Montreal Canadiens goalie Carey Price may need upwards of 12 straight 40-win seasons to pass Martin Brodeur’s career regular-season mark of 691. However, there’s one way he can knock Brodeur out of the record books as soon as this spring.
Carey Price: Undisputed No. 1
Quite impressively, Price is currently No. 1 in two major statistical categories: save percentage (.933) and goals-against average (2.00). Having secured his third career 30-win season with a victory over the Philadelphia Flyers Tuesday, he’s also just one behind Nashville Predators Pekka Rinne, who leads the league.
While there’s little disputing the Vezina caliber of Rinne’s season to date, Price seems to have more of an inside track. Were he to eventually leapfrog Rinne and lead the league in three of the four major goaltending categories (Pittsburgh Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury is No. 1 in shutouts), Price would be an undeniable shoo-in for the award to the league’s best goalie this season.
However, as possible as a Vezina may be for Price, one other title is almost within reach: The record for most wins in a single season of 48, which was set by Brodeur in 2006-07 when he was still with the New Jersey Devils (I know, Brodeur played for the Devils? Seems hard to believe).
A Tall Order
The 6’3” Price has an undeniably tall order ahead of him, though. Montreal has just 29 games remaining, 28 if you disregard Thursday night’s contest against the Edmonton Oilers, which Dustin Tokarski is slated to be in nets for.
Assuming Tokarski and Price only split pairs of back-to-back starts the rest of the way (an admittedly fair assumption, considering the Habs are in a playoff race for first in the Atlantic Division and Eastern Conference), Price would be left with 24 potential starts remaining.
He’d admittedly have to almost run the table to beat Brodeur, but consider Price’s 30-11-2 record to date. That translates to a .700 winning percentage, meaning if Price keeps up his pace through 24 starts the rest of the way, he’ll end up with 17 more wins and 47 overall, just one short of Brodeur.
For the Record
It is admittedly kind of unfair to put additional expectations on the shoulders of Price, especially when he’s more than exceeded them up to this point the past two seasons. He’s obviously been lights-out for Montreal as the Canadiens’ most valuable player, and it’s arguably too much to ask for him to take it up a notch.
As a result, consider Price actually beating Brodeur’s 48 wins a long shot. Nevertheless, for the record, if Price actually does play 24 more games this season, he’ll end up with 67. Brodeur needed 78 games that season to set the record. (.615 winning percentage). So, Price is arguably playing at a higher level now than Brodeur did that year, which is impressive in its own right.
Price may very well not even come close to Brodeur’s all-time win mark. No one may. But he does have a shot at greatness, that is if he hasn’t gotten there already.
After 10 years of writing hockey, Ryan decided it was as good a time as any to actually join The Hockey Writers for the 2014-15 season. Having appeared as a guest on such programs as CBC Radio One’s Daybreak, Ryan has also written for the Montreal Gazette and Bleacher Report and worked for the NHL itself and his hometown Montreal Canadiens. He currently writes about all things Habs for THW, with it being a career highlight for him to have covered the 2021 Stanley Cup Final as a credentialed member of the press.
2006-2007 devils were nowhere near top team team like preds or habs are this year. 48 wins with that team + 12 shutouts and now comes the most ridiclous part of it: devils scored only 216 goals that year(6th worst tied with coyotes) which is 2.63 goals per game and marty pulled off 48 wins.
now consider the fact that, that was actually high scoring year where crosby scored 120 points(7 players over 100 points) and buffalo sabres who were 1st in the east scored 308 goals in regular season and all the teams who made the playoffs from east scored atleast 240 goals except the devils with that 216.
“So, Price is arguably playing at a higher level now than Brodeur did that year”. so how about no? nothing away from Price but that 2006-2007 was all about marty brodeur and the reason devils even made the playoffs, yet winning the atlantic div and finishing 2nd in the whole eastern conference.
the fact is that habs wouldn’t have this many wins with tokarski but wins are some part team stats. you can’t win 50 games a year with playing in edmonton or buffalo this year – that’s just a fact. tokarski would end up about 10 wins less than price if they both played full season(that’s my guess) so if price beats brodeur, it’s still fully deserved but as i explained above, the team price has in front of him compared to brodeur’s 2006-2007 devils isn’t even fair to compare.
Thanks for the comment. I have to say, you make some very good points. I’m inclined to agree with you on many of them, but you failed to take into consideration Price’s .933 save percentage this year and Brodeur’s .922 one in 2006-07. I also think, as much as it pains me to say, that you’re giving this incarnation of the Habs far too much credit. If they win their division this year, like the Devils did in 2006-07, it will only be because of Price. This team gives up far too many shots against. In fact, Brodeur faced an average of just under 28 shots per game that year. Price this year? 29.77. Montreal is also only on pace for 222 goals this year, so I’m thinking the comparison is very much justified, all due respect to one of the, if the not single greatest goalies ever.