Imagine you're a kid. Okay. And you just absolutely
love hockey. It is your entire world. Sure. But
there is this massive, I mean, just a massive
logistical hurdle standing in your way. Which
is? The nearest organized hockey rink to your
house is five hours away. Oh, wow. Yeah. Five
hours, like 320 kilometers away. That is, that's
a commute. Right. So what is your dad's solution
to this problem? I'm guessing he doesn't just
buy a minivan. No, no, he does not. He buys an
airplane. An airplane. A Piper PA -28 Cherokee,
to be exact. He buys a whole plane. and gets
his pilot's license for the sole purpose of flying
you to hockey practice. Three days a week, right?
Three days a week. It's just, it's a level of
early dedication that is frankly hard to even
comprehend. It really is. Especially for anyone
who grew up just taking a quick five -minute
drive down the street to the local community
center. Exactly. But for this kid who, spoiler
alert, grew up to be Carey Price, those flights
were really just the prologue. Yeah, they were.
And today, we're taking a deep dive into exactly
that. We are looking at a player who would go
on to become one of the most legendary. And definitely
one of the most complex. Absolutely. One of the
most complex goaltenders in modern hockey history.
And that is the mission of today's Deep Dive.
We are going to unpack the journey of a player
who completely redefined what it means to be
calm under pressure. Because as we sift through
the sources today, and we've got a lot, we've
got comprehensive biographical records, advanced
career stats, deeply personal interviews, we're
going to see this incredible dual narrative unfold.
On the ice, he was making the mathematically
impossible look entirely effortless. And off
the ice. Off the ice, he was secretly carrying
the immense, almost crushing weight of an entire
franchise. So we'll trace his path. From those
incredibly remote roots in British Columbia,
through his historic hardware hauls in the NHL,
that 2014 Olympic gold home. All the way to those
deeply personal struggles that eventually forced
the entire sports world to just stop and reevaluate
how we view the mental health of professional
athletes. It's a huge story. And that airplane
commute is honestly the perfect hook. It really
sets the stage. It does. Because it establishes
a life defined by this intense, almost isolated
dedication. You know, Price was actually born
in Vancouver. Right. But when he was three, his
family moved to Anaheim Lake, British Columbia.
Which is incredibly remote. So remote. It's in
the central part of the province, just totally
surrounded by wilderness. And that physical isolation
completely shaped his temperament. It shaped
his whole identity. Long before he was this...
global hockey icon. He was an avid outdoorsman.
Still is. Exactly. He grew up hunting, fishing,
just navigating the backcountry. And we really
have to talk about his family background here,
too, because it's so foundational to who he is.
Yes, absolutely. His mother, Linda, was actually
a former chief of the Olcacha First Nation. Which
is an incredible leadership legacy on its own.
And then his father, Jerry. actually had professional
hockey in his blood. Right. Jerry was a goaltender
himself. He was drafted by the Philadelphia Flyers
back in 1978. So his dad essentially becomes
his first goalie coach. I mean, before they were
even taking that Piper Cherokee to Williams Lake
for organized practice, Jerry was out there teaching
Kerry the fundamentals. On a frozen creek. On
a frozen creek during these harsh winter months.
So you have this really unique blend. deep indigenous
roots, a professional hockey lineage, and the
quiet, self -reliant isolation of the Canadian
wilderness. Which makes his sudden thrust into
the glaring spotlight so dramatic. I mean, let's
fast forward to the 2005 NHL entry draft. Okay,
2005. Price has been playing junior hockey for
the Tri -City Americans in the Western Hockey
League. And the Montreal Canadiens step up to
the podium and draft him fifth overall. Fifth
overall. I still remember the collective gasp
from all the analysts when that pick was announced.
It was a massive shock. Huge, because drafting
a goaltender that high in the first round is
historically just a massive risk. It is. But
the real shock was the Canadiens' death chart
at the time. Right, because Montreal already
had an elite franchise goaltender in Jose Theodore.
