Canadiens had no choice but to take a risk with Carey Price's $84 million extension

Montreal couldn’t let Price leave, so it’s taking a gamble by paying him huge money through his 30s.

There’s not really anyone else in the NHL like Carey Price, and now he has the contract to match. The Montreal Canadiens couldn’t imagine life without their superstar goaltender so they signed him to an eight-year, $84 million contract extension Sunday.

Now Price is signed for another nine seasons because the contract doesn’t go into effect until 2018-19. He’ll be 38 years old the next time he’s a free agent, and in the meantime, he’ll be carrying a $10.5 million cap hit on Montreal’s books. That’ll be well over 10 percent of their salary cap for the foreseeable future, even as the cap rises. It would be 14 percent on next season’s $75 million cap.

For now, this deal is a no-brainer for the Canadiens. They’ve largely been carried by Price’s immense talent over the past few years, during which he’s established himself as one of the premier goalies in the NHL. He’s got three top-five Vezina finishes, including one win, since 2014. The year he didn’t get enough votes, he just wasn’t healthy.

But therein lies the risk for the Canadiens as they watch his cap hit increase by $4 million starting after next season. Price is just one season removed from playing only 12 games due to an MCL injury. He will be 30 years old before he plays another game with the team, and 31 years old when his humongous extension starts.

That’s an older age than every other monster eight-year extension we’ve seen. Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, Jamie Benn, Steven Stamkos, Vladimir Tarasenko, and so on all signed their contracts at or before age 26. Anze Kopitar comes a little later at age 28. Connor McDavid’s rumored extension will end around that age.

Price will be much older than all of those players when his contract starts.

It’s also by far the largest contract for a player at his position in the league right now. The second-largest deal for a goalie goes to Boston’s Tuukka Rask, who got an eight-year, $56 million deal in 2013. Sergei Bobrovsky has the second-largest cap hit at $7.425 million. Price is now in another stratosphere, and it’s unclear who else could join him soon.

There are elite goalies who have maintained their performance through their 30s. Martin Brodeur, Patrick Roy, Dominik Hasek, Ed Belfour, and Curtis Joseph all played over 400 games from ages 31-38, according to Hockey-Reference’s Play Index. Hasek and Brodeur won a combined seven Vezina Trophies.

It wouldn’t be unprecedented for Price to remain one of the best, if not the best, goalies in the NHL for the next nine years. He’s been so good as the foundation in Montreal that you can see him going the Brodeur-Roy-Hasek route and maintaining that for another decade. If that happens, he’ll be worth his contract, and some.

The Canadiens also didn’t really have a choice but to extend Price, especially after ruffling their fan base by trading beloved star P.K. Subban last year. They needed to retain their franchise goalie, and did it at a premium cost one year before he could even threaten to leave. They clearly wanted to get this done without any issues.

But given Price’s position, age, and recent knee problem, Montreal is taking a real leap here that Carey Price will still be Carey Price in 2024, 2025, and 2026. Maybe management thinks it won’t be around in six or seven years if this team doesn’t win sooner than later anyway. Maybe the Habs are okay taking a bit of a hit later in the pact if it gives them a chance at a Stanley Cup with Price over the next few years. Sometimes, that’s the devilish deal you need to make when retaining elite talent.

The Price extension will define how the Canadiens do over the next nine years, though. He’s soon to be one of the highest-paid players in the league, and we’ve seen how these cap hits impact teams like the Blackhawks and Penguins as they try to build up depth. That’s almost the best-case scenario when you consider the alternate of a major injury or decline.

So now more than ever, the Canadiens will only go as far as Price can take them. He’s one of the greatest goalies in the world. That can’t change anytime soon for Montreal to stay a contender.