Price, Canadiens' all-time winningest goalie, excited for team's future

MONTREAL -- Five provinces and three time zones from Bell Centre, Carey Price keeps a watchful eye on the Montreal Canadiens, liking what he sees in Jakub Dobes and Jacob Fowler, quietly optimistic about the present and future of the two goalies, as well as his former team.

“I’m excited for those guys, seeing them experience success early,” the winningest goalie in Canadiens history said in conversation from his home in Kelowna, British Columbia. “It’s an exciting time in their careers.

“They’re both young players,” Price said of Dobes, 25, and Fowler, 21. “I remember what it was like to be that age and find success. That’s a confidence-builder, not just for the goalies but for the team. They both seem to be confident in their abilities and that’s a good thing."

It has been four years since Price’s final NHL game, unable to push beyond an injured knee that had been worn to a thread by the rigors of the NHL and international hockey representing his country.

Carey Price is introduced to Bell Centre fans during the Canadiens’ 2022-23 home opener against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

On Nov. 9, he will be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame as a member of the Class of 2026, tentative plans having him returning to Montreal that week with his wife, Angela, and their three children for an expected Canadiens celebration of his career and enshrinement before a Bell Centre game.

Last Sept. 25, in the final season of an eight-year contract, he was traded to the San Jose Sharks in a salary-cap move, all parties understanding he would not play again. Coming to Montreal in exchange was defense prospect Gannon Laroque.

Price, who turns 39 on Aug. 16, jokes that he’s called a Sharks legend “only on the internet, not to my face. I think I’ve signed two, maybe three Sharks jerseys in my life, so they’re pretty limited editions.”

The Canadiens and their fans will have much to celebrate when Price returns in November wearing his Hall of Fame ring, the goalie having played every one of his 712 regular-season and 92 Stanley Cup Playoff games for Montreal between 2007-22.

Carey Price skates toward his Bell Centre net on April 21, 2022.

Selected by the Canadiens with the No. 5 pick in the 2005 NHL Draft from Tri-City of the Western Hockey League, he would put an indelible mark on his NHL team following a run of dazzling junior and minor-pro accomplishments.

Expectations were high following a gold-medal win for Canada at the 2007 IIHF World Junior championship, in which he was named MVP and the tournament’s top goalie for best goals-against and save percentage. On the heels of that was his 2007 Calder Cup championship with Hamilton, shortly after having signed his first Canadiens contract, named MVP of the AHL playoffs.

By the time Price played his final NHL game on April 29, 2022, his place had long been cemented in Montreal's record book: his 361 regular-season victories are the most of any goalie in Canadiens history, 47 more than the late Hall of Fame legend Jacques Plante, whom he passed on March 12, 2019.

Price's games played (712) and started (700) also lead Plante; his saves (19,304) and shots against (21,059) each lead Patrick Roy. Forty-nine shutouts rank him third behind early-era star George Hainsworth (75) and Plante (58).

Canadiens goaltending legend Jacques Plante in a 1959-60 dressing room portrait and Carey Price during a CCM promotional shoot.

Price’s sterling body of work transcended the NHL. He won gold for Canada at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, named the tournament’s best goalie, then anchored his country to the 2016 World Cup of Hockey title, going 5-0 with a 1.40 average, .957 save percentage and a shutout.

Between those championships, he swept four NHL trophies after a career-defining 2014-15 season, his record of 44-16-6, nine shutouts, 1.96 goals-against average and .933 save percentage rewarded with the Hart, voted as NHL MVP; Vezina, voted as best goalie; Ted Lindsay Award as MVP voted by NHL Players' Association members; and the Williams M. Jennings for the League’s lowest goals-against, shared with Corey Crawford of the Chicago Blackhawks.

Price watched almost all of Montreal's impressive three-round playoff run last season; in fact, he was next in line to be the team’s pregame Bell Centre torchbearer, that not coming to pass when the Canadiens fell in five games to the eventual Stanley Cup-champion Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Final.

“If I didn’t watch a game, I was probably at my daughter’s ball game," he said. "But even there, I had the game on my phone, trying my best to watch them both at the same time. “It was fun to watch them succeed and gain some great experience.”

