Carey Price

Carey Price is the 6’3’, 225 lb, left-shooting goaltender for the Montreal Canadiens.  He is from a hockey family.  His father is Jerry Price, who was a goalie drafted by the Philadelphia Flyers in the 1978 amateur draft.  Although Jerry never made it to the NHL, he played professional hockey for four years and is currently the goaltending coach of the major junior league Tri-City Americans - a team Carey once played for.  Another family member, second cousin Shane Doan, is the team captain and a forward for the Phoenix Coyotes.

Price spent his major junior hockey career with the Tri-City Americans of the Western Hockey League.  He made an immediate impact with the team and quickly established himself as a top draft prospect.  In the 2004-05 season, Price pitched 8 shutouts and had a GAA of 2.34 and a .920 save percentage.  As a result, he won the Del Wilson Trophy as the WHL Goaltender of the Year.  Immediately after that season, he played for Canada in the 2005 IIHF under-18 World Championships, winning a silver medal.

Price was drafted in the first round – the 5^th pick overall – by the Montreal Canadiens.  Following his award-winning season with Tri-City, he played for the Hamilton Bulldogs of the AHL.  He joined the team for their last three regular season games and their Calder Cup playoff run.  He played in his first professional game against the Grand Rapids Griffins on April 13, 2007.  In doing so, he stopped 27 out of 28 shots and picked up his first professional win.  In the playoffs Price led Hamilton on a 15-6 postseason run, culminating in a Calder Cup matchup against the Hershey Bears.  The Bulldogs defeated the Bears to win the championship.  In his only season in the AHL, Price put up impressive playoff numbers – a 2.06 GAA and a save percentage of .936.  For his efforts, he won the Jack A. Butterfield Trophy as the Calder Cup playoffs Most Valuable Player.  At the age of 19 years, he was the youngest Butterfield trophy winner ever.

More impressively, Price is the only goalie in history to win the Goaltender of the Year Award, the World Junior Championship tournament Most Valuable Player Award and the Jack A. Butterfield Trophy in the same year. As well, he is the only goalie to ever win the Butterfield Trophy the same year as playing junior.

In October 2007 Price was named to the Canadiens roster to start the season.  He made his much-anticipated NHL debut nine days later.  In that game, Price recorded 26 saves and picked up his first NHL win as the Canadiens beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-2.  He also won the Canadiens’ Molson Cup in October, given to the member of the team who earns the most first-star selections.

In January 2008 Price was sent back down to the Bulldogs, but rejoined the Canadiens a month later – this time to stay.  Price assumed the Canadiens fulltime starting role shortly thereafter, when Cristobal Huet was traded.  Shortly thereafter, price was named NHL Rookie of the Month for March.  Topping off an impressive rookie campaign, Price completed the regular season leading all rookie goaltenders with 24 wins, a .920 save percentage and 3 shutouts.

Against the Boston Bruins in the first round of the playoffs, Price recorded a 1–0 win - becoming the first Canadiens rookie to post a playoff shutout since Patrick Roy in 1986.  He also recorded another shutout in game 7 of the series.  However, Philadelphia would eliminate Montreal in the second round.

Price started the 2008-09 series on a strong note – winning a second Molson Cup in November - but an ankle injury would force him to the bench for nearly 4 weeks.  Despite missing a month of playing time, Price was voted the starting goalie on the 2009 NHL All Star Game.

Montreal made the 2009 playoffs as the eighth seed, playing Boston in the opening round for a second straight season.  This time the outcome was different, with the Bruins sweeping the Canadiens in four games.  However, Carey Price is one of the most exciting and talented young goalkeepers the NHL has seen in a long time.

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