The Montreal Canadiens traded goaltender Carey Price to the San Jose Sharks on Friday, in exchange for defenseman Gannon Laroque and a fifth-round draft pick in 2026.
Price hasn’t played in the NHL since April 29, 2022. He was limited to just five games in the 2021-22 season following surgery on a torn meniscus injury the previous summer. Price was placed on Long-Term Injured Reserve prior to the 2022-23 campaign and has remained there ever since. This is the final season of Price’s eight-year, $84 million contract, and after the Canadiens paid him a $5.5 million signing bonus on September 1, they were more easily able to ship off his $10.5 million cap hit to a trade partner in San Jose.
Montreal was $5.9 million over the NHL’s salary cap before Friday’s transaction. PuckPedia projects the Canadiens now have $4.56 million in cap space available with Price’s hit off the books.
Price played the entirety of his 712-game NHL career with Montreal, posting an overall .917 SV% and 2.51 GAA. One of the most decorated netminders of his generation, Price was the first goaltender to win all of the Hart Trophy, Vezina Trophy, Ted Lindsay Award and a share of the William M. Jennings Trophy in 2015. He’s also earned the most wins (361) by a Canadiens’ goaltender in franchise history.
The 38-year-old’s family was preparing for a potential shift out of Montreal. Price’s wife Angela was asked on social media earlier this week how she would feel about the Canadiens trading Price’s contract, and responded that she “[p]robably [feels] the same way most of Montreal would feel… But ultimately, you want what’s best for the team.”
By trading Price, the Canadiens got back a 22-year-old blueliner in Laroque. The right-shot defender – who was drafted in the fourth round, 103rd overall, by San Jose in 2021 – has yet to make his NHL debut.
