Carey Price: Who is he?

Prelude- There is a promising young rookie in hockey that will soon be as widely known among hockey fans as Matts Sundin is to Leaf fans, Alfredsson is to Sens fans and Luongo is to Canuck fans; his name is Carey Price. This could be the goalie story of the year. Let's use today's blog to give you something to talk about with your hockey fan.

Sport - Hockey

Event - The goalie situation in Montreal, in particular: goalie Carey Price.

Issue - The Montreal goalie situation is getting a lot of press in the Montreal hockey world. The reason? Other than Montreal loves its hockey and loves its Canadiens more, is that there this is a goalie who could very well lead this team into the playoffs in the coming years.

Should he play though? he is very young but has a lot potential. Is it too soon to bring this guy up from the minors? He already has proven himself there though.

Point to Say - "Do you think Carey Price will be as good as Patrick Roy was for Montreal?"

Follow up point - "It's way too early to tell as Price is only 20. As long as the Montreal media doesn't wear him down, he should turn into a great one."

Backgrounder
In 2005 NHL Entry Draft, the Montréal Canadiens' 1st round choice ( 5th overall) was a goalie by the name of Carey Price. It is not often at all that a goalie gets drafted that high. The last time was Pittsburgh Penguins' 1st round choice ( 1st overall) in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft of Marc-Andre Fleury. He was up and down with the Pens for a few seasons, and is only now playing regularly as their regular starting goalie. Previous to that, the New York Islanders' 1st round choice ( 4th overall) in the 1997 NHL Entry Draft of Roberto Luongo. Luongo is currently thought to be the best goalie in the NHL currently. But do the math. 1997-2007. That is ten years. It takes a while for a goalie to earn top spot on this team let alone the league.

This year, Price earned a spot on the Mtl team through his play at the team's training camp. To go from junior hockey to AHL to the NHL in three years is well.. amazing.

Price's NHL debut was highly anticipated across Canada after he led the country to the 2006 World Junior Championship, earning MVP honors in the process. He finished his year in junior being named goalie of the year in major junior hockey (all of Canada). Then, he joined the Mtl Canadiens farm team, the Hamilton Bulldogs and led them to the American Hockey League championship. So, essentially, this goalie has morphed from junior sensation to AHL playoff star in the blink of an eye.

Montreal has a history of top flight goalies. Most recently was Patrick Roy. He climbed to fame in his rookie year by leading the Canadiens to the Stanley Cup in 1993.

Quirky fact: Carey Price made his NHL debut against Pittsburgh this year. Canadiens Hall of Fame goalies Ken Dryden and Patrick Roy also made their NHL debuts against the Penguins — Roy's first game was a 5-3 victory on Oct. 10, 1985.

Links
Carey Price's bio from NHL.com
Article on opening game performance, a 3-2 win over Pittsburgh.
Article on Carey Price's future role with Montreal.