Exactly. Theodore was just three years removed
from winning the Vizina Trophy for best goalie.
And the Hart Trophy for league MVP. Right. So
everyone is wondering, why on earth do you burn
a fifth overall pick on a goalie when you already
have the league MVP sitting in your crease? Well,
it was a massive declaration by Montreal's management.
They were basically operating on this philosophy
of positional value versus generational talent
assessment. Okay, break that down for us. So
the consensus was that price might go somewhere
in the middle of the first round. But selecting
him at number five meant Montreal's scouts believed
this kid from Anaheim Lake had a technical ceiling
that completely superseded their current roster
needs. They weren't drafting for the next five
years. Exactly. They were drafting for the next
15 years. And he certainly didn't waste any time
justifying that scouting department. Not at all.
After this stellar junior career where he wins
the CHL Goaltender of the Year, he jumps right
into the professional ranks in 2007. Straight
into the fire. Literally. He joins the Canadiens'
American Hockey League affiliate. The Hamilton
Bulldogs. Yeah. Right before the start of the
Calder Cup playoffs. Which is wild. Throwing
a teenager into the crucible of the AHL playoffs
is usually a total recipe for shattered confidence.
But instead. Instead, he responds by leading
the Bulldogs to their first ever Calder Cup championship.
They defeated the Hershey Bears. And his stats
were ridiculous. A 2 .06 goals against average,
a .936 save percentage, and he won the Jack A.
Butterfield Trophy as the playoff MVP. As a teenager.
He became only the third teenage goaltender in
history to do that. He effectively silenced all
those draft critics before he even played a full
82 -game NHL season. But, you know, dominating
the AHL is one thing. Oh, yeah. Transitioning
to the NHL and specifically playing in Montreal
is a totally different beast. It really is. You
aren't just playing a sport at that point. You
are carrying the historical weight of the most
storied franchise in hockey. The Montreal crease
is often called a graveyard for good goaltenders.
Because when you put on that sweater, you are
immediately, immediately measured against the
ghosts of Jacques Plante, Ken Dryden, Patrick
Roy. The legend. The absolute legends. The fans,
the media, the relentless expectations. It requires
a psychological armor that most players simply
do not have. And we saw that pressure completely
boil over in 2009. We did. The Canadians are
playing their bitter rivals, the Boston Bruins,
in the playoffs. And it's bad. They are getting
swept in four games. Ouch. Yeah. And in the final
game, at home in the Bell Center, Price lets
in this weak dump -in goal. And the home crowd,
who are just feeling all the frustration of a
sweep, they start sarcastically cheering him.
Which for a young player who has basically been
anointed as the savior of the franchise, hearing
your own building mock you like that is a devastating
blow. And his response to that is what etched
the moment into Montreal lore. He threw his arms
up. He threw his arms up in the air toward the
crowd. And anyone who knows Canadian's history
instantly recognizes the weight of that gesture.
It was a direct mirror. Right. He was mirroring
the infamous mock cheer reaction made by Patrick
Roy back in December 1995. Just days before Roy
literally stormed off the ice and demanded a
trade out of Montreal. So seeing Price do that,
it signaled that the relationship between him
and the city was severely fracturing. Which brings
us to... this massive crossroads in the 2009
-2010 season. Right. Because Price struggled
mightily that year. He only won 13 games, and
he ultimately lost his starting job to his backup,
Jaroslav Halak. And Halak didn't just play decently
in relief. He went on this legendary Cinderella
playoff run. Unbelievable run. He led the eighth
-seeded Canadians all the way to the Eastern
Conference finals. They pulled off these massive
upsets against a president's trophy -winning
Washington Capitals team and the defending Stanley
Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins. So this creates
an unprecedented philosophical dilemma for the
front office. I can't even imagine being in that
room. Right. Because entering the 2010 offseason,
both Price and Halak are restricted free agents.
The media is in an absolute frenzy and the fan
base is fiercely divided. I really don't get
how management approached this at the time. I
mean, Halak just took them to the conference
finals. He was the undisputed hero of the city.
