Still annoyed by his recurring knee injury, Carey Price could well miss the entire next season, general manager Kent Hughes said last week.
Worse still: his career may even be over. If so, what place would the goalie occupy in the rich history of the Montreal Canadiens? Would his number 31 jersey deserve to be retired?
Supporters are divided. To the question “Do you believe that Carey Price’s jersey should be retired by the CH?” asked on the TVA Sports site, 58.4% of fans answered no. The sample is considerable since nearly 4,000 votes have been recorded so far.
Jacques Plante, Ken Dryden and Patrick Roy are the three goaltenders whose numbers have been retired by the Montreal organization.
Price has worn only the blue-white-red uniform since joining the NHL in 2007. No other goalie has scored more wins than him with the Canadiens (361). He also holds the team record for the number of games played by a goalkeeper (712).
Discouraging News
The 35-year-old veteran’s condition is anything but encouraging, according to Hughes, who spoke with the media by videoconference last Thursday. He said then that he would not expect to see Price at the start of the season, at least for the first few months of the campaign.
“I’ve mentioned before that we’re in a gray area with Carey as to whether or not he’ll play and unfortunately that wasn’t something we could determine. [à l’époque]. We had to let time do things. But at this point, the news about Carey’s knee is pretty disheartening, in the sense that there hasn’t really been any improvement during the rehabilitation process,” Hughes said. See his full press briefing in the video above.
“During the off-season, he also received injections in his knee, but that didn’t help,” added the GM. We don’t expect Carey to be ready at the start of the season and quite frankly, I don’t know if there is a path that would allow Carey to come back this season.”
The British Columbian’s name would also be placed on the long-term injured list by the start of the season. This operation would allow the Habs to save $10.5 million on payroll, and thus free up enough space for the $6.375 million ordered by newcomer Sean Monahan.
Very long process
Price returned to action on April 15 after knee surgery during the offseason. He had also joined the National Hockey League’s player assistance program in October.
It was the second time in his career that he had missed the overwhelming majority of a campaign, having been sidelined for most of the 2015-16 season.
During his short five-game stint in April, he went 1-4 with a 3.63 goals-against average and .878 save percentage.
A former winner of the Hart, Vézina and Ted-Lindsay trophies, Price received the Bill-Masterton at the end of the season for his qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey.