‘Question marks’ remain as future uncertain for Carey Price

The illustrious 15-year career of Carey Price might be coming to an end.

The 34-year-old goaltender played in all of five games this season after working back from a surgically repaired knee. With the Montreal Canadiens season wrapped up, Price admitted his future remained uncertain on Saturday.

“There were still a lot of question marks for me,” said Price, who recently met with the doctor who performed his arthroscopic knee surgery on July 23 repairing a torn meniscus. “We sat down briefly, then went over some imaging, and no real questions were answered for me.”

He admitted that he was fully aware his 712-game career could be coming to an end.

“It was just an exceptional day for myself,” he said of Friday, where he backstopped the Habs to a 37-save, 10-2 win over the Florida Panthers. “I had a great sleep. It was just an A-plus day. If it is it, then that would be a great way to do it.

“I’m just continuing to get a lot of swelling in my knee. So due to that fact, it’s been difficult to do a lot of things that I would consider well out there. Last night, for instance, I played pretty well, it was a pretty good game. But in that same token, there are different aspects of goaltending that’s required these days that is very difficult for me to do. So we’re going to get us another opinion and go from there.”

Drafted 5th overall by the Habs in the 2005 NHL draft, Price has gone on to be one of the best goaltenders the league has seen over his career. He’s posted a 361-261-79 record, a .917 save percentage and a 2.51 GAA.

His best year in the league came in the 2014-15 season where he won the Hart Trophy, Vezina Trophy, William Jennings Trophy and the Lester B. Pearson Award. He and the Habs came close to winning the Stanley Cup in 2020-21, going on a Cinderella run to the finals before being eliminated by the Tampa Bay Lightning in five games.