Yeah. How does the general manager justify trading
him away and handing the keys back to a guy who
just... had a miserable season and seems to be
alienating the fan base. It comes down to short
-term emotional payoff versus long -term foundational
metrics. Montreal actually traded the playoff
hero, Halak, to the St. Louis Blues. And then
they turned around and handed Price a two -year,
$5 .5 million contract to be their undisputed
starter. Wow. They essentially looked past the
recent playoff euphoria. They ignored the deafening
noise from the media and they bet their own careers
on Price's raw underlying potential. Because
they thought Halak was maxed out. Exactly. They
believed Halak had played at his absolute ceiling,
whereas Price hadn't even come close to his peak
yet. You know, if you think about that in the
context of your own career. Yeah. Imagine having
a boss or a mentor who ignores a massive public
failure of yours, blocks out all the external
criticism. and bets their own job on your raw
potential anyway. It's incredibly empowering.
It is, but it also creates an immense underlying
sense of responsibility to prove them right.
And Price absolutely took that responsibility.
He engineered one of the most dominant stretches
of goaltending in the modern era. He really did.
By the time we reach the 2014 -2015 season, we
are looking at a player who has reached the absolute
summit of his profession. The stats from that
2014 -2015 season? They honestly look like typos.
They do. He led the entire NHL with 44 wins.
He posted a 1 .96 goals against average and a
.933 save percentage. And the historical significance
of that campaign is staggering. Because when
awards season came around, it was an unprecedented
sweep. He won the Hart Memorial Trophy for league
MVP. The Vizina Trophy for best goaltender. The
Ted Lindsay Award for most outstanding player
as voted by his peers. And the William M. Jennings
Trophy for allowing the fewest goals. He was
the first goaltender in NHL history. to win all
four of those awards in the exact same season.
First ever. But what's even wilder is that his
dominance wasn't just confined to the NHL. Right.
If we rewind slightly to February of 2014, we
have to talk about the Sochi Winter Olympics.
The international stats are just absurd. A .59
goals against average across five games. Less
than a goal a game. Barely half a goal a game.
He delivered two consecutive shutouts in the
most high pressure international games imaginable.
A one nil victory against Team USA in the semifinals
where he stopped all 31. Incredible. And then
a 3 -0 victory against Sweden to win the gold
medal. He went undefeated and was named the tournament's
best goaltender by the IIHF. We throw these numbers
around, but I really want to understand the how.
Like when you watch his highlight reels from
this era, it isn't like watching a goalie scrambling
or diving all over the crease, making these desperate
paddle saves. No, not at all. It almost looks
boring. Yeah. Best possible way. And that is
the absolute hallmark of his butterfly hybrid
technique. Price had an elite level of edge control
and torso tracking. What does that mean in practice?
So instead of relying purely on athletic reaction
time, just twitch reflexes, he relied on positional
economy. Being exactly where he needed to be.
Right. He utilized techniques like the reverse
VH perfectly. That's a move where he seals off
the short side posts while keeping his chest
totally square to the shooter. He minimized his
movement so drastically that he made highly difficult
acrobatic saves look entirely routine. That's
like he was doing the math before the shot was
even taken. Exactly. To make this relatable,
consider a quote from his 2014 Olympic teammate,
defenseman Drew Dowdy. He called Price probably
the calmest goalie I played in front of. The
calmest goalie? Yeah. He never looked out of
breath. He never looked panicked. But as we know,
the years following that peak... Took a massive
physical toll. They really did. From 2015 through
2020, we see this mounting list of lower body
injuries. The wear and tear of that butterfly
style. Dropping onto the ice thousands of times
a season, it really begins to degrade his knees.
Which brings us to the 2020 -2021 season. And
this is really the ultimate test of that calm
facade. Right. This is the pandemic -altered
season. Teams are playing exclusively within
realigned divisions, mostly in empty arenas.