Canadiens goalies Jakub Dobes (l.) and Jacob Fowler

Naturally, his eye was most sharply focused on goalies Dobes and Fowler. Dobes joined Price -- and Plante, Ken Dryden and Roy, each a Hall of Famer -- in an elite group of Montreal rookie goalies to win a sudden-death Game 7.

“They’re a little bit different,” he said, comparing Dobes and Fowler. “I really love Dobes’ compete level, he’s got that ‘grrr’ in his game, he’s got that swagger. I really enjoy watching that. Fowler kind of reminds me more of myself, a little more reserved. He plays a very quiet game like I did. It’s their mentality that has them where they’re at.”

The most recent Canadiens goalie to take his team to a Stanley Cup Final, that in 2021 against the Tampa Bay Lightning, Price considers the potential of a team and fan base hungry for a Stanley Cup, last won in 1993.

“It sure feels that they’re a contender,” he said, cautioning that “a lot of things need to go right for (a championship) to happen.”

Carey Price joins his Canadiens teammates on their Bell Centre bench following the final game of the 2022-23 season.

Four years since his final NHL game, Price has settled comfortably into his new life. And rumors of his hockey retirement are somewhat exaggerated.

“My kids are pretty active, they all play sports, and like a lot of former player dads, I’m kind of a shuttle service for them. I always joke that I run a car service and I have three finicky clients who don’t tip very well,” Price said with a laugh of his daughters Liv, 10, and Millie, 7, and son Lincoln, 6.

In a November 2024 conversation, 18 months after his final game, he said wistfully, “I miss playing the games. That's probably the biggest thing that I miss about hockey. I always enjoyed the preparation and obviously the competitiveness of the sport.”

Today, that hasn’t changed, even if the yearning has softened a bit.

“That’s not going to be going away, that’s always going to be a part of me and my personality,” he said. “I’m a competitive person by nature, that will always be thing that I miss the most -- being at a high level and competing.”

Forward Carey Price pauses during a fundraising game this past April at Aberdeen Hall Preparatory School in Kelowna, British Columbia.

To satisfy that need, Price plays a good level of hockey -- everywhere but goal, mostly as a forward -- on Wednesday and Friday mornings and between those games in the TNHL.

“Thursday Night Hockey League,” he said brightly, former NHL, European pro and college players in the Kelowna area gathering for “a pretty fast-paced game. I’m trying to stay in half-decent shape for quality of life. This gives me some physical activity that’s a lot more fun than riding the bike in the gym.

“There’s never going to be anything as competitive as the NHL. I don’t necessarily miss playing goal yet (he’s not strapped on his pads even once since his final NHL game), but I did miss being at the rink and playing the game I love. I’ve found an outlet for that. I’m really enjoying playing forward now. It’s a lot less stressful on my joints and on my psyche.”

The three “leagues” firing up next month, Price will still be very aware of a knee that on occasion reminds him why he retired from the NHL.

Carey Price arrives at Bell Centre for the Canadiens game against the New York Islanders on April 15, 2022. Price would play that night and four more games to conclude his NHL career.

“I’m still getting physical therapy and doing a lot of the things I did when I was playing,” he said, down about eight pounds from his Canadiens weight, mass-building leg workouts no longer part of his training.

“Playing forward is not nearly as stressful on my body as playing goal. It’s isn’t ultra-competitive, I can be careful out there. Usually by Friday my knee is telling me to take a few days off. Sometimes it swells up, sometimes it doesn’t. In general, I think I’m doing pretty good for a retiree.”

That said, Price doesn’t expect to be following the example of late legends Gordie Howe and Guy Lafleur, who returned to the NHL following their first retirements and Hall of Fame inductions.

Upon his trade to San Jose last fall, he reported for a Sharks physical.

“I asked (San Jose general manager) Mike Grier if they needed a left-winger,” Price said, laughing again, “and he said, ‘Probably not.’”

Top photo: Canadiens goalie Carey Price makes a glove save during a game against the New York Rangers during a 2019 game at Madison Square Garden.