Habs Finally Re-Sign Price

A much anticipated deal between the Montreal Canadiens and restricted free agent goalie Carey Price was signed today in Montreal, giving the 23-year old goalkeeper a new 2-year deal worth $5.5 million, which works out to be a $2.75 million cap hit each season.  Price, who should have assumed the number one role now that Jaroslav Halak has moved on to St. Louis after an off-season trade.  The low cap hit is very indicative of how much faith Price has earned so far, but his deal is only two years, which will give him room to improve before a new deal.

In 2010, Price made 41 appearances with the Canadiens, but had a disastrous record of 13-20-5 with no shutouts and only 1 assist, giving him 27 points in the pool last year. That was only good for 40th among goaltenders, well outside of the starting goalie realm last year, but with a little less competition in Alex Auld, Price should be getting the better of the starting minutes, unless there is a major collapse in his game and he is unable to hang on to the role.

The Hockey News' projections has him in at about 76 points this year, while the Forecaster has him with 58 points, so the feeling is mixed. The Canadiens defense learned to be good enough in front of Halak in the playoffs, but that was because they had a lot of confidence in him.  Price will need to gain that confidence from his skaters, which will take a strong camp at the very least.  I think I would have Price in between the two publications right now, but that could change before the draft, which is only four weeks away.

Forwards	Defense	Goalies
Tomas Plekanec	Andrei Markov	Carey Price
Scott Gomez	Roman Hamrlik	Alex Auld
Mike Cammalleri	Jaroslav Spacek
Brian Gionta	Alexandre Picard
Andrei Kostitsyn	Hal Gill
Benoit Pouliot	Josh Gorges
Dustin Boyd	Ryan O'Byrne
Travis Moen	PK Subban
Max Lapierre
Tom Pyatt

The Canadiens are also carrying a heavy load on the blueline coming into training camp, sitting with eight quality defenders, which I have included rookie PK Subban, which only makes sense watching him make some magic in the playoffs. With 10 forwards, eight defense, a goaltending tandem, a buyout and a cap overage penalty, the Habs are sitting at an annual cap hit of $56.7 million, which does leave them some good space for at least two more forwards.  Let's not forget, the Canadiens should get a cap discount on Andrei Markov, who will be out until November after major knee surgery in March.

With Price signed on, the Canadiens have finished signing all of their major restricted free agents and they can finally concentrate on heading into camp with a potentially full roster.  The Habs have been in the rumour mill for other defensemen, likely to fill the hole left behind by Markov, but if they stayed with what they had, filled the last two depth forward positions from within, they will be looking pretty good for the start of the year.

The Canadiens top six players, now that Price is inserted, looks about as strong as the rest of the Northeast Division, which could make it one of the most fiercely battled divisions in the NHL this year.  A strong start will be needed by the Habs, because it will be a tough year to stay consistent, I'm thinking.