Carey Price
Carey Price is a Canadian professional ice hockey player who is a goaltender under contract with the San Jose Sharks of the National Hockey League. Considered one of the best goaltenders in the world during his career, Price is the winningest goaltender in Canadiens history as of the 2024–25 season, with 361 career wins.
Beginning his junior career with the Tri-City Americans in the Western Hockey League in 2002, Price was selected fifth overall by the Montreal Canadiens in the 2005 NHL entry draft following his second season with Tri-City. He won the Del Wilson Trophy as the top goaltender in the WHL, and CHL Goaltender of the Year in his final season of major junior in 2007. Joining the Canadiens' American Hockey League affiliate Hamilton Bulldogs in advance of that year's Calder Cup playoffs, Price led the Bulldogs to the team's first championship title and won the Jack A. Butterfield Trophy as playoff MVP. Price debuted in the NHL initially in a backup role during the 2007–08 season, before ultimately becoming the starting goaltender later that season. In 2015, he won the Ted Lindsay Award, William M. Jennings Trophy, Vezina Trophy, and Hart Memorial Trophy, becoming the first goaltender in NHL history to win all four awards in the same season. In 2021, Price led the Canadiens to their first Stanley Cup Final appearance since 1993 before eventually losing to the Tampa Bay Lightning in five games.
Internationally, Price has represented Canada at various junior ranked tournaments, winning silver medals at the World U-17 Hockey Challenge in 2004 and the World U18 Championship in 2005. He won a gold medal at the 2007 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships in Sweden. In 2014, Price was named to the Canadian Olympic Hockey Team and led his country to a gold medal at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, posting a.972 save percentage and 0.59 goals against average across five games. His play earned him the tournament's top goaltending award. In 2016, Price went undefeated en route to Team Canada winning the World Cup of Hockey.
Early life
Price was born in Vancouver to parents Lynda and Jerry. His mother previously served as chief of the Ulkatcho First Nation, while his father, also a goaltender, was selected by the Philadelphia Flyers in the 1978 NHL amateur draft. Although the foregoing never played in the NHL, he did play four seasons of professional hockey in various leagues and was for a time the goaltending coach of the Tri-City Americans. Price has a younger sister, Kayla, and is second cousins with former professional ice hockey player Shane Doan.When Price was three, his family moved to the remote town of Anahim Lake in central British Columbia where he was raised. He was taught to play goaltender by his father on a frozen creek during the winter months and played organized hockey in Williams Lake over five hours and away by car on Highway 20. Having to make the ten-hour round trip three days a week, Carey's father eventually bought a Piper PA-28 Cherokee to fly him to practice and games.
Playing career
Tri-City Americans (2003–2007)
Price made his first appearance in the Western Hockey League for the Tri-City Americans during the 2002–03 season. Securing a full-time roster spot the following season as the backup for Colorado Avalanche prospect Tyler Weiman, Price posted a 2.38 Goals against average and.915 save percentage appearing in 28 games. He took over as the primary starter of the team beginning in 2004–05 and quickly established himself as a top goaltender, playing in a league-high 63 games with a 2.34 GAA and.920 SV% and eight shutouts. Ranking as the best North American goaltender by NHL Central Scouting, Price was drafted fifth overall by the Montreal Canadiens. This move was considered surprising by many, both because Price was widely projected to be drafted in the middle of the first round, and because the Canadiens' then-current goaltender, José Theodore, had won the Vezina Trophy as the league's best goaltender three years prior.During the 2005–06 season, Price's play in Tri-City suffered considerably whereas he posted a 2.87 GAA and a.906 SV% across 55 games. Price rebounded with a very strong 2006–07 campaign, posting an excellent 2.45 GAA and.917 SV% while winning both the Del Wilson Trophy as the top WHL goaltender and the CHL Goaltender of the Year award. Despite this, the Americans were eliminated in six games during the 2007 postseason.
Hamilton Bulldogs (2007)
Following Tri-City's early playoff exit, Price joined the Canadiens' American Hockey League affiliate, the Hamilton Bulldogs, just before the start of the 2007 Calder Cup playoffs. In two regular season AHL appearances with the Bulldogs, Price allowed only three collective goals and posted a win. He then led the Bulldogs on a remarkable postseason run, defeating the Hershey Bears four games to one in the finals as the team won their first Calder Cup. With this, Price became only the third teenage goaltender to win the Jack A. Butterfield Trophy as AHL playoff MVP, posting a 2.06 GAA and.936 SV%.Montreal Canadiens (2007–2022)
Early career, Eastern Conference Final runs (2007–2014)
Price made his highly anticipated NHL debut on October 10, 2007, against the Pittsburgh Penguins and recorded 26 saves in a 3–2 win. He was awarded the Canadiens' Molson Cup for October, given to the player with the most first-star selections. Although reassigned to the AHL ranks midway through the season in January, he was called back up to Montreal shortly over a month later. With the move of starting goaltender Cristobal Huet to the Washington Capitals before the annual trade deadline, Price assumed the foregoing's role for the Canadiens. He was subsequently named the NHL Rookie of the Month for March and the NHL First Star of the Week as the Canadiens finished first overall in the Eastern Conference and earned their first division title since 1991–92. Price completed the regular season leading all rookie goaltenders in wins, SV% and shutouts. He was named to the NHL All-Rookie Team in recognition of his accomplishments in his first year in the NHL. Entering the 2008 playoffs against the eighth-seeded Boston Bruins, Price recorded a 1–0 win on April 15, 2008, becoming the first Canadiens rookie to post a playoff shutout since Patrick Roy over two decades prior in 1986. He would go on to record another shutout in game seven to eliminate the Bruins. The Canadiens were then upset in the second round in five games to the sixth-seeded Philadelphia Flyers, with Price losing three of the last four games.After a strong start to the 2008–09 season, in which he earned a second Molson Cup in November, Price injured his ankle in a game against the Tampa Bay Lightning on December 30, 2008. Forced out of action for nearly a month, during which time he was voted in as a starting goaltender for the 2009 NHL All-Star Game in Montreal, he made his return to action on January 20, 2009 replacing backup Jaroslav Halák who was pulled in a 4–2 loss to the Atlanta Thrashers. Qualifying for the 2009 playoffs as the eighth and final seed in the Eastern Conference, the Canadiens played the Boston Bruins in the opening round for the second consecutive season. They were swept in four games, with the Bruins scoring at least four times in each game. In the final game at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Price surrendered four goals in two periods. After stopping a weak dump-in, the crowd cheered sarcastically and Price responded by putting his arms up in the air, similar to Patrick Roy's infamous gesture on December 2, 1995, in a game after which Roy requested a trade from the Canadiens.
