Carey Price Details Obstacles To Return To Play, Return Unlikely

Although he’s holding on to every hope for an eventual return, it seems more and more improbable that Carey Price will be making a return to play.

In a brilliant interview with The Athletic‘s Arpon Basu, the Montreal Canadiens goalie outlined exactly what continues to ail him and the chances of him returning to full-time play are dwindling by the day.

Although Price’s knee is a known issue, he outlined many of the other injuries that continue to hamper his day-to-day life:

“It’s right in your knee joint,” said Price to the Athletic. “So, like, you kind of need that in your day-to-day living. I mean, Tommy John, yeah, you use your arm every day. But you’re not walking on your arms. So I feel like that’s a surgery I wouldn’t do unless I was in a certain amount of pain and really not living well, which is not the case. For the most part in day-to-day living, I’m good. Like, walking around, I feel pretty good. I have a hip issue and an ankle issue all down the same chain, so I kind of figured that would be a problem towards the end of my career. I have a back issue, too. So it’s not just my knee. It’s other parts of my body that are screaming at me too.”

Price seems to be stuck at a point where, if he does go through with his surgery and decides to perhaps play again, it could impact his quality of life later on and require another list of surgeries to get back to normal.

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It’s a path that the goaltender has pondered on and is likely looking to avoid.

“Yeah, I still have a desire to play the game,” said Price on his desire to play again “I go to training camp, right at the start of training camp, and I see all the kids, they’re getting ready. It’s like part of me is still … I still want to win, you know? So there’s a little bit of unfinished business there, but I’m also looking at it like what kind of damage would I do to my knee if I didn’t do the surgery and I tried to play again? Well, I’ve been told that I can do some pretty serious damage to my knee if I were to do that. And I’m not really looking to have a knee replacement done in five years.”

For Price, it becomes a question of life over passion, as he wants to be able to play with his children and do the things he loves away from the sport. It makes for a very difficult choice, as there are slight chances that he could return if he has another surgery on his knee, but there is no guarantee it would work or last very long.

“I want to be able to go out on the ice with Links (Lincoln) one day, you know? Or play soccer with my kids or go elk hunting with my family,” Price said. “These are things I want to be able to do when I’m, you know, officially done.”

After having carried the Canadiens on his back for a decade, Price needs to weigh the future against the present, and, to be frank, family will always come first.

If there is a way back for Price that will not hamper his future mobility and quality of life, fantastic. However, if this is it, then he has more than deserved retirement.