Carey Price Unlikely To Play Upcoming Season for Canadiens

Montreal Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes announced that Carey Price is unlikely to play the upcoming 2022-23 season in a press conference on Thursday evening.

Carey Price Likely To Miss Upcoming Season

Hughes was speaking to the meeting in regards to the team acquiring Sean Monahan from the Calgary Flames when he summed up the news on Price by saying it was discouraging.

“At this point in time, the news in terms of Carey’s knee is pretty discouraging in the sense that there hasn’t been any improvement through the rehab process all last season. Obviously, it continued to create problems for him. This summer, he went through the process of a shot to the knee, to see if that would help. It did not, and at this point, we don’t expect Carey to be available for the start of the season,” stated Hughes, during a Zoom call with reporters discussing the acquisition of Sean Monahan from Calgary. “Quite frankly, I don’t know that there’s a path for Carey to return this season through the rehab process.”

With the acquisition of Monahan, who had hip surgery in April and should be ready for training camp, Hughes stated the Canadiens plan to place Price on long-term injured reserve before the start of the season. However, he will know more about Price once training camp begins. But as of now, it does not look for Price to begin the season let alone play the entire season without surgery on his knee.

“We’ll probably have more to add after Carey does his physical during training camp,” Hughes added later in the Zoom call. “At that point in time, in all probability, we will have another media availability with Carey and myself and one or more of the doctors.”

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Tough Road Back For Price

Price has been dealing with this injury dating back to when the Canadiens made the 2021 Stanley Cup Final. After having off-season knee surgery, Price missed most of the 2021-22 season dealing with the injury. Though Price tried to come back earlier than he did, there were numerous setbacks along the way. Price finally returned on April 15th for Montreal. In the final game of the regular season, Price got a standing ovation from the Bell Centre crowd after securing his first win of the season. What a way to go out.

Following the end of the 2021-22 season, Price admitted that he played the final game of the season like it was the last game of his career. With the information coming out today from the general manager, that truly might be the case for one of the best to ever play the position.

Price is the all-time wins leader for the Montreal Canadiens with 361. He has played in 712 career games, starting 700 of them with a 2.51 GAA and a .917 save percentage. In the playoffs, Price has played in 92 games starting 89 now of them with a 2.39 GAA and a .919 save percentage. Price was the main reason why the Canadiens went to the Stanley Cup Final in 2021. As the old saying went, the Canadiens would go as far as Carey Price would take them.

After going into the NHL/NHLPA Substance Abuse Program in October and following his comeback in April, Price was selected as the Bill Masterton Award winner in June. The award is given to the NHL player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey.

The fifth overall pick in the 2005 NHL Draft won the Vezina and Hart Trophies in 2015 and is a lock for the Hockey Hall of Fame when his career is over.