Carey Price's injury status can benefit the team salary cap 

The Montreal Canadiens would like a healthy Carey Price to be leading them onto the ice every night. But since that is not a possibility right now, taking the entire year (and perhaps the rest of his career) off might actually be the best option for the team. Eric Engels’ latest column for Sportsnet examines the Price situation, his current injury status, and how his absence actually might benefit the team in the long run, thanks to the salary cap system.

In it, he also suggests that the Canadiens’ competitive window likely would not be until 2025, at which point even a healthy Price would be 38. Even if it happened sooner than that, the veteran goaltender’s time leading Montreal is all but over.

• With Sean Monahan undergoing his own hip surgery earlier this year, Canadiens fans were wondering whether he would even be ready for the start of the season, after acquiring him yesterday. The veteran center is hoping so and told the media that he’s already back on the ice four times a week preparing for the season. He feels healthy and ready to “play hockey again at a high level.” While the Canadiens landed a first-round pick for Monahan already, if he can reclaim any sort of semblance of his former self, they may be able to flip him for even more.
• The Denver Pioneers are having a good week, and it continues with the commitment of top prospect Brendan McMorrow. The 16-year-old will be joining the U.S. National Team Development Program this year, with his sights set on the 2024 draft and a freshman season at DU in 2024-25. So much for the second-round pick that the Spokane Chiefs used on the young forward in the 2021 WHL US Prospects draft.