MONTREAL – The moment it became obvious to Carey Price that his playing career was essentially over, when it was still painful to climb his stairs at home, or play with his kids, let alone play goal in the NHL, there was one thing he wanted to make sure he did not become to the only professional hockey organization he had ever known.
He did not want to be a burden.
This was back in 2022, back when Price still had a smidgen of hope that the obvious final outcome would not be the final outcome, back when Price saw the opening of training camp as inspiring, as a reason to maintain that smidgen of hope. But once that camp opened, and he was clearly not going to be a participant, he stopped using the Canadiens’ training facilities, and he stopped visiting their staff.
He did not want to be a burden.
The irony of that desire was clearly lost on Price.
To Price, the team included everyone, and everyone was vital to its success. (Eric Bolte / Imagn Images)
For the entirety of his NHL career, he bore the burden of the Canadiens’ success. He was literally a cornerstone of the franchise — the southeast corner of the Bell Centre had a five-story photo of him for many years that was only recently removed. Everything the Canadiens did since Price’s arrival was painted by Price. Their successes, and also their failures in more conceptual ways, were dictated by Price. He was so good that he often kept the Canadiens competitive almost single-handedly, but he was also so good that it prevented the Canadiens from drafting the high-end talent that would have given Price and the Canadiens their best chance at success.
That is a heavy burden that Price carried for as long as he played hockey for a living.
But from the moment Price could no longer do that, despite his singular desire for this not to be the case, Price was a financial burden on the Canadiens, his $10.5 million a year contract forcing the Canadiens to operate in long-term injured reserve and massively complicating their ability to manage an NHL team.
That burden was lifted Friday when the Canadiens announced Price and his contract had been packaged with a fifth-round pick in 2026 to the San Jose Sharks in exchange for defenceman Gannon Larocque, who will potentially become the answer to an obscure trivia question as the only player to ever be traded for Carey Price. The contract Price signed on July 2, 2017, the biggest in Canadiens history, is now gone, and the Canadiens can move on to another competitive phase, one based on a properly-built team as opposed to an adequate one playing in front of an all-world goalie.
Price would cringe at that characterization of his time in Montreal because of what a great teammate he was, but it’s undeniably accurate. Having covered his entire career, I have seen the ups and downs Price went through in Montreal, arriving as a teenager and becoming a man, raising a family and confronting his issues with mental health and substance use in a very public way in an effort to help others.
It would be impossible to sum it all up in a few paragraphs.
But there is one moment among dozens that I’ve thought of most since the announcement of Price’s trade at 5 p.m. ET on Friday afternoon. That moment came in Buffalo on Nov. 7, 2018, the day before the Canadiens were to face the Sabres. The team was coming off the ice after practice, and I was waiting to speak to defenceman Karl Alzner, who was staying on late because he was a healthy scratch at the time. It was a difficult time for Alzner, and I knew Price was close with him, so when I saw Price sitting by himself in the locker room, I took the opportunity to ask him about what Alzner was going through.
Price answered my questions, and when Alzner finally came off the ice and entered the room, I left Price to talk to him. Alzner was a grown man at this point, just over a month after his 30th birthday, an NHL veteran who has always been able to handle himself capably in interviews.
Price could have left the room at that moment, but he didn’t. He stuck around, pretending to work on his equipment, but clearly hanging out to make sure that the interview with Alzner did not cross any boundaries. A few minutes passed, and I definitely got the impression Price was eavesdropping. Once he was sure everything was fine, Price got up and left.
It was a subtle moment, but to my eyes, a telling one. Price cared about his teammates; he cared about his team, he wanted the experience to be about the collective and never about him. He understood at once how important he was to the team, but how important someone like Alzner was as well, even though, unbeknownst to anyone, Alzner only had nine games left in his NHL career at that point.
To Price, the team included everyone, and everyone was vital to its success.
Which is what makes the lifting of the Price burden for the Canadiens at this very moment that much more appropriate.
Price lifting his no-movement clause to allow this trade to the Sharks gives the Canadiens somewhere in the vicinity of $5 million in cap space entering the season. It should, assuming the Canadiens don’t use it in other ways, be more than enough room for the team to absorb the performance bonuses that will surely be earned this season by reigning rookie-of-the-year winner Lane Hutson and current rookie-of-the-year favourite Ivan Demidov, potentially preventing the Canadiens from being dinged with a bonus overage next season.
It could not have been more appropriate that the one player most responsible for every ounce of success this franchise has known over the last 15 years was thereby tied to the two players who might be most responsible for any success this franchise will know over the next 15 years.
Always a Hab. Just a teal one for now 😉🔵⚪️🔴
— Carey Price (@CP0031) September 6, 2025
It was a perfect way, at a perfect time, for Price to stop feeling like a burden.
(Photo: Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images)