Carey Price, The Canadiens, And The Hockey Hall Of Fame Discussion

Regardless of how long you’ve been a Montreal Canadiens fan, in the last two decades there has been one name that has become synonymous with success: Carey Price.

However, there has been a longstanding debate regarding his status among other talented NHL players.

Is Price worthy of the Hockey Hall of Fame? Or better yet; should the Habs hang his No.31 hung in the rafters, making Price he 16th number retired by the franchise? One of the best goaltenders in the history of the NHL, Ken Dryden, believes they should. “I think the answer is pretty clear,” said Dryden less than a month ago at Serge Savard’s golf tournament.

Given that Price is the franchise leader, or among the franchise leaders in all important goaltending statistics, Dryden’s argument certainly holds water. Price set the franchise record for the most games played (712), the most saves (19304), as well as the most career wins (361). He ranks third in shutouts (49), trailing Hall of Famers Ken Dryden (58) and George Hainsworth (75). We must also recognize that the Canadiens have enjoyed the richest history of goaltending among all NHL teams, putting Price’s exploits in a much brighter spotlight, but more on that later.

Carey Price’s Exploits With Team Canada And The Montreal Canadiens

The fifth overall pick in 2005, Price eventually evolved into the most influential player in the organization. Promoted to the NHL ahead of the 2007-08 season, Price was coming off a Calder Cup win in the AHL, not to mention the CHL Goaltender Of The Year award. He also helped Canada secure a gold medal at the 2007 World Junior Championship, maintaining a fantastic .961 save percentage throughout the tournament. Not only was he the Goaltender Of The Tournament, Price was also named as the tournament’s Most Valuable Player.

At the 2014 Winter Olympics, held in Sochi, Russia, Price was nothing short of lights out throughout the entirety of the tournament. He was named the starter ahead of  veterans Roberto Luongo and Mike Smith. The decision paid off in spades, as Price shutout the arch rival Americans in the semi-finals, and then blanked Sweden in the final game, securing a gold medal for his fellow Canadians. With a sparkling .972 save percentage, he took home Olympic Best Goaltender honours, a well-deserved accolade.

Later that season, the Canadiens road Price’s coattails all the way to the Eastern Conference final, beating the Tampa Bay Lightning and Boston Bruins before they had to face the New York Rangers. And that’s where things literally came crashing down, as Canadiens defenceman Alexei Emelin tripped Chris Kreider in the first game of the series, resulting in an unfortunate and disastrous crash that all but eliminated any hope the Habs would make it to the Cup final. Carey Price bounced back the following season, finishing with 44 wins, a fantastic 1.96 goals against average, and a great .933 save percentage.

Following his record-setting numbers, Price cleaned house at the NHL Awards Gala. He won almost all categories he was nominated for; the Vezina for top goalie, the Hart for league MVP, the Ted Lindsay for MVP A voted by his peers, and he shared the William Jennings Award for lowest amount of goals against with the Chicago Blackhawks’ Corey Crawford.

Unfortunately, by that point, injuries plagued Price, limiting the number of starts he could make. Despite his health concerns, Price still managed to surpass Hall of Fame goaltender Jacques Plante in 2018, by playing in his 557th career game with the franchise. Price reached another historical level in 2018, recording his 290th career win as a Hab, surpassing Patrick Roy for second all-time. In 2019, he recorded win number 315, passing Plante, and becoming the Canadiens’ all-time leader in wins in the process.

His final playoffs with Montreal came in  2020-21, when he was able to almost single-handedly help propel them to a berth in the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since 1993. Thanks to Price’s stellar play, the Canadiens upset the Maple Leafs, the Jets, and the Vegas Golden Knights, before losing to the Tampa Bay Lightning in a battle for Lord Stanley’s Cup. Once the season was over, it was revealed that Price had been dealing with a serious knee issue for years, which necessitated surgical repair. He also entered the NHL/NHLPA’s Player Assistance Program, a decision that helped remove the stigma that is attached to mental health, as well as substance abuse.

He would miss the majority of the 2021-22 campaign, but he made one last attempt to return to the lineup, playing in the season finale, winning 10-2 over the Florida Panthers, his last career start for the Canadiens.

Context Is Everything When Evaluating Carey Price

We’ve already established that Price put together fantastic statistics during his tenure in the NHL, and yet some will maintain that his lack of Stanley Cups should dictate his overall value to the organization, a tired and archaic way of evaluating players in Montreal.

Price never had the support from the type of offensive power former Hall of Fame goaltenders enjoyed in Montreal. To put in perspective, when Ken Dryden was winning Stanley Cups, he had Hall of Fame players up and down the lineup, including Guy Lafleur, Jean Beliveau, Henri Richard, Steve Shutt, Larry Robinson, Bob Gainey, – and the list goes on and on.

On the flip side, the most productive player during his time with the Canadiens was Alexei Kovalev, who had 84 points during Price‘s rookie season. Since then, the second-most productive forward in front of Price was Max Domi, who had 72 points in 2018-19. With all due respect to the aforementioned players, they’re clearly not on the same level as the laundry list of elite forwards who played in front of Plante, Dryden, and even Roy.

Former Vancouver Canucks goaltender Roberto Luongo is a good starting point when discussing Price’s exploits. Luongo played between 1999-2019, made the Cup finals once (2011), never won a Vezina or Hart trophies, and yet his number is retired by both the Canucks and Florida Panthers. The main difference is that Luongo had the likes of Markus Naslund and the Sedin twins in his lineups. All three of whom earned more than 100 points in a single season. For what it’s worth, Luongo was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2022.

Carey Price Brass Tacks

It’s always difficult to discuss jersey retirements in Montreal, since the standard has been set sky-high due to the team’s rich history of success.

But the era of dynasties is over. If we limit the jerseys retired by the Canadiens to those who won multiple Stanley Cups, few, if any players will be recognized as an important part of the franchise going forward.

Not only is this unfair for Price and Co., it robs relatively new Habs fans of an opportunity to celebrate one of the few players who brought a modicum of success and excitement to the ice in the last 20 years. It’s a frustrating result given those very fans are the ones who kept supporting the team throughout very difficult seasons.

We cannot let the past erase the future, regardless of how the league has evolved since the original six era. If anything, the lack of support for Price should be a feather in his cap, not an unreasonable roadblock over which he had no control.

Simply put, Carey Price deserves his place among the greatest players in franchise history.