The Montreal Canadiens and goalie Carey Price have just agreed that the best course of action for the team moving forward is for Carey Price to waive his NMC (No Movement Clause) and GM Marc Bergevin to not protect the former Hart trophy winner in the upcoming expansion draft for the Seattle Kraken. While baffling to some, the thinking behind this is Seattle is not willing to take on Price’s large contract which has 5 years remaining for an average of $10.5 million. Not to mention an 11 million dollar signing bonus that is due in September. Oh, and that NMC that Price is so willingly departing with? That kicks right back in the moment he goes to Seattle. So that means Seattle can’t just flip him to a contender for a boatload of picks to build a farm system or trade for a younger star to build the team around. Price would still have to agree to any move.
But is spending $10.5 million on a superstar goalie the next few years really a bad thing when you consider he just single-handedly got the Montreal Canadiens to the Stanley Cup Finals? If you are one of those people that is claiming Price’s age, 33, will be a problem to look at what Marc-Andre Fleury has done since the Vegas Golden Knights took him in the last expansion draft and he was 32 at the time. Is this version of Carey Price for the next 5 years a bad thing for a team with literally zero history? Have this guy come in and be the face of the team, his wife is from Washington, and Price already has his own history there when he played for the Tri-City Americans. There is a lot of upside.
Will Price be playing for the Seattle Kraken?
The Montreal Canadiens are doing this and apparently Price too because they want to protect back-up goalie Jake Allen. They are banking on the Kraken, still very weird to say, not willing to spend 8-10 % of their $81.5 million dollar salary on one player, and that one player is a 33-year-old goalie. But you and I just saw what this 33-year-old goalie just did in the playoffs.
Risk your #1 All-World goalie for a master plan to protect the #2 goalie? Marc Bergevin was on the hot seat before they fired the goalie coach and brought in Sean Burke to be the director of goaltending and Price started to play like the Hart and Vezina winner he is. So in other words the guy who basically saved his job once already. I hope this gamble pays off in the long run for Bergevin, not so much for the Canadiens. GO BRUINS!