The Daily Faceoff Show: Is Carey Price nearing a return?

Carey Price has been practicing with the Montreal Canadiens, and there’s speculation that he could return to the team in the next few days.

On Thursday’s edition of "The Daily Faceoff Show," Matt Larkin and former NHL goaltender Mike McKenna discussed why Price returning would be big for both him and the Habs this season.

Larkin: “The Montreal Canadiens placed Jonathan Drouin on the long-term injured reserve, which frees up the cap space, theoretically, to bring back Carey Price. He’s been gone all year in the NHL’s player assistance program for painkiller substance abuse and is coming back from a knee injury as well.

Now we’re seeing footage of Price practicing, and there are a lot of rumors that Carey Price will be back maybe as soon as Friday.

My question to you Mike… why is it so important for Carey Price to get games in this season? Montreal’s season is lost, and this won’t help their draft position. So why is this so important for the Habs?”

McKenna: “Because he’s an asset that you’re going to need if you’re the Montreal Canadiens. If they’re going to win, if they’re going to get better, there’s still a lot of years left on his contract.

Think about this from the big picture: If you’re Carey Price, do you want to go a year-and-a-half without playing an NHL game? Or do you want to go a year? It’s a huge difference. You want to get the feel back and you’re really telling yourself, ‘I can still do this.’

That’s a real question for Carey in his head… ‘My knee hasn’t been there, I’ve missed a lot of time, can I find my groove? Can I still produce at the NHL level,’ which seems insane because it’s Carey Price, but you kind of need that affirmation in your own head.

For the Canadiens, they’re not trying to lose. Do you think Marty St. Louis wants to go out and lose the rest of these games? No, he wants to win.

Jake Allen is out with an injury. Sam Montembeault has been running hot, and they’ve been playing him a ton. Cayden Primeau needs to be in the AHL so he can develop. Let Carey get in there and get a feel for it, and make sure that going into next season he still feels confident that he can do it and that he still looks like he can do it.”

You can watch the full episode here…