Montreal Canadiens: Three Times The Habs Failed To Capitalize On Carey Price’s Greatness

2010-11 Season

The Canadiens made a run to the Eastern Conference Final in 2010, and then traded Halak who carried them there. This put the hopes of the franchise squarely on Carey Price’s shoulders, and he looked every bit up to the task in 2010-11.

Still just 23 years old, Price took on a huge workload by playing 72 games and he posted a 2.35 GAA and a .923 SV%. He finished 5th in Vezina Trophy voting, helped the Habs finish as the 6th seed in the east despite significant injuries and gave them a fighting chance in their first round against the stacked Boston Bruins.

The Canadiens mangement team, led at that time by general manager Pierre Gauthier, didn’t really go all out at the trade deadline. When Andrei Markov was injured early in the season, they acquired James Wisniewski and later picked up Brent Sopel for defensive depth.

However, Max Pacioretty was having a fine breakout season and was firmly in the team’s top six when he was injured by a jarring check from Zdeno Chara. Pacioretty had 14 goals and 24 points in 37 games at the time of his injury but the Habs chose not to acquire anyone to add to their top six forward group.

When Pacioretty was healthy early in that season, he joined Mike Cammalleri, Brian Gionta, Andrei Kostitsyn, Tomas Plekanec and Scott Gomez in a decent, yet unspectacular top six. Without Pacioretty, the team was forced to try and have Benoit Pouliot, Mathieu Darche or Travis Moen play top six minutes every night.

The Canadiens would lose in overtime in Game 7 in the first round to the Bruins that year, before the Bruins embarked on a Stanley Cup championship run. There is no telling how much farther they could have gone with an added top six piece, but with Price putting up a 2.11 GAA and a .934 SV% against the powerhouse Bruins, that year’s Habs would have been a tough out for anyone.

But, they very well could have knocked off their eldest rival in that first round had they gone out and acquired someone like Dustin Penner, Brad Boyes or even an aging Cory Stillman or Alex Kovalev on the cheap at that year’s trade deadline.

2014-15 Season

The 2014-15 season was when Carey Price was at his absolute best. He had just won a gold medal at the 2014 Olympics with Canada while posting ridiculous numbers, and he was doing the same at the NHL level all season.

At season’s end, Price had a 1.96 GAA, a .933 SV%, 44 wins in 66 games and a whole lot of hardware that was handed out at the annual awards ceremony. Price was picked as the Hart Trophy winner, the Vezina winner, the Lester Pearson winner and he also took home the William Jennings Trophy.

The Canadiens, as a team, were cruising along all year, finishing the season with 110 points, tops among their division and second in the eastern conference. However, there were some clear needs on the roster, as David Desharnais was their first line centre but had just 14 goals and 48 points on the season.

The team was also using Dale Weise on the top line quite frequently and definitely could have used some scoring help. Instead, they traded for Jeff Petry, which turned out to be a fantastic deal, but at the time he wasn’t a big point producer. Up front, they only acquired Torrey Mitchell and Bryan Flynn at the deadline, and Devante Smith-Pelly was added a few weeks earlier.

The Canadiens scored seven goals in the first two games of the playoffs, against Andrew Hammond in the Senators goal, and then had just 18 more goals for in the next ten games and they lost in the second round to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Would they have fared better had they acquired someone like David Perron or Jaromir Jagr who were available that year and could have bumped Dale Weise from the top line? What about Antoine Vermette, who went to the Chicago Blackhawks at the deadline and was their second line centre as they won the Stanley Cup?

Yes, yes they would have done better. They had the best goaltender in the world and not nearly enough scoring so they picked up Torrey Mitchell and Brian Flynn and it didn’t work out. Looking back, would trading the first round pick that became Noah Juulsen have been too much to add a first line forward like David Perron?

2016-17 Season

The 2017 NHL trade deadline has gone down in Habs history for all of the wrong reasons. You probably saw this one coming, and already know the three players off by heart that the Habs picked up that year, but let’s take a look back at a few dreadful decisions anyway.

The Canadiens were once again having a solid regular season, and Carey Price was a big part of it. He played 62 games that season and had a 2.23 GAA with a .923 SV%. It was the first season he had Shea Weber in front of him and the team had one of the lowest goals against in the league, which is often a recipe for postseason success.

However, they were not a high scoring team as both Plekanec and Gallagher really struggled offensively and each of them finished the season with less than 30 points. Desperately needing offence to complement a team that had Price in net and a great trio of defenders in Weber, Markov and Petry, the Habs made some interesting trade deadline decisions.

When the dust settled on deadline day, the Canadiens had acquired Steve Ott, Andreas Martinsen and Dwight King. They combined to play 51 games with the Habs, scoring one goal and one assist.

There were not a lot of top six forwards traded at that year’s deadline, but bringing back Thomas Vanek for another playoff run, or pulling the trigger on a heavily rumoured Matt Duchene deal would have given the Canadiens, and Carey Price, a much better chance at a long playoff run with some added scoring.

Instead, the Habs bowed out meekly in the first round in six games, scoring just 11 goals, less than two per game.

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