And Price sustained a concussion late in the
season after a collision. He finished the regular
season with only 12 wins and a fairly underwhelming
.901 save percentage. The Canadians barely squeaked
into the playoffs as the final seed. But then
the switch flips. The postseason begins and Price
turns into an absolute wall. Again. Again. The
Canadiens go on this miraculous Cinderella run.
They overcome a 3 -1 series deficit against the
heavily favored Toronto Maple Leafs. They sweep
the Winnipeg Jets. They beat the Vegas Golden
Knights in six games. Price literally carries
the Montreal Canadiens to their first Stanley
Cup final in 28 years. And during that run, the
narrative surrounding him reached a fever pitch.
The Canadiens general manager at the time, Mark
Bergeman, summarized the hockey world's view
of him perfectly. He said, He's a big game player.
He rises to the occasion. He does extremely well
under pressure. And that is the ultimate compliment
in sports. Yes. But there is a massive hidden
struggle going on behind that mask. The contrast
between Bergevin's quote and the reality of what
was happening off the ice is just staggering.
It really is, because just months after losing
that Stanley Cup final to the Tampa Bay Lightning,
the hockey world was stunned. In October 2021,
the Canadians announced that Carey Price was
voluntarily entering the. NHL and NHLPA player
assistance program. The player who was the definition
of calm. The guy who had just put the entire
franchise on his back had to step away entirely.
And in a 2022 interview with The Athletic, Price
was incredibly courageous in explaining why.
He was. He opened up about his admission to the
residential treatment facility and revealed that
he was dealing with alcoholism. He admitted he
had turned to substance abuse as an escape from
the immense stresses of being a professional
athlete. And we really have to layer the context
of that stress. Please do. It wasn't just the
ambient pressure of playing in Montreal, which
we've established is immense. Right. It was compounded
by the devastating loss in the cup final. It
was compounded by the severe career threatening
knee injuries he was constantly rehabbing and
the intense isolation caused by the strict COVID
-19 pandemic restrictions in Canada. He candidly
stated he had spent years of neglecting his own
mental health. Yes. And the trap of the calm
under pressure label is just so profound here.
It really is. It's meant as high praise, but
it becomes a prison. If everyone around you expects
you to be the unshakable foundation, how incredibly
difficult does it become to raise your hand and
say, I am not okay. I need help. And what makes
his transparency so impactful is the specific
cultural context he brought to it. How so? Well,
he could have kept the details of his treatment
private. A lot of players do. But he specifically
cited the severity of substance abuse issues
within the indigenous community. He wanted his
voluntary entry into rehab to serve as an example,
showing people that in his own words, it's OK
to ask for help. That is powerful. But physically,
his body was trapped as well. It was. Following
his departure from the program, he embarked on
this extended rehabilitation for his knee, but
it involved multiple brutal setbacks. He finally
made a brief return in April 2022. Right. He
played the final game of the season, securing
a 10 -2 win over the Florida Panthers. But the
physical toll was just too severe. By 2023, he
admitted it would take a miracle for him to ever
play again. Which is such a tough reality to
face. But he was very pragmatic about it. He
revealed that his knee would swell up under even
minimal strain. It simply could not withstand
the workload of an NHL season. Well, he shifted
his priorities. He shifted his priority to maintaining
his daily quality of life, being able to just
play with his kids without severe pain rather
than attempting highly risky surgeries that had
very low odds of success. He essentially had
to accept that. his playing days were over. He
did. Which leads to one of the most complex administrative
maneuvers in sports business. This is a wild
quirk of the NHL. Because of how guaranteed NHL
contracts work, even though he knew he would
never play again, his massive contract carrying
a $10 .5 million cap hit was still active, running
all the way until 2026. And this creates a very
unique salary cap scenario. When a player is
permanently injured, their team can place them
on long -term injured reserve, or LTIR. This
allows the team to exceed the salary cap by the
amount of the injured player's contract. However,
operating in LTIR relief heavily restricts a
team's financial flexibility. It complicates
call -ups and trade deadline acquisitions. So
to get out of that LTIR -restricted state, Montreal
does something totally fascinating in September
2025. They traded Carey Price. Well, they traded
his contractual rights to the San Jose Sharks.
