#31 Carey Price 2010-11

[Kubby31]

This is taking forever.

I'm curious...anyone think possibly this may be going "locked up long term"

[billy-piton]

I'm curious...anyone think possibly this may be going "locked up long term"

i think he is going to sign a 3 year deal worth around 2.5m that would still make him a rfa when the deal is done.

[Guest]

Yeah, I sure would love some real news regarding Carey. Jeez, I remember listening to Gauthier on the news yesterday and he said he was, "...Confident the contract would be settled before training camp." I mean, really... Is it going to take THAT long?

Leads me to beleive that they are indeed talking long term. A short term deal just might be an indicator that CP's time with the Habs might be just as short. It might be convincing him otherwise, that's taking so much time.

[Kubby31]

Leads me to beleive that they are indeed talking long term.

What I'm thinking....the future is price.

[Habcore]

i think he is going to sign a 3 year deal worth around 2.5m that would still make him a rfa when the deal is done.

I also believe this, it would make the most sense for Carey and I'm sure his agent will be pushing for this kind of a contract.

[Kubby31]

I also believe this, it would make the most sense for Carey and I'm sure his agent will be pushing for this kind of a contract.

Thats just it.........most times,management tends to do the opposite.

[bikerbob7501]

i think he is going to sign a 3 year deal worth around 2.5m that would still make him a rfa when the deal is done.

I don't think we can get him that cheap. Carey's got em by the short and curlies if I may, because he's been annointed number 1. The three year deal is a cool idea, but I think he would sign for more like 3.5 over 3.

Possibly not, just my impression.

[cyoungerrr]

I don't think we can get him that cheap. Carey's got em by the short and curlies if I may, because he's been annointed number 1. The three year deal is a cool idea, but I think he would sign for more like 3.5 over 3.

Possibly not, just my impression.

that would be a disaster - signing Carey for almost the same as Jaro. All to satisfy Bob Gainey's continued infatuation with all things Price. This will haunt us.

[CoopII]

I'm curious...anyone think possibly this may be going "locked up long term"

As long as the Molsons don't morph into Charles Wang and offer him Rick DiPietroesque money/length, i'm good with it

If they want to treat Carey like a #1 goalie, i'm sure he's expecting a longer/more lucrative contract anyways. All speculation until the deed is done though...

[bikerbob7501]

that would be a disaster - signing Carey for almost the same as Jaro. All to satisfy Bob Gainey's continued infatuation with all things Price. This will haunt us.

Not even close, I said 3.5 over 3 years, not 3.5 million per year.

[Kubby31]

As long as the Molsons don't morph into Charles Wang and offer him Rick DiPietroesque money/length, i'm good with it

I hear ya.

[cyoungerrr]

Not even close, I said 3.5 over 3 years, not 3.5 million per year.

sorry I misunderstood

Somehow I think he will ask much more than that, but yeah, not 3.5 per year. If he does, then Auld may be #1 like in 2008-2009

[bikerbob7501]

no thanks k

[catt-_mtlc]

I don't think we can get him that cheap. Carey's got em by the short and curlies if I may, because he's been annointed number 1. The three year deal is a cool idea, but I think he would sign for more like 3.5 over 3.

Possibly not, just my impression.

Getting Price for cheap short term? That ship has sailed along with Halak out of town. Nothing against Auld but see him leading this team to the promise land if Price doesn't sign. He has all the bargaining power right now whether he's a UFA or not.

[theRazor67]

They must be getting close by now. Price dreams in bleu blanc rouge, they have got EACH OTHER by the short and curlies. When the smoke clears, and they see it for what it is..a reasonable longer deal will be made. Halak was great, but face it, he knew the future was being crafted around Price, and he would have cost us in arbitrarion. Price is a great goalie. I feel some of last seasons failures weren't all on him. SOME of his L's were solid jobs by him behind a team struggling to offer offence. Most of those L's were early on when the Habs were adjusting to new Coach, new front-liners, NO "C" and missing our MVP Markov. This season offers better chances for Price. Mara out and PK in. Our offencive struggles might be lifted alittle I suspect.

[js2]

I'm curious...anyone think possibly this may be going "locked up long term"

I'm starting to think this may be the case but then I look at how Lapierre still isn't signed.

[franck5890]

A long time ago when a lot of us thought that Halak was going to get traded (back in November or so) to the Philadelphia Flyers, I said something along the lines of "What happens if we trade Halak, and then Price betrays us by not signing because he doesn't like / can't handle Montreal?" We shouldn't trade Halak because Price might betray us! Don't trade Halak!!!

