Seeking Insurance: What if Price Can’t Play?

By JD Lagrange – As much as we hate thinking about the possibility of Carey Price not playing next season, or at least not starting the season on time, it’s an unfortunate reality. After missing most of last season due to a knee surgery that wouldn’t heal, he came back at the end of the season, only to suffer yet another setback. There is swelling in his knee. Price received a second opinion and it was suggested that he went through yet another surgery. At the time of writing this, we are awaiting the news about his decision.

Canadiens’ General Manager Kent Hughes hinted, in his season-ending press conference, that the team would be seeking a potential insurance in the event Price can’t go next season, by adding depth at the goaltending position. The experience of Jake Allen, Samuel Montembeault and Cayden Primeau has not paid dividends, particularly not when Allen was injured.

Whether it was under Marc Bergevin or Hughes, it seems like the team was looking for solution while Price was out. First, it was a rumour stating that the Canadiens were interested in Joonas Korpoisalo of the Columbus Blue Jackets. Later in the season, it was Ilya Samsonov of the Washington Capitals.

Top UFA’s

The Canadiens will have a few options this off-season. They could go after one of the pending unrestricted free agents (UFA) on the market. Here’s a list of a few potentially interesting candidate. Admittedly, some are more interesting than others on this list.

NAME	AGE	TEAM	GP	W	L	SO	GAA	Sv%
Darcy Kuemper	32	COL	57	37	12	5	2.54	.921
Jack Campbell	30	TOR	49	31	9	5	2.64	.914
Marc-Andre Fleury	37	MIN	56	28	23	4	2.91	.908
Mikko Koskinen	33	EDM	45	27	12	1	3.11	.903
Ville Husso	27	STL	40	25	7	2	2.56	.919
Casey DeSmith	30	PIT	26	11	6	3	2.79	.914

The pros of going the UFA way is that it wouldn’t cost the team any assets to sign them. The cons is that other teams will also be interested in them, which could raise the cost cap-wise for them. As the Canadiens are looking at shedding salary cap, Hughes will have to be mindful of that aspect.

Through Trade

There is also the possibility of trading for an experienced goaltender. Here’s a handful of candidates that could be available and could provide the Canadiens with some much needed experienced depth in the organization.

NAME	AGE	TEAM	GP	GAA	Sv%	CAP HIT
James Reimer	34	SJS	48	2.90	9.11	$2.25M (22-23)
Ilya Samsonov	25	WAS	44	3.02	.896	$2M (21-22 / RFA)
Semyon Varlamov	34	NYI	31	2.91	.911	$5M (22-23)
Alexandar Gorgiev	26	NYR	26	2.92	.898	$2.425M (21-22 / RFA)
Joonas Korpisalo	28	CBJ	22	4.15	.877	$1.3M (22-23)

The Habs do have some interesting assets to trade, including some contracts as most of those teams aren’t tight against the cap next season.

This is the second summer in a row that we have no certainty about Price’s health and about his future. And let’s call a spade a spade… the outlook isn’t promising.

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