Unmasked: Price’s influence on other goalies is immeasurable

Goaltenders across the NHL grew up wanting to play the position the way the 35-year-old has played for the Montreal Canadiens since his NHL debut in the 2007-08 season.

“He was the gold standard of goalies from the moment he came into the league until his run in the Stanley Cup (Finals) (2021),” he said Jake Allen, who has played with Price in Montreal for the past two seasons. “He was a role model for probably 85 percent of goalkeepers starting out during that period, especially in Canada. He was the goalkeeper of our country. Everyone wanted to be Carey Price. So his influence will be felt for many, many years to come.”

Carter Hart tops the list of goalies who wanted to play like Price.

The Philadelphia Flyers’ No. 1 goaltender was 9 years old and fresh from the position when 20-year-old Price played his first NHL season.

Hart kept the magazines he collected with the Canadiens rookie safe at his parents’ home in Sherwood Park, Alberta, and recalls bugging his father to make sure they got to the game to warm up when he saw Price play live for the first time.

“I think every Canadian goalkeeper that grew up followed Carey Price,” Hart said. “He was my idol and I watched everything he did so I had to be there to watch warm ups and see everything and there was some skating drills he did which I obviously did in my warm up started in pee before training. There was just something about his game, how he made it look so effortless and smooth, and I think that’s why every young goalkeeper adored him.”

Price hasn’t played since April 29, and an offseason hiatus hasn’t eased concerns about a painful, chronic knee condition. He said on Oct. 24 he has no plans to retire, but his hopes of playing again in 2021 after a previously unsuccessful rehab from knee surgery would “require that outward hope for a miracle.”

After that press conference, there was a career review that Price authored.

For all the awards and records set in 15 seasons with the Canadians, including most wins (361) in the team’s turbulent history and winning the Hart Trophy for NHL’s Most Valuable Player, the Vezina Trophy for League’s Best Goalie and the Ted Lindsay Award for Most Outstanding Player voted by players in 2015, Price’s impact on the position itself may be even more significant.

From the way he moves and plays to the way he wears his gear, Price is the most influential goalkeeper of the last decade. Nobody moved the needle in the goalie world quite like the goaltender from tiny Anahim Lake, British Columbia.

“He changed the way the game is played for goalies,” Hart said. “Less is more.”

That less-is-more efficiency with which Price moved around his goal angle became the gold standard for goalies, whether they were young like Hart or already in the NHL.

It didn’t seem to matter how fast things were moving around him, Price rarely broke from his patterns, seemingly slowing down the game and forcing it to be played on his terms. Sure, there were flashy saves from time to time – windmilling gloves, headfirst Superman dives, fully extended stick paddles and Dominik Hasek-esque barrel rolls – from time to time as required. But Price’s calling card is his ability to hit plays for position, arriving with set and square to casually smother seemingly glorious scoring chances in that Canadiens logo on his chest.

“When I first saw him play at World Junior [Championship in 2007] It was the first time I’d seen a goalkeeper play so calmly and smoothly and it was like, ‘How does he do that? How does he play the position so much better than everyone else?’” said the Buffalo Sabers goaltender Eric Comriewho was 11 years old at the time. “It just looked so calm and he was so much better than everyone at the time. Even then, I remember thinking, ‘This is the best goalie I’ve ever seen in my life’ and ‘This is the guy I’ve got to play like.’ And I think every kid that grew up said, ‘I want to play like Carey Price’ because he looked so smooth and effortless and always in position. Year after year he was the best goalkeeper in the world.”

It wasn’t just the aspiring kids who wanted to play like Price. Several established NHL goalies, when asked what skills in another goalie they’d like to see under their Christmas tree for a 2016 edition of Unmasked, chose Price’s move in the crease.

“I’m going to skate Price right now,” said Devan Dubnyk, who at the time was leading the NHL in goals against average, save percentage and shutouts. “If you’re as fluid and fast as he is and always there and ready, it all goes from there. Price pushes and stops and he’s ready like he’s floating out there.”

Curtis McElhinney, who retired last season, called Price’s movement effortless.

“It looks so calm, almost casual,” McElhinney said. “But if he needs to get there faster, it’s there without a second’s hesitation.”

Price’s hold on the position didn’t end with his move — or at the Canadian border.

Pittsburgh Penguins goalie Casey DeSmith hails from New Hampshire but said Price influenced him more than any other goalie. Some of that may have come from growing up in a family of Canadiens fans, but most of it was how Price played.

“He had it all: flawless technique, speed, reading the shot well, great reactions,” said DeSmith. “If you look at how the game is being played from a goalkeeping position now, so much of that can be attributed to Price.

“The best goalkeepers in the world move like him now. Everything is clean, hands are steady, no holes.”

Even Price’s equipment sparked imitation in the goalkeeping community.

CCM launched an entire line around Price’s likes in 2013, and some of the innovations and subtle improvements he’s added over the years have since become staples for other goalies.

Price introduced running the elastic knee strap to the outside of his calf rather than around the knee, removed the bootstrap connecting the pad to the skate, and shortened his stick shafts to improve puck handling, which Hart says is grossly underrated. Several stick companies are retailing shortened models, a nod to the widespread change initiated by Price.

Each is another example of how his impact will continue to be felt in the NHL, even if he never quite makes it back.

How Price played will always be the greatest legacy.

“His skating was phenomenal, just so smooth, efficient and calm,” Hart said. “He never slipped too far or pushed too hard or made things more difficult than they were. Carey just made things look that way and for us as goalkeepers that’s how we want to play.”