Well, I'm not saying I was right, but it's possible... Time will tell.

Well if Price chooses not to sign with us at this point (doubtful and very improbable) he can have fun playing in the KHL or a local beer league next season as that would pretty much be his only option given his restricted free agent status.

[Win-the-cup]

Price has been penciled in as the number one goaltender this year....it's not in ink. Since the Molson's have decided enough is enough with the franchise as it is (assuming the presidency next June)....they'll give Price enough rope this season (say 60 or more starts.....regardless of how many losses he piles up) to move out everyone whose not doing the job in front of him........then it'll be Price's turn. The ownership likely understands Price's skill set & have assessed the team's chances on winning a Cup in the near-term.

There are a lot of Auld-type goaltenders out there....going for cheap one-year terms.......If they sign Price to more than one year.....it'll be at an amount another team is willing to take his contract at when he's moved next summer.

[Snow4Habs]

Every day I keep checking to see if Price has signed, but nothing, no signings from our Habs. Halak has already signed, why is it taking us so long to sign our future goaltender, I hope it's a long term contract since they are talking about PG's the "future" goaltender. I would suspect like 4/5year deal but at what price? When his contract expires, so will Cammy, Gio, and most important of all, Gomez! Only then we can probably pay Price a true #1 netminder $$.

[Guest HABBY FAN ONE]

that would be a disaster - signing Carey for almost the same as Jaro. All to satisfy Bob Gainey's continued infatuation with all things Price. This will haunt us.

i agree with your comment i do not think price is worth any where from 2.5 million to 3.75 million we turned down dan ellis who is only making 1.5 million which i think is a better goalie so if we pay price anymore then that we would be very crazy because with price in net this year i honestly don't think we will make the play offs but we might have a chance at number one draft pick next. the canadiens are also feeding price to the wolves do honestly think if he starts playing bad the fans will be behind him after the way halak played last year. i think we are making a mistake if we sign for lots and long term.but anyway good luck this year montreal your going to need it.

[Snow4Habs]

i agree with your comment i do not think price is worth any where from 2.5 million to 3.75 million we turned down dan ellis who is only making 1.5 million which i think is a better goalie so if we pay price anymore then that we would be very crazy because with price in net this year i honestly don't think we will make the play offs but we might have a chance at number one draft pick next. the canadiens are also feeding price to the wolves do honestly think if he starts playing bad the fans will be behind him after the way halak played last year. i think we are making a mistake if we sign for lots and long term.but anyway good luck this year montreal your going to need it.

I don't know how you feel like we're gonna end up in the bottom of standings this upcoming season. Have you seen the games? Our core group has finally came along and finally got some chemistry going with our Habs. To me, Price has improved alot since last season, don't forget, his entry level contract just expired this season. He has improved his rebound control, and his speed going from pipe to pipes. He's matured more since last season, where he got scored more in stats (143 GA 2009 season, 109 GA last season). He controls his rebounds more, something Halak still had a little more trouble controlling.

We had Komi 2009 season, you all know how he play defensively or should I say watched the players skate by him or screen the oppositions puck from Price or just couldn't get to clear the puck but instead somehow just passes the puck straight to the opponents stick (glad we don't have Komi anymore ). This season we had someone similar, MAB. But still, with all the mistakes the defense has made in front of him. I'm betting he learned all from that.

If we do sign Price long term, and if does not pan out, that long term 2.5m will be a great trading value for a goalie with his potential. But I seriously doubt we'll trade him, and I agree he'll be Habs future goaltender for years to come. So take your whining to the leafs board, because I'm sure they'll just love to hear all about it, and let's try to keep our support to our Habs instead of one player.

[Manatee-X]

And to say the #1 spot was ripped away from him by Halak is a bit of a strange comment. Halak didn't rip it away from him, Halak won the role fair and square.

Maybe 'ripped' was too strong a word, but when when I said that Price was "given the #1 role only to have it ripped away from him by Halak's great play" I wasn't trying to belittle anything that Jaro did last year. Halak earned the starting spot, no question, but I think most people (and yes, I know not ALL people ) including Carey himself probably assumed that Price was going to be the #1 going forward at the start of last season. Irrespective of how it came about, it's got to hurt Carey's pride to be supplanted.

To make matters worse... He was all by himself, no mentor or vet to lean on. You can have the best goalie coach ever, but if you can't fix the problem between the ears, no amount of skill or coaching is going to change that. Like I said previously, many goalie's climb their way to the top, but only a select few actually stay there (and that's due to the mental stress of the position).

