Montreal Canadiens 5th Overall Pick History Part 6: Carey Price
The Montreal Canadiens recieved the 5th overall pick this year, for the 8th time in their long and storied franchise. So for the summer months we are going to go over all the past 5th overall picks, from Bouchard to Reinbacher. This time, we are looking at the one and only Carey Price.
The Montreal Canadiens are selecting 5th overall in the 2024 NHL draft, and not matter who they pick, the future is more than likely very bright. Generally, the 5th overall pick turns out to be a quality NHL player, and Habs fans are hoping David Reinbacher and this year's pick will continue that trend.
Montreal's first 5th overall pick was Pierre Bouchard, a physical defenseman and second generation Canadien who won multiple Cups with the club. Next was the reign of Ken Dryden, who blocked the crease for former 5th overall picks Phil Myre and Ray Martynuik. Myre went on to be a part of the longest unbeaten streak in North American sports history, and Martynuik threw his goalie equipment in a lake and never played an NHL game.
Then came Cam Connor, and the double draft of 1974. Connor was selected by the Canadiens of the NHL and the Phoenix Roadrunners of the WHA, and spent most of his career in the WHA, but playing one year with the Habs and winning the Cup there.
And then the Canadiens got their first ever Czech player in Petr Svoboda, who bravely defected to North America and was hid in a hotel room until draft day. He became the first Czech player to play 1,000 games and became the agent for Czech legend Jaromir Jagr.
It would be a long time for the Montreal Canadiens to pick 5th overall again. Over 20 years in fact. And in tradition with this series, the 2005 NHL draft was hardly normal.
The NHL lost the entire 2004-05 season due to the lockout, which actually bled into the off season and pushed the draft back, and the NHL lost the venue, the Ottawa Senators home arena, and it had to do privately in a hotel. Only the top 20 prospects were allowed due to a lack of room.
And since the NHL didn't play the whole season, they had to come up with a brand new lottery to determine who would get to draft Sidney Crosby. It might be the only year I can think that every single team had a chance to win the first overall pick.
The odds were determined by who had not made the playoffs, or selected first overall in the past 3 seasons. The Habs actually made it quite well by going 5th, as they were in the third group, with just a 2.1% chance of selecting 1st overall.
I'm not going to say that any player should have been picked above Price at 5th overall. The draft was pretty solid, but Sidney Crosby and Anze Kopitar stand head and shoulders above the rest of the skating competition. The only goalie that comes close to Price, is Johnathan Quick, but when its all said and done, I can't say I would take Quick over Price.
The Face of the Franchise
What can be said about Carey Price that isn't just that he was the best player for the Canadiens for a generation, and was the best goalie in the entire league.
Pierre McGuire bashing the Canadiens for taking Carey Price 5th overall in 2005 pic.twitter.com/GXPo9bVCw8
— Austin Pedue (@BlackhawksDzone) July 12, 2021
Hindsight is 20/20, but I can't think of a better person to be so wrong about Carey Price than Pierre McGuire. This is from the guy that was part of the team that went way off the board with Tyler Boucher.
But he kind of did have a point. Jose Theodore had been a great goalie for the Canadiens, and had won the Vezina trophy a couple of years ago. And, stop me if you heard this one before, the team down the centre was weak.
But the Canadiens let Price grow in the minors, and he immediately made a huge impact right away. In his first season in the AHL, Price came up right at the end of the season, played two games and then led the team to win the Memorial Cup and winning the playoffs MVP.
The next season, Price played over 40 games in the NHL, and never looked back. Outside of Jaroslav Halak going insane in one playoff, Price had never relinquished the crease.
He was always great, but 2014-15 was a different beast. Price had, arguably the greatest season a goalie has ever had. In 66 games, Price won 44 games with a 1.96 goals against average and 0.933 save percentage. He won the Ted Lindsay, William M. Jennings, Vezina and Hart trophies, the first time a player had ever done that.
But Price had a very consistent career, only reaching a goals against average above 3 and a save percentage under 0.900. There were only two things that kept Price from reaching the ultimate prize.
#1 was definitely the injuries. In 2015-16, Price only played 12 games, and the team fell off a cliff. And then there was the 2014-15 playoffs, and one breakaway chance by Chris Kreider gone wrong, and Price and the Canadiens were knocked out of the playoffs in the Eastern Final.
#2 was the team in front of him. The Canadiens during this time really struggled to put the puck in the net, and it really hurt the team, especially in the pllayoffs. Max Pacioretty was as steady as clockwork, but he was not near enough. The Canadiens generally had solid defense with P.K. Subban, Andrei Markov and Josh Gorges, but when you are playing 2-1 hockey games, you are walking a tightrope.
And, sadly, Price left everything on the ice during the Canadiens 2021, and it wasn't enough as the Canadiens fell to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Finals. It would be the closest Price would ever get to the Stanley Cup as a player.
Carey Price did try to return, playing a few games the next year, but there weren't many. His final game as of right now, and it looks like of his career at this point, was a fantastic 10-2 win over the Florida Panthers, right after the legendary #10 Guy Lafleur had passed away.
And lately, Carey Price was on stage to announce the next fifth overall pick for the Canadiens, in the weirdest way possible: David Reinbacher.