Carey Price hopeful he can return to the NHL one day : There's a little bit of unfinished business there
For a second consecutive season, the Montreal Canadiens will begin the year without Carey Price between the pipes. The 35-year-old continues to deal with lingering knee issues that have been problematic for him over the last year and a bit after pushing through the pain during the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The path for Price to return to the crease in Montreal seems pretty unlikely and there's a sizeable chance that his career has come to a close. Price remains under contract until the conclusion of the 2025-26 season, so he will likely spend the rest of that time on long-term injured reserve.
But Price isn't ready to give up just yet. In an interview with Arpon Basu of The Athletic, the long-time Canadiens netminder detailed the pain he has been going through when it comes to his knee.
"I'm just kind of taking it step by step, really," Price said. "Again, my knee still isn't doing great. Like, I'm still not walking up a set of stairs pain-free yet. I still don't feel like my knee's in a place where I'm going to be able to play hockey. I still am getting swelling in my knee, even in my day-to-day living. It's not a great-looking outlook as far as a hockey career when you're struggling to get up and down stairs."
Despite the pain and his current situation, Price said he remains determined to return to the game he's known his whole life. He added that he still has a desire to win and says he has unfinished business.
"Yeah, I still have a desire to play the game," he said. "I go to training camp, right at the start of training camp, and I see all the kids, they're getting ready. It's like part of me is still I still want to win, you know? So there's a little bit of unfinished business there, but I'm also looking at it like what kind of damage would I do to my knee if I didn't do the surgery and I tried to play again? Well, I've been told that I can do some pretty serious damage to my knee if I were to do that. And I'm not really looking to have a knee replacement done in five years."
The Anahim Lake (British Columbia) native spent parts of 15 seasons with the Canadiens after entering the NHL in the 2007-08. In 712 games, he put up a record of 361-261-79 along with a 2.51 GAA, .917 save percentage and 49 shutouts.
Source: Arpon Basu - The Athletic
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