All this damage could've killed the kid before he even got his career going.

Yes it's true that I said myslef, he appeared most confident, calmer and mature last season. How much of that had to do with the fact that he was out of the spotlight?

I'd be willing to bet a lot of money on that fact.

He come's out and struggles next season, without having Halak there (or another proven goalie) to take the lead and the home crowd is on him once again. All the work from last season to build up his confidence could be gone in the space of a few weeks. It takes years to build up confidence, it only take a short while to lose it.

...

We have a young kid here who has had his share of struggles. The fact that the organization kept throwing him back (instead of dealing with it off the ice), does damage... How can it not???

Young players are full of self doubt, no matter who they are. Even Gretzky once said he was scared of the NHL, which is why he signed a lifelong contract with an WHA team. Carey is no different, you have a young kid with all the potential in the world... You protect it, not exploit it. All the counseling in the world couldn't get Theo back to his old self, nor Potvin or Jim Carrey.

Too much pressure was put on Carey's shoulders and it was fueled by the organization. I thought they would've learned from past mistakes, but no, they're destined to repeat it... Which has been a patern around here for a very long time.

It's one thing to protect your investment and try to push it some... It's another to stick labels on a player like savior and/or thoroughbred. It's unfortunate, but by the organization fueled the fire and put more pressure on the kid by forcing him into the league early, then treating him like a proven star before he even played a full season.

Fans are naturally jealous of players success... They like to see them fail. As sick and twisted as it may be, it's reality. Most got joy out of seeing Carey struggle and starting using him as their whipping boy, taking out their own frustrations out on him.

I really don't see how the mishandling of Carey hasn't taken a toll on his confidence. He knows even before the season starts, that if he struggles again, that he'll be back in their doghouse.

I really feel for this kid and don't blame him one bit if he's fed up of Montreal, their fans and this organization.

I agree with your last comment... He is a good young goalie, but with all the hype surrounding this kid, being fueled by the local media and the organization, they did more harm than good. Calling someone a thoroughbred puts the idea in people's heads that he was going to be the next Roy. Most goalie's hit their groove around 24/25. Why did they take a 20 year old, and try to force him to do what most goalie's who have come before him, couldn't?

I don't disagree at all with the parts that I bolded. Personally I would have been much happier signing a Turco than I am signing an Auld. I think that it would help any young goalie to have a veteran starter who's been through it before to give some pretty valueable advice, and in the absence of that it would be much better for the team and Price to have a back-up that you knew could be relied upon if Carey's going through a rough patch. I guess maybe it was a salary cap thing? In any case, I agree with you and if I managed the team I would have gone with a more proven second goalie.

Even with the way management has treated Price already, I'm not saying that I agree with all of it. Ideally the best thing they could have done was to downplay the 'superstar'/'thoroughbred' thing as much as possible, but you know that with the media wanting to sell stories this just was realistically going to happen anwyay. See Subban, P.K.

You bring up some good points... But I feel you're over looking one very simple yet important factor. Goaltending isn't all about skill, a lot of it happens between the ears. Many goalie's have achieved so much, bringing their team to the cup finals, only to crash and burn the next season.

Some has to do with video, a lot of it goes on in the goalie's head. It's mentally draining to climb your way to the top, it's even harder to stay there. How do you explain a goalie like Denis who leads T-Bay to an excellent cup run, then falls out of the NHL before he even hits 30.

Has he forgotten his skills?

Was it all just a case of being lucky?

No and no... They had the skills, they still have them, but the pressure's placed on themselves to continue and excel often leads to a lack of confidence. Some night's the puck is the size of a beachball, other night's it seems like a marble. It only takes a few bad games following a stellar season to start doubting your own abilities. Once self confidence is gone, it's almost impossible to get it back. The skills are still there, but the self doubt starts to reflect in their game, not coming out to challenge, cheating a lil bit, keeping deep in the net, etc...

Now, you take Carey, who was on top of the world after winning at the WJR's and the calder with Hamilton and he's brought up to the NHL. Things start going good, he's winning games, get's the Habs into the playoffs. Once there, things start going south. He comes back the next season, has a good start, then once again, things go south. But instead of this happening in Hamilton, in front of a few thousand fans, his struggles are being replayed on sports shows and it's happening in front of 20,000+ fans. The home fans boo him, radio talk shows start questioning his past success, wondering if it was just a fluke.

