed but I’m not up to speed at this point.”

The following night, as the Montreal Canadiens played the Colorado Avalanche and eventually fell 3-2 in overtime, TVA NHL Insider Renaud Lavoie, tweeted out that Price intends to play and should most likely be back on the ice in Brossard in two weeks.

Carey Price should be back on the ice in around two weeks, if everything is going according to plan. He wants to play this season. Hope is that swelling won’t reappear in his knee. Time will tell. @CanadiensMTL

— Renaud Lavoie (@renlavoietva) January 23, 2022

At the time this post went live, Montreal Canadiens head coach Dominique Ducharme had yet to address the media following his team’s game-day skate before the Habs play the Minnesota Wild at Xcel Center in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Price, 34, is in the fourth season of an eight-year contract that carries a $10.5 million cap hit. With Hughes immediately stating that changes are coming in his introductory press conference last Wednesday, the NHL trade rumours surrounding the Montreal Canadiens goalie have picked up again, given his uncertain future. In the coming weeks, we could learn how many of those rumors have legs and how many are just the usual nonsense that floats around as the March 21 NHL Trade Deadline comes into focus.