Canadiens: Carey Price And The Hall Of Pretty Darn Good
By Scott Cowan
What’s coming after shroud of secrecy clears?
Going into this offseason and 2022-23, the Cold War levels of secrecy that have become commonplace have followed the Canadiens and Price as almost nobody knows whether he’s retired, ready to play next year, or will simply stay on LTIR until his contract expires.
What has been brought up though, is something that should be expected for a player with a career like Price’s, and that is, the Hockey Hall of Fame. My colleague Ken MacMillan has previously discussed this recently, and it’s a question that most Habs fans feel has a definitive answer.
Before I go any further here, it’s obvious at this point that I have my opinions both good and bad regarding Price, as is the case with pretty much every human being on Earth. However, I and many others agree, there was a time where price was the best goaltender in the NHL, and it wasn’t even close.
In the 2014-15 season, Price wrote his masters thesis in putting up a 44-16-6 record with a .933 SVP and 9 shutouts over 66 games. Those are outrageous numbers by any standard of the NHL past or present you hold a players performance to, and in my mind, Price’s 2014-15 season is one of the best by a goaltender in modern-day NHL history.
He swept the NHL awards that year taking home the Hart, Jennings, Vezina, and Ted Lindsay award, and had concretely and firmly established himself as a potential future Hall of Fame goalie. Yet, as much as I’d like to say the same for the rest of his time in Montreal, the same unfortunately, can’t be said.
Don’t get me wrong, Price has still been his dominant self at times over the past seven seasons, once again putting the Habs on his back in both 2016-17 and 2018-19, riding one of my personal favorite Habs squads in team history to just one game shy of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Yet, for every high in this case, there is ultimately a low, and no matter your previous opinions on Price and the regard you hold him in, he’s been more often shaky than not since injuries ended his 2015-16 season early, more akin to his earlier years when the Canadiens almost opted for Jaroslav Halak instead.
Montreal Canadiens goalie Carey Price is a likely inductee for the Hockey Hall of Fame. Whether he fits that category however, might be a different story.
Like any rookie, Price struggled out of the gate for the Canadiens after being taken fifth overall in the 2005 Draft. After leading the Hamilton Bulldogs to a Canadiens affiliates first, and to date, only modern-day Calder Cup in 2006-07, he bounced between starter and 1B roles over the next few seasons as he competed with a former unknown in a ninth round pick (yes really), in Halak.
While Price ultimately won the goaltending battle, it wasn’t without it’s hiccups along the way, and just as it seemed like he had moved on from them and entered his prime, they appeared once more, and the glasses of waters to remedy it seemed to come fewer and fewer.
After taking the Habs to the playoffs again in 2016-17, 2017-18, 2019-20, and most of the 2020-21 regular season were a different story, as Price posted fairly pedestrian numbers which were at times, pretty dismal, culminating in an inflated 3.11 GAA and 16-26-7 record (only his second career losing season) in 2017-18, ultimately losing the starting job at points to both Antti Niemi and even former AHL prospect Charlie Lindgren.
And well, that brings us to the 2022 off-season, where upon the future of Price’s NHL career being put in jeopardy, the discussion now turns to the Hall of Fame and well, I have this to offer. The Hockey Hall of Fame, in my opinion and the opinion of many others (fans and analysts alike) is that the differences between what makes a great player versus a Hall of Fame player, are more often than not, blurred and indistinct.
What I mean by this, is that the term “Hall of fame player” has a connotation associated with it that it honestly cannot upkeep, and ultimately, this affects players like Price, albeit mainly for again, that contrast between a great player and a Hall of Famer.