The Montreal Canadiens have traded Carey Price’s contract and a 2026 fifth-round pick to the San Jose Sharks in exchange for minor-league defenseman Gannon Laroque. Price has not played since 2021, after undergoing surgery to repair a serious meniscus injury. He carries a $10.5MM cap hit through the end of this season.
Price has received a $5.5MM signing bonus on September 1st of each year of his contract. The Canadiens paid that tab earlier this week, opening the door for his lofty cap hit to be moved out. With no bonuses to worry about, San Jose will only have to pay Price $2MM in base salary, while reaping the benefits of a $10.5MM cap hit. That mark brings San Jose’s cap utilization up to $86.23MM – still $9.24MM below the cap ceiling. Montreal, meanwhile, will move forward with roughly $4.57MM in cap space.
The trade makes sense financially for both sides. The Sharks now distance themselves from the cap floor, while Montreal will be able to enter the season without utilizing long-term injured reserve. That latter point will prove particularly beneficial for Montreal, as they’ll now have the flexibility to bring in almost $5MM in lineup talent – rather than being forced to enter the season at the cap ceiling, since they exceeded the ceiling with Price’s contract on the books.
Montreal is planning to take full advantage of that newfound flexibility, per Marco D’Amico of Responsible Gaming. D’Amico shares that – whether it’s before the season or closer to December – the Habs have expressed interest in building out their roster. The team is noticeably lacking depth at the center position, with little to offer behind clear-cut, top center Nick Suzuki. That could make the Canadiens a strong candidate for a player like Jack Roslovic, who surprisingly remains on the free agent market despite scoring 22 goals and 39 points in his ninth NHL season last year.
The Canadiens will also receive an interesting prospect in this swap. Laroque has fallen victim to substantial injuries throughout each of the last few seasons. He had to undergo surgery on both hips in 2022, forcing him to sit out of all but four games of his final WHL season. He scored five points in those games. Recovery from the hip surgery continued through the 2023-24 season, though Laroque was able to play nine games, and record two points and eight penalty minutes, in both the AHL and ECHL. He seemed well-set to formally begin his pro career, before being pulled out of the 2024-25 season entirely by an undisclosed injury. It wasn’t revealed if this new injury was related to his previous hip surgeries. He was a productive, right-shot defender when he appeared at the junior level. Spending the better parts of two seasons with the WHL’s Victoria Royals, Laroque was able to record 59 points in 84 games.
Meanwhile, San Jose will move forward with balanced books and a clearer outlook of their expenses this season. This move drops San Jose from having the second-most cap space in the league, to the ninth-most. They also now carry 49 contracts, out of a possible 50. Sharks fans will zero in on how the team chooses to move forward with superstar prospect Michael Misa – the second-overall selection in this year’s NHL Draft. Misa scored an incredible 62 goals and 134 points in 65 OHL games this season, but still remains unsigned despite seemingly accomplishing everything he could at the junior flight. He’ll be a name to watch closely, and could even find his way onto the Sharks’ opening night roster, now that the team has a bit more financial security.
Photo courtesy of Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports.
That’s it? 10 million bucks and you get a 5th round draft choice? If I was the owner the GM would be gone.
If the Sharks sell off a bunch of their vets at the deadline they may actually need Price’s 10.5M to stay above the floor. They only have one retention available. Hence the meager compensation.
Price is only costing SJ $2MM, not $10MM. His salary total for the 25-26 season is $7.5MM, and the Habs paid $5MM of that on 9/1.
Dollars to be paid Price? $2MM.
Cap hit for having him on their roster? Priceless.
What can the Habs do for you?
Underappreciated here is also that it given them 1 contract less than the limit which means they can take on dumps if needed moving forward.
I wish hockey would come up with a solution for this because at least to me it looks bad to see a likely hall of famer getting shipped out from the team he played his entire career with as a cash dump. It’s one thing when a guy decides to pull a Jordan on the Wizards but in a case when the guy will never play and it’s just a paper acquisition it just feels kind of wrong.
No, Why do they still have to pay a disabled player full salary for ALL those years and his salary is still against the cap!?!?!?! After a year or 2 it should be dismissed from the cap, but the team still owes the player.
Maybe he becomes part owner of the Sharks
What the solution USED to be was that when a player suffered a career ending injury, he retired. Period.
And there also used to be six teams in the league, and goalies didn’t wear masks, and the salary that shocked the hockey world was Bobby Orr getting an outrageous $40,000 a year in 1966, and four teams made the playoffs, and the Cup was handed out the first week in May, and no one had ever scored more than 50 goals in a season.
Hot Take: It was better when pro athletes were more similar to indentured servants.
Yeah, how about the REAL take: that the game’s changed a lot, and the rules are what they are.
Hockey & Baseball CBAs ensure it. It takes 2 to agree to a deal. Risk vs Reward.
Great deal for San Jose. Price is guaranteed not to give up a single goal all season!
That Nick Leddy/Carey Price combo.. watch out! lol
Shrewd business from Grier. Love this for the sharks.
RIP Ken. What a career, what a life, what a legend.
Can Carey PLEASE suit up for just ONE game in a Sharks uni? He can have have a towel around his neck on the bench while some a.c. shuttles him Lacroix waters all game…
Just ONE day in teal, dammit! …lol
Great news for Sharks fans looking to spend their hard earned money on tickets as this move will clearly lead to them putting a better product on the ice this season.
Buy your tickets with confidence!
Since San Jose could still use some scoring depth at an affordable price (I know I know which team couldn’t?) but how about making some sort of offer to Phil Kessel?