Now, this kids confidence is shaken before he's even played a full 2 seasons in the league... I don't see how forcing him into the league when he wasn't ready, didn't have an impact on him. We often forget these are real people with real feelings, emotions and fears.

Every kid who comes up... Lives with the fear of no being able to make it in the big league. It's one thing to happen to a skater, it's another when you're a goalie, fronting the team with the longest history, going through their centennial celebrations, being voted to the 1st all star team, having his picture plastered on the side of the bell centre, on billboards across the city, and being marked as their savior.

How can all this not affect the kids confidence and do damage?

I get what you're saying here, and I agree 100% that goaltending comes down to what's going on in your head . This is probably more true today than it ever was, as goaltending has almost become such a mechanical position that one of the greatest skills a goalie can have is simply the ability to remain focused, doing all of the little things right throughout an entire game. Otherwise good goalies, like the ones you mentioned, have had their careers thrown into shambles when they can't get their heads on straight.

I'm also not going to argue that Price hasn't been through some tough times or that his confidence hasn't been shaken based on the unrealisic expectations that were set upon him. Quite the opposite, in fact, since that's pretty much the first half of my point. Price HAS been through some tough times, but rather than be completely ruined by them he seems to be heading in the right direction. I know some will say he was able to do that last year because he got to play the back-up role and wasn't in the spotlight, but he was also playing pretty well early in the season when he was still the presumed #1. Halak was simply better.

The key, though, is the second half of my point; Price was going to face that same pressure and that same lack of confidence whether he started at 20 or 25. For better or worse (and I'm going with worse ) this kid has been billed as the next Habs superstar goalie since we drafted him. That wouldn't have changed even if we'd left him in the minors to develop... in fact, it might even be worse. Can you imagine the calls for Gainey's head on those same radio shows had we been swept in the Boston series last year with our "superstar, saviour goaltender" still playing in Hamilton? You don't think there would have been as least as much pressure on him if he were starting as a Hab this year?

You said yourself, It only takes a few bad games following a stellar season to start doubting your own abilities. The same goes for a rookie call-up who's heard nothing during his three years in the AHL but how special he is and how he's the future star of the organization that's been producing the best goalies in the world since Vezina. He was and he is going to have rough times, the question is whether he can handle them or whether he ends up another Jim Carrey.

So can he handle the pressure and, when it sometimes comes, the failure? I don't know, to be honest. Personally I think he'll do well this year, but that's just an opinion that's worth as little as anyone else's. The truth is that he may bounce back and he may not... but if he's not able to bounce back now, the alternate universe AHL Carey Price would have had no more chance to bounce back following whatever failures and criticisms he experiences in his first few seasons.

I guess my overall point isn't that Carey is or isn't going to be great this year, it's that there is nothing that has happened in the last three years that is really any different from what Price was going to face anyway. Bringing him up early may have hurt the team over the last few years and it certainly hurt the fans' perception of him, but it didn't hurt Carey's development at all. He wasn't 'ruined' by being brought up early, he was just given a head start .

[bikerbob7501]

Getting Price for cheap short term? That ship has sailed along with Halak out of town. Nothing against Auld but see him leading this team to the promise land if Price doesn't sign. He has all the bargaining power right now whether he's a UFA or not.

what you misread my post so badly, the part in bold was my entire point.

[Guest Carey_Price]

All these comparisons with Halak are getting old, as tough as it may be for many fans, face it...he's a blues now. IMO, we should all stop bringing him up cause there really is no point on doing so anymore...compare him to Auld if you want, that would make more sense now.

[CoopII]

I would suspect like 4/5year deal but at what price? When his contract expires, so will Cammy, Gio, and most important of all, Gomez! Only then we can probably pay Price a true #1 netminder $$.

I respectfully disagree. If I was Price and/or his agent, i'd sign for a one or two year deal at a reasonable rate (hovering around 2 million), then let Price's play dictate what kind of long term contract we (or another team) will tender him after he has the playing minutes to prove his calibre.

I think Price is too young and has too much talent to be so worried about crashing and burning, thus feeling the need to ink himself to a a long term contract. Much more beneficial for him to do something similar to what Pleckanec did - short term, decent deals until UFA comes along and you can finally cash in.

As well, the trend around the league is to use the young, cheaper goaltenders rather than shelling out the big bucks (Case and point is Nabokov going to the KHL). I don't see Price being signed for more than 2 or 2.5 million/year and for maybe 2 years tops. But that's just my 2 cents...