Canadiens Have Traded Goaltender Carey Price to Sharks

Laroque, 22, split last season between the AHL’s Barracuda and ECHL’s Wichita Thunder, after being drafted in 2021. Price, 38, leaves behind a Hall of Fame résumé with 712 NHL games, 361 wins, multiple major awards, and gold medals with Team Canada. He retires as the Canadiens’ all-time leader in wins and games played by a goaltender.

Hughes told reporters this week, “We’re fine, we don’t have to trade Carey Price. If we can find a trade to move his contract that makes sense for us and makes sense for another team, we’ll pursue it. But we don’t have to.” The Sharks were among the favorites to acquire Price.

He won’t play this season, spending the campaign on LTIR. The Sharks pick up a pick as a sweetener for taking on Price’s contract and San Jose now has cap floor flexibility if they end up making trades throughout the season.

We reported earlier this week:

“The most likely framework being discussed involves Price and a draft pick heading to San Jose in exchange for prospects Artem Guryev and Gannon Laroque.” In the end, Montreal only grabs one contract.

The Canadiens now have cap flexibility and seek a trade to acquire a second-line center. As per Puck Pedia, after trading Price’s $10.5M, the Canadiens have $4.6M in projected cap Space with 23 active players. With no roster moves, this can fit $20.9M annual cap hit at the trade deadline. They add, “This allows Montreal to not operate in LTIR. Without trading Price, their team cap hit to start the season would have been their highest potential cap hit, meaning they would have started with 0 cap space had they not traded Price.”

This is the end of an era for Carey Price as a Montreal Canadien.