Right. And the Sharks, as a rebuilding team,
needed to absorb massive contracts to reach the
NHL's mandatory salary cap floor without actually
spending real cash on active players. So Montreal
clears their active cap space and San Jose hits
their required financial markers. Exactly. It's
a purely administrative trade. But it's still
a surreal footnote to see Carey Price, the ultimate
Canadian, technically finishing his contract
on the books for San Jose. It is strange. But,
you know, his legacy is so much larger than salary
cap mechanics. His impact off the ice is arguably
as significant as his time in the crease. Absolutely.
He has been a remarkably dedicated philanthropist
throughout his entire career. Since 2014, he
has served as an ambassador for the Breakfast
Club of Canada, working to provide children across
the country with nutritious meals. And in 2015,
he teamed up with CCM to donate $10 ,000 worth
of equipment. to a minor hockey league back in
Williams Lake. Giving back to the community where
those airplane commutes first started. Exactly.
And his impact on Indigenous youth is also deeply
recognized. In May of 2024, the University of
Northern British Columbia awarded him an honorary
law degree. in recognition of the inspiration
he's provided to indigenous youth and his continued
philanthropic work he also just showed an incredible
capacity for empathy during his career he really
did you think of the 2019 nhl awards he presented
the feel good moment award to a young fan named
anderson whitehead anderson's mother had always
wanted her son to meet price But she tragically
passed away from breast cancer before it could
happen. The raw emotional moment they shared
on stage remains one of the most touching things
I've seen in recent hockey history. It really
showcases the multidimensional nature of these
athletes. And remember how we talked about his
isolated upbringing in Anaheim Lake? Yes, the
outdoorsman identity. Right. That rural outdoorsman
identity remains central to his life and eventually
intersected with the public sphere in December
2022. That's when he released. a statement opposing
a proposed Canadian federal bill that would amend
gun control legislation. Exactly. The timing
of that statement became a focal point. He later
issued an apology directly to the victims of
the École Polytechnique massacre. The apology
was specifically regarding the timing of his
comments, which occurred near the anniversary
of that tragedy. He acknowledged the pain the
timing caused while maintaining his identity
as a hunter and outdoorsman. And we're just looking
at the facts of the timeline there, but it really
reinforces how these figures navigate incredibly
complex public spheres. Balancing their personal
roots with their massive platforms exactly when
you connect all these elements the triumphs the
crushing pressure the deep community roots and
the public struggles you get a remarkably complete
human picture of a modern athlete You really
do. Let's synthesize this incredible journey.
Okay. We started with a kid from Anaheim Lake
flying in a prop plane over the Canadian wilderness
just to get to a rink. And that kid grows up
to win 361 career games. Becoming the winningest
goaltender in the storied history of the Montreal
Canadiens. He wins Olympic gold with an unheard
of .59 goals against average. And pulls off an
unprecedented sweep of four major NHL awards
in a single season. But the legacy of Carey Price
goes far. beyond his mastery of the butterfly
hybrid style or his staggering statistics. What
would you say it's really about? It's about how
he redefined our cultural understanding of strength
in sports. He showed the world that the ultimate
form of bravery isn't just looking completely
unbothered while staring down a 100 mile per
hour slap shot in a game seven. Wow. True bravery
is having the courage to take off the mask, to
step away from the deafening noise, and to ask
for help when the game finally stops. That is
so well said. So the next time you are in awe
of someone in your own life who executes a high
stakes, high stress job flawlessly. Right. The
next time you find yourself praising a colleague
or a friend for being so calm under pressure,
ask yourself, what invisible weights might they
be carrying behind the scenes to make it look
so effortless? That's the real question. And
more importantly, are we creating an environment
that makes it safe for them to drop that weight?
Incredible takeaway. Thank you so much for joining
us on this deep dive into the life and legacy
of Carey Price. We will catch you next time.