Montreal Canadiens: You Can’t Trade Carey Price

Carey Price has not been Carey Price and despite his struggles with the Montreal Canadiens so far in the season, trading him will not solve the problem.

If anyone were to stop you in the middle of the street in August and scream, “Hey! Carey Price sucks!”, what would you say? You’d probably give them a flurry of eyebrow raises and laugh. Price sucking on the Montreal Canadiens? No way!

The Habs have had the pleasure of having Price as their starting goaltender for a number of years. He’s led the team to yearly playoff appearances, save for the 2015-16 season, including an Eastern Conference Final in 2014. Additionally, Price walked out of Vegas in the summer of 2015 with the Hart, Ted Lindsay, Vezina, and William M. Jennings awards.

Price has played in 11 of the Habs’ 13 games this year. Unfortunately, he’s 3-7-1 with a .846 save percentage. The fans have already started to get on him a little bit dating back to the team’s loss to the Los Angeles Kings. Price was the victim of some booing and the infamous Bronx call in the third period of that game.

Fast forward to Thursday night’s game, and the fan base has split into three unequal parts. There is the small portion who acknowledges that Price is going through a slump and will be bounce back. Then there’s the largest portion of fans who are furious saying that Price, the goalie who was and still is considered the best goalie in the world, sucks. Finally, there’s a group who are saying that the Habs need to trade Price.

Here’s the thing, you can’t trade Carey Price and it’s for more reasons than you think.

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What a Price Trade Means

There are both literal and inferred reasons to why the Montreal Canadiens can’t trade him. The funny thing is that you easily. A lot of teams in the league are set in net, but there are others who would jump at the chance to add Price to their organization. A quick example would be the Florida Panthers who have lost a lot of games due to poor goaltending.

Obviously the receiving team would have to find a way to make the money work, but if it’s for Price, they’ll find a way.

If the Habs trade Price, the season, if not already, is 100% done. Some fans have said that Al Montoya or Charlie Lindgren could fill in the starting role for the rest of the season but come on. With all due respect to Montoya, the most amount of games he’s ever played was 31 six years ago. He also had a .893 save percentage.

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Lindgren will definitely be a part of the Habs’ solutions in net one day, but not now. He’s had shaky performances in the AHL with Laval giving up 30 goals in six games with a .885 save percentage to match. Unless the Montreal Canadiens acquire a goalie in return who drinks Michael Jordan’s secret stuff from Space Jam, things will be significantly worse.

There’s one more thing to take into consideration. Price has been the focal point of the Habs organization for the years. Marc Bergevin has built the team from the net out and done everything in his power to surround him with talent to win. If Price is traded, the old era is done. If Price is traded, get in your tanks engines because there’s the rebuild.

Bergevin at the very least could swing it and hint at more of a retool, but it’ll have to lead to a rebuild eventually.

Take a Breath

Habs fans need to take the mindset of that smaller portion of the fan base. Is Price under performing? 100%. Is he had a bad goalie? Not a chance. Everyone in the league is allowed to have a slump, but just because Price is in one doesn’t mean he should be traded.

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Management is committed to him, and they will be for the next eight years. Price just needs time to dig deep and find that goaltender that stopped everything whether it was point-blank or through traffic. Additionally, the players in front of him need to improve their play and make it easier for him. Not just in being responsible, but by giving Price some goal support here or there.

Some fans are worried that Price may pull a Patrick Roy and ask for a trade. According to CapFriendly.com, he does have a 15-team no trade list. If Price is moved, it will be on his terms. However, let’s just get that thought out of our heads.

As impulsive and fearless Bergevin is, I doubt this is a move he ever makes.

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