Montreal Canadiens Cayden Primeau Will One Day Take Carey Price's Job

The Montreal Canadiens selected Cayden Primeau in the 7th round of the 2017 NHL Draft. He is proving to be an absolute steal of a pick as he begins his AHL career.

The Montreal Canadiens had a goaltending controversy in 2010. They had drafted Carey Price with the fifth overall pick in the 2005 NHL Draft. They took Jaroslav Halak two years earlier but in the now extinct ninth round of the draft. Halak was basically an afterthought at the time of his draft, but a few years later he was proving to be a legit NHL starter.

By the end of the 2009-10 season, the Habs, then led by general manager Bob Gainey had a difficult decision to make. Price was supposed to the elite starter of the future but he was clearly outplayed by Halak that season. Not only did Halak steal the number one job, he carried the Canadiens on his back to the eastern conference final.

Halak was a 25 year old restricted free agent and Price was a 23 year old restricted free agent. One of them had to go and one of them had to be trusted with the most scrutinized job in sports. The Canadiens elected to stay with the original plan and keep Price, shuttling Halak off to the St. Louis Blues for Lars Eller and Ian Schultz. It has proven to be a great decision.

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Since then, there has been no question at any point whatsoever as to who was the number one goaltender in Montreal. That’s an entire decade without a controversy about who is the right man to tend goal for the Canadiens. Not even Patrick Roy enjoyed that long of a tenure without many calling for him to be sat or traded. After an uncharacteristic mediocre regular season in 1992-93, many fans and media were calling fro Andre Racicot to start Game 3 of the opening round playoff series against the Quebec Nordiques.

Since Halak left town, Price’s backups include Alex Auld, Peter Budaj, Dustin Tokarski, Mike Condon, Al Montoya, Antti Niemi and now Keith Kinkaid. Almost all of them were veteran backups signed to short term contracts with the sole purpose of playing 15 or so games and allowing Price to dominate the crease.

There has really been no competition for the job in ten years. Zach Fucale was drafted in the second round in 2013 and was supposed to push to steal the starter’s role by now, but he has struggled since turning pro and never came close to Price’s crease. The only other goaltender drafted between 2010 and 2017 was Hayden Hawkey who was a sixth round pick.

Hawkey was eventually traded to the Edmonton Oilers for a fifth round draft pick before he elected to leave college and turn pro.

Things may have changed at the 2017 NHL Draft. The Canadiens used a late pick, in fact they traded for a late pick, and decided to select Cayden Primeau who had pretty pedestrian numbers in the USHL.

Primeau immediately turned things around after being picked by the Canadiens. He headed to Northeastern the following season and was exceptional for two years. He helped the Huskies win the Beanpot Trophy both years, posting a 1.92 goals-against average and a .931 save percentage as a freshman. He followed that up with a 2.09 GAA and .933 SV% last season as a sophomore.

He won Hockey East Goaltender of the Year Award in his first year, but was named the Mike Richter Award winner in his second year as the best goaltender in college hockey.

Primeau was even better while representing the United States at the World Junior Hockey Championships. He started five games for USA and posted a 1.61 GAA with a .936 SV%. The Americans would lose the gold medal game but Primeau was outstanding from start to finish in that tournament.

The Voorhees, New Jersey native just turned 20 years old in August. It is one thing to have a great tournament at the World Juniors. It’s another thing to have a great college career. It is a whole other level to have success in professional hockey. Not many 20 year old goaltenders can dominate at the pro level.

It has only been five games, but Primeau has shown there is no slowing him down at any level. The first game of his pro career came on October 5th against the Cleveland Monsters. He faced 29 shots, stopped 27 of them and took a loss as the Laval Rocket struggled to score.

Prime’s next game was against the Rockford Ice Hogs and this time he held his opponent to one goal so he could get his first victory. He stopped 21 of 22 shots in that contest. The Rocket would not be so tight defensively over his next three starts. Primeau stopped 32 of 34 against Providence, allowed three on 32 shots against Belleville and then had his best night yet, kicking aside 38 shots in a 3-2 shootout victory against Providence.

To sum it all up, Primeau has allowed ten goals in his five AHL contests to date. He has a 3-2 record but a 1.99 GAA with an incredible .937 SV%. His save percentage has dipped below .935 in just one of his five games.

It has been just five games with the Rocket. But it was two full years of domination at high levels of hockey as a teenager before that as well. Also, it’s not like Primeau is playing behind a dominant defensive team that makes it easy on him to post great numbers. His counterpart, Charlie Lindgren has played five games as well but has a 2.95 GAA with an .885 SV%.

The Rocket are far from a powerhouse at 4-5-1 after ten games. In fact, they are lucky to win that many games, with Primeau standing on his head in three narrow victories early in the season.

It is an incredible amount of talent and poise to see from a young man that just turned 20 years of age. If he keeps this up, and why wouldn’t he since he has been great since the Canadiens drafted him, it won’t be long before we start asking when is he going to be in the NHL?

If you look at many of the American goaltender currently playing well in the NHL, many of them had some AHL seasoning. Connor Hellebuyck played two full seasons as an AHL starter before taking over the crease in Winnipeg. John Gibson played one full AHL season and parts of two more where he split time between the NHL and AHL. Thatcher Demo played two full AHL seasons before splitting last year with the Utica Comets and Vancouver Canucks.

I could see Primeau following a similar path. There is no rush to get him to the NHL this season. Even next season, it won’t hurt to have Primeau play the majority of Laval’s games after splitting starts with Lindgren this season.

However, it will then be decision time. If things continue to go well for Primeau for two full AHL seasons, he will be making a case to be in the National Hockey League. At that point in time, he will be 22 years old and Price will be 34 with five years left on his contract that has an annual cap hit of $10.5 million.

Primeau could then spend some time as a very busy backup. It wouldn’t hurt him to play 30 games while learning the ropes up close from Carey Price. After his third pro season though, Primeau will be a restricted free agent. If he thinks he will be backing Price up for five more years, he may refuse to sign and ask to be traded instead. Who wants to be a backup goaltender until they are 27 years old?

Nobody. Which is why Cayden Primeau is going to eventually steal Carey Price’s job. The Habs will have a tough choice to make but will have to make it following the 2021-22 season at the latest. At that point, they will have an excellent young American goaltender pushing an aging, future Hall of Fame Canadian goaltender.

It will basically be a repeat of what we saw in Vancouver years ago. Around the same time the Price-Halak debate was going on, there was a Cory Schneider–Roberto Luongo controversy with the Canucks. Luongo was almost traded once and infamously claimed it didn’t happen because his “contract sucks.”

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Price’s contract may very well suck in a few years. Primeau may be the heir apparent. It will be tough choice in the future, much like it was for Mike Gillis in Vancouver. Let’s just hope the Canadiens don’t trade both of them and up with Eddie Lack as their starter.

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