Price struggled throughout the 2009–10 season, winning only 13 games and losing the starting job to Halák as the Canadiens entered the 2010 playoffs as the eighth and final seed for the second consecutive season. The highlight of the season for Price was stopping 37 of 38 shots in a 5–1 win over the Boston Bruins in the Canadiens' 100th anniversary game on December 4, 2009, and the low point was surrendering four goals in his only start of the playoffs. Although the Canadiens made a surprisingly long playoff run to the Eastern Conference finals in the 2010 playoffs, upsetting both the Presidents' Trophy-winning Washington Capitals and the defending Stanley Cup champion and fourth-seeded Pittsburgh Penguins along the way before losing in a lopsided five-game series to the seventh-seeded Philadelphia Flyers in the Conference finals, Price appeared in only four games.
Entering the off-season period, both Price and Halák became restricted free agents whereas a debate emerged amongst fans and experts alike over who should remain with the team – the playoff hero Halák or the younger Price. After weeks of media speculation, the Canadiens chose Price, trading Halák to the St. Louis Blues and re-signing Price to a two-year, $5.5 million contract to return to his role as starting goaltender. During the 2010–11 season, Price played in 72 games recording new career highs including 38 wins, eight shutouts a 2.35 GAA and a.923 SV%, and was selected to play in the 2011 NHL All-Star Game. This collective performance from Price allowed the Canadiens to enter the 2011 playoffs as the sixth seed in the East before ultimately falling in seven games to the third-seeded and eventual Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins.
On October 26, 2011, Price earned his 100th win in his NHL career in his 214th game against the Philadelphia Flyers. A few months later, he participated in his third All-Star Game. The 2011–12 season, however, did not go well for the Canadiens as a team, and they missed the playoffs for the first time since the 2006–07 season and for the first time in Price's career having finished the season in last place in the Eastern Conference, putting them 14 points behind the last playoff spot in the standings.
On July 2, 2012, Price re-signed with the Canadiens on a six-year contract worth US$39 million.
During the lockout-shortened 2012–13 season, Price started the year very well, winning 18 of his first 28 starts as the Canadiens, in stark contrast to the previous season, were one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference, going 29–14–5, good enough for second in the conference. Price's play, however, dropped off in the final weeks of the season, going 2–6 and allowing 27 goals. Nonetheless, the Canadiens went into the 2013 playoffs as the second seed against the seventh-seeded Ottawa Senators. In game 4, with the score tied 2–2 as the third period came to an end, Price suffered a groin injury and did not return for the overtime period and was replaced by backup Peter Budaj; the Senators would go on to score and win the game. Price's injury sidelined him for the rest of the series and the Canadiens were eliminated in five games. Price ended the playoffs with a sub-par 3.26 GAA and a.894 SV%.
The 2013–14 season saw Price play 59 games and record 34 wins to go along with a career-best 2.32 GAA and.927 SV%, leading the Canadiens to their second 100-point season since the 2007–08 season, Price's rookie season. The Canadiens entered the 2014 playoffs as the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference against the Tampa Bay Lightning, whom they swept in four games, marking Price's first playoff series win since 2008 when he was a rookie. The Montreal Canadiens then faced the Presidents' Trophy-winning Boston Bruins in the second round, marking the fourth such matchup of Price's NHL career to date. In contrast to their previous two postseason meetings, the Canadiens upset the Bruins, ousting them in seven games. Following a 4–2 defeat in game 5 at TD Garden, Price shut out the Bruins in game 6 by a score of 4–0 before stopping 29 shots in a 3–1 victory in game 7 to eliminate Boston and advance to the conference finals. His and the Canadiens' run, however, ended against the New York Rangers. In game 1 at the Bell Centre, with the Rangers up 2–0 near the end of the second period, Rangers forward Chris Kreider collided into Price. He would briefly remain in the net, allowing two additional goals before the intermission. Price was then replaced by Budaj in the third period as the Rangers scored three more goals towards a 7–2 final. Days later, it was announced that Price had been ruled out for the rest of the series with an unspecified lower-body injury, the second consecutive year which saw a premature ending to his playoffs due to injury.