The Rise of Carey Price

I luckily have Carey Price on one of my keeper league fantasy teams and I have been following his career closely since I acquired him in a trade. I believe we are witnessing the rise of the next great goalie in the NHL. The Montreal Canadiens may be the luckiest team in the NHL, not named the Pittsburgh Penguins. Although, not ignoring the tremendous skill of the young dynamic duo of Crosby and Malkin, Price may very well have a more significant impact on his team and be arguably the better player in the long run.

I believe a goalie can have a more significant impact on a team than any other player. Martin Brodeur is an amazing goalie that has had a tremendous career with the Devils. He has been the best goalie for quite some time. Brodeur was and still is a great player but would he have been as successful on a team that wasn’t as defensive as the Devils? I am not so sure about that, he would have been a very good goalie but he might not have had the same impact. Dominik Hasek was an amazing goalie for the Buffalo Sabres and he may very well been one of the greatest goalies but in relatively short period of time. Hasek was an unbelievable goalie for a 6 year period where as Brodeur competed at a very high level for almost 15 years now. I believe Hasek was even a greater goalie than Brodeur during that short period as well. Patrick Roy was an unbelievable goalie as well and I still think he was the best goalie of all time because he was as amazingly consistent as Brodeur but he also played for teams that weren’t quite as defensive as the Devils.

Carey Price has already strung together an amazing career at 20 years old. He was only the 3rd goalie in history, and the 1st since Roy, to lead his team to a Calder Cup as a teenager. He was also named the MVP of the Calder Cup playoffs the same the year. He was named the tournament MVP for Canada at the World Junior Championships in 2007 as well. A couple of weeks ago he was anointed the starting goalie position for the Montreal Canadiens after they shocked the NHL by trading away Cristobal Huet at the deadline and pinned their Stanley Cup aspirations on a rookie.

If you aren’t paying attention to what is going with this amazing young goalie you’re doing a great disservice to yourself as a fan of the NHL. Price has played very well since he became the full time starter of the Canadiens. The Canadiens are currently challenging for 1st in the Eastern Coference. Could Price repeat his performance from Calder Cup playoffs and carry the Canadiens all the way to the Stanley Cup? If you asked me that even just a month ago I might have laughed but at this moment, I honestly wouldn’t be surprised. I more excited to watch what happens with Price than I am about Crosby and I think everyone should start to take notice about what is happening right before our eyes. Carey Price may very well become the greatest goalie to every play in the NHL and I am not even a Canadiens fan, really I am not.