Cowan: Hockey Hall of Fame snubs Canadiens' Carey Price in first year of eligibility

Edmonton Journal

17 hours ago

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Carey Price will have to wait at least another year to become a Hall of Famer.
The Canadiens goalie wasn't among the six players named to the Hall of Fame's Class of 2025 on Tuesday afternoon in his first year of eligibility.
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The players who will be officially inducted into the Hall of Fame on Nov. 10 in Toronto are Zdeno Chara, Joe Thornton, Duncan Keith, Alexander Mogilny, Brianna Decker and Jennifer Botterill. Two builders will also be part of the Class of 2025 — longtime Boston University coach and USA Hockey legend Jack Parker, along with Danièle Sauvageau, who is now general manager of the PWHL's Montreal Victoire and coached the Canadian women's team to a gold medal at the 2002 Beijing Winter Olympics. Sauvageau becomes the first woman inducted into the Hall of Fame as a builder.
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I was surprised Price didn't get in after his former teammate and Canadiens captain Shea Weber was inducted in his first year of eligibility last year. But it's always hard to predict what the secretive 18-member Hall of Fame selection committee will do.
Mogilny somehow had to wait 17 years to finally get inducted after scoring 473 goals and adding 559 assists for 1,032 points in 990 games during his 16 seasons in the NHL. Mogilny is tied with Denis Savard for 59th place on the NHL's all-time goals list. Mogilny played 137 fewer games than Savard, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility in 2000.
Price should definitely be in the Hall of Fame, especially when you consider that goalies Roberto Longo (2022) and Henrik Lundqvist (2023) were both inducted in their first year of eligibility.
A knee injury ended Price's career after he was only able to play five games during the 2021-22 season. The previous season, while playing through severe pain in his right knee, Price led the Canadiens to the Stanley Cup final before losing to the Tampa Bay Lightning. During that playoff run Price had a 13-9 record, a 2.28 goals-against average and a .924 save percentage.
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Last month, Price was honoured as the Sports Personality of the Year at the Cummings Centre Sports Celebrity Dinner in Montreal. When asked about the possibility of entering the Hall of Fame, Price said: 'I keep getting reminded of it. I have thought about it. … The thing that I'm most proud of is being the Montreal Canadiens goaltender for 15 years and having that opportunity is more than enough for me. If it happens, it's great. But I'm very proud of the career that I had and the memories that I've gained and the friendships that I've gained throughout my career. That would be a feather in the cap and, of course, I'd be very honoured.'
Price hopes to one day join a list of former Canadiens goalies in the Hall of Fame that includes Georges Vézina, George Hainsworth, Bill Durnan, Jacques Plante, Gump Worsley, Rogie Vachon, Ken Dryden and Patrick Roy. Those eight goalies won a combined 27 Stanley Cups, with at least two each. Plante and Dryden won six each.
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The big difference between those goalies and Price — who never won a Stanley Cup — is that they had several Hall of Famers playing in front of them. Only once in Price's 15 years with the Canadiens did a teammate have more than 80 points, and that was during his rookie season in 2007-08, when Alex Kovalev had 35-39-84 totals.
Kovalev ranked 11th in NHL scoring during Price's rookie season. During the next 14 seasons, the highest another one of Price's teammates ranked in NHL scoring was 21st, when Max Pacioretty had 37-30-67 totals in 2014-15. Only twice during Price's 15 seasons did the Canadiens rank higher than 13th in the NHL in offence.
Price's best season came in 2014-15, when he posted a 44-16-6 record, a 1.96 GAA, a .933 save percentage and nine shutouts, winning the Vézina Trophy as the NHL's top goalie and the Hart Trophy as league MVP. He finished his career with 712 games played, a 361-261-79 record, a 2.51 GAA and a .917 save percentage. Price ranks first among Canadiens goalies in games played and wins. He had a losing record in the playoffs — 43-45 — despite a 2.39 GAA and a .919 save percentage.
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Unfortunately, Price couldn't score.
At the 2014 Olympics in Sochi — when Price had some future Hall of Famers playing in front of him — he was outstanding, posting a 0.59 GAA and a .972 save percentage as Canada won the gold medal. Price also won gold at the 2007 world junior championship and the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.
'I was able to be a part of so many special moments in Montreal, being there for so long,' Price said during a phone interview in February. 'Being a part of a centennial season, being part of an All-Star Game there, being a part of jersey retirements. I got the opportunity to take in so many different special events. But I think, above all else, being part of a Stanley Cup run was a lot of fun.'
The Hall of Fame should be next — even though Price never won a Stanley Cup.