Losing Price could be the best thing to happen to the Habs
The Canadiens should be salivating at the thought of getting out from under that contract..Is Chris Driedger really a No. 1 goalie?...And don't expect Barclay Goodrow to become something he's not
From the time Carey Price’s eight-year, $84 million contract extension kicked in three years ago, 22 goalies in the NHL who have played at least 50 games in that time have a better save percentage than Price’s mark of .912. Eighteen of them have a better goals-against average. In that time, Price has cost the Canadiens a $10.5 million cap commitment and $39.75 million in real money, with another $13 million in salary due in 2021-22. In fact, an $11 million signing bonus is due to Price in September.
Even with the fact that Price almost singlehandedly carried the Canadiens to the Stanley Cup final this past season, you could easily make the argument that he has not given the Canadiens anywhere near full value on that deal. During the regular season in 2020-21, he was porous.
That’s why losing Carey Price to the Seattle Kraken in the expansion draft could turn out to be the best thing that has ever happened to them. It’s not about the player, it’s not about the person, and at this point it’s almost not even about the performance. It’s about the contract. And this one is a bad one. Anytime you can get out from under a deal like that one, it’s a good thing.
The cold reality is the Canadiens have five years remaining on this deal and even without the uncertainties surrounding his health, they really have no idea what kind of performance their No. 1 goalie is going to give them. He turns 34 in fewer than four weeks and he’s breaking down. Does anyone really expect he’ll sustain in the long-term the form he displayed for two months in the 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs? It’s not even doubtful. It’s next to impossible.
And if you’re a Montreal Canadiens fan, when you look back at the Cup final run and ahead to the future, are you really excited about what Price and Shea Weber are going to contribute going forward? No, you look at that run and what should really excite you is what Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Alexander Romanov – albeit in a very limited run – showed you.
There are very real concerns about Price’s long-term health. If his injury is career-threatening, the Canadiens could simply put Price on the long-term injured reserve list, perhaps even permanently if the injury is severe. That, of course, would take care of the cap problems right there. But if I’m the Canadiens, I welcome the opportunity to make that the Kraken’s issue to address.
Think of the possibilities. With Price gone in the expansion draft, you know immediately and unequivocally that you have $10.5 million in cap space that you previously didn’t. Even with Jonathan Drouin’s $5 million parked on LTIR, the Canadiens have about $14 million in cap space going into next season. But they have only eight NHL-caliber forwards and six NHL defensemen under contract. Having $24.5 million with which to work gives the Canadiens all kinds of possibilities, and those possibilities become even more plentiful if Shea Weber and his $7.9 million cap hit find their way to LTIR.
Suddenly, that puts you in the running to sign a premier defenseman such as Dougie Hamilton or a coveted forward such as Gabriel Landeskog, or both. And it sets you up much better for the summer of 2022, when Suzuki and Romanov will be looking for new deals. It’s not a stretch to suggest that losing Price in the expansion draft could be a franchise-altering moment for the Canadiens, and not in a bad way.
Hockey Unfiltered with Ken Campbell is a reader-supported platform. Both free and paid subscriptions are available. Those who want to support my work are encouraged to take out a paid subscription.
IS DRIEDGER DARLING 2.0?
Speaking of Seattle goalies, they’ll have $14 million tied up in their two netminders if they pick Price up. With former Florida Panthers stopper Chris Driedger reportedly agreeing to terms on a three-year deal worth $10.5 million - that’s Price’s cap hit for one season, by the way – the Kraken look to be very well positioned in goal. They could pick up Kaapo Kahkonen from Minnesota or Vitek Vanecek from Washington, or maybe both.
Driedger is an interesting case. There are a lot of worries that he could be Scott Darling 2.0, a goalie who thrived as a backup and played well for stretches, but ultimately crumbled when presented with a No. 1 goalie’s workload and pressure to deliver. And as great as he was last season in Florida, the fact remains he only has 38 NHL starts to his name and he’s been a pro for seven seasons.
The Kraken should have enough goaltenders in their system to insure themselves against disaster should Driedger not be up to the task. But unlike pre-Vegas expansion teams, the Kraken will be, at worst, a capable NHL team in by far the weakest division in the NHL. It’s not as though he’s going to be thrown to the wolves.
IS GOODROW A GOOD DEAL?
A long-time NHL executive once told me that when players sign big free-agent deals, they don’t change as players. What changes are the expectations. And that’s what makes the Barclay Goodrow reported signing with the New York Rangers so interesting, and potentially disastrous.
A six-year deal worth $3.6 million per season is a lot of term and money for a guy who averages roughly one goal every 10 games and has the same number of career NHL goals (32) in seven seasons of pro hockey that Alex DeBrincat had in the 2020-21 campaign alone. But goals are not the entire equation, nor are advanced analytics. We already know Goodrow is a winner. He’s proven that. And when the Tampa Bay Lightning and Rangers play for the first time next season, Lightning coach Jon Cooper will be asked about Goodrow and he’ll probably wax poetic in a lengthy diatribe talking about how important he was to the two Cup triumphs.
So if the Rangers are comfortable giving that kind of term and money to a guy who doesn’t provide much in the way of offense, but is off the charts when it comes to intangibles, they live with that deal and don’t look back. Where this deal has the potential to go south is if people start to believe now that Goodrow has received an almost 300 percent raise, he’ll become something that he’s not. If you’re suddenly looking for 20 goals from this guy, you’re almost certainly going to be disappointed.
Finally someone who says it like it about the CH losing Price. I love Price. He was amazing during the playoff but at his age and injury history Bergevin should be praying that Seattle takes him.