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SAN JOSE – The San Jose Sharks acquired goalie Carey Price and a 2026 fifth-round pick from the Montreal Canadiens on Friday in exchange for defenseman Gannon Laroque in a win-win for both organizations.
Price, 38, has not played since April 2022, as a debilitating knee injury has ended his remarkable career, which could culminate in his election to the Hockey Hall of Fame as soon as next year.
Price is entering the final year of an eight-year, $84 million deal he signed in July 2017 and carries a $10.5 million cap hit. But he has been on long-term injured reserve each of the last three seasons and will remain on LTIR for the 2025-26 season.
Price received a $5.5 million signing bonus from the Canadiens on September 1 and is now owed just $2 million in salary, which insurance likely covers.
The Sharks receive a small sweetener in the form of a draft pick for assuming the remainder of Price’s contract, and the Canadiens create some much-needed salary cap space for the upcoming season.
With Price and potentially Logan Couture going on LTIR, the Sharks, per PuckPedia, now have a projected cap hit of roughly $86.3 million and $9.2 million in projected cap space for the upcoming season with 23 active players. The Canadiens now have $4.6 million in projected cap space with 23 active players.
Couture, 36, officially ended his NHL playing career in April, unable to completely get past his own debilitating injury that robbed him of a chance to leave the sport on his own terms.
Price’s cap hit should allow the Sharks to stay above this season’s salary cap floor of $70.6 million even if they trade any number of their pending unrestricted free agents.
Players who are slated to become UFAs next season — and who have substantial cap hits — include forwards Alexander Wennberg ($5 million) and Jeff Skinner ($3 million), defensemen Nick Leddy and John Klingberg ($4 million each), Mario Ferraro ($3.25 million) and Timothy Liljegren ($3 million) and goalie Alex Nedeljkovic ($2.5 million).
The Sharks now have eight picks in next year’s draft, including two in the first round and two in the second.
Price, taken fifth overall by the Canadiens in 2005, has been with Montreal for his entire 15-season NHL career. He has a 361-261-79 record in 712 regular-season games with a .917 save percentage, and a 43-25 record with a .919 save percentage in 92 playoff games. His 403 combined victories are 22nd all-time.
Price won the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy in 2021-22, and the Hart Memorial Trophy, Ted Lindsay Award, Vezina Trophy, and William M. Jennings Trophy in 2014-15 when he had 44 wins, a .933 save percentage, and a 1.96 goals-against average.
Laroque, 22, was a fourth-round draft pick by the Sharks in 2021 but has seen his career slowed by injuries. He has played just 21 games as a professional and missed all of last season with an undisclosed injury. He is entering the final year of his entry-level contract, which he signed in June 2022.
The Sharks remain near the 50-contract limit, but they do have deals that are slide-eligible, such as the ones for defensemen Sam Dickinson and Leo Sahlin Wallenius.
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