Opinion : Carey Price's contract will hurt the Habs for a long time.

DISCLAIMER : This is an opinion piece and doesn't necessarily reflects the Hockey Feed official position. 

The news of the day was obviously Carey Price signing an 8 years extension with the Montreal Canadiens. At 84M$ for 8 years, the Habs signed one of the best goalies in the league. Arguably, it didn't come so cheap though, as this stat demonstrates. 

This stat in itself shows how immense the Price contract truly is. Granted, he's in a class of his own and you'd rather have one excellent goalie than two average ones exchanging the net *cough Flyers, Jets, Stars, etc cough*. However, your starting goalie will not play 82 games each year and you still have to win the 20-odd games you let the backup start. Montreal has a decent option in Al Montoya, but he's been pretty shaky at times last year. You will drop a few more games than statistically anticipated with a less than average backup, even if your starter is stellar. 

This one is a biggie. Loading your team with a handful of stars is not exactly scandalous. The Penguins and the Blackhawks won Stanley Cups by doing so in recent memory. Thing is, loading your team with Crosby, Malkin and Letang is different than loading it with Price, Weber and Alzner. Defensive wins championships, we all agree on that, but Montreal doesn't have a lot of offensive power to begin with. If both Radulov and Markov decide to sign elsewhere, the year will be rough in Montreal. 

Price's contract only kick in next year and Tomas Plekanec's contract will be done at this point, freeing 6M$ on the cap. It might turn slightly better than expected if Bergevin pulls a rabbit out of his hat during the upcoming season. However, all this discussion doesn't solve the #1 problem plaguing Montreal since the early 00's, namely a lack of above average centerman. 

To be fair, Bergevin didn't have a lot of choice. Price's previous contract ended in 2017-2018 and losing it to the UFA market was obviously not an option. It was a gun to the head type of situation and Price's agent tasted the blood in the water for sure. Good for him, you use every leverage you can in business. 

In the end, the contract might turn like a genius move down the line and this writer will have to eat his hat. He's prepared for that, but a lot of water will have flowed under the bridge at that point.