Montreal Canadiens goalie Carey Price’s tenure appears on the verge of ending. With his signing bonus having been due on Sept. 1, his contract, which has one year left, is a potentially attractive asset to teams looking to stay above the salary-cap floor in 2025-26. And, since he’s effectively retired and otherwise destined for long-term injured reserve, he’s more valuable to the Habs elsewhere, with his contract on the books of another team.
Related: Top Canadiens’ Priorities Heading into 2025-26
So, it’s unlikely, however inconceivable it would have been at one point in time to so much as imagine Price in another team’s jersey, Canadiens fans would ever come to rue the day he’s eventually dealt. That’s not so much the case with the following still-active ex-Habs. Taking into account how they lost the rights to the player in the first place, trade trees in the event of a trade (i.e., what the Habs ultimately ended up with), contract quality, playing ability and how they best fit current needs in the lineup, here are the top three:
3. Sean Monahan
The Canadiens presumably traded Sean Monahan in 2024 in large part to pave the way for Kirby Dach to permanently take over the second-line centre spot. It’s ironic, because Dach hasn’t panned out due a string of knee surgeries, whereas Monahan’s own lengthy injury history probably (or at least should have) contributed to the decision not to re-sign the then-pending unrestricted free agent (UFA).
With Monahan on the verge of turning 30 and probably looking for a significant deal, both in terms of salary and term, it made sense for the Canadiens to trade him to the Jets for a first-round pick. That’s a mighty big statement to make considering Monahan is coming off a season in which he impressively scored at a point-per-game pace (albeit over just 54 games). After all, the Canadiens flipped the pick they got in a deal to secure the right to draft highly touted prospect Michael Hage, who’s projected to eventually fill the same role Monahan did and Dach has on the team.
Hage may fail to pan out. However, it’s also possible Monahan fails to replicate his successful 2024-25, when the Canadiens made the playoffs and his Columbus Blue Jackets didn’t, this coming season. Plus, it’s arguably likelier Hage develops into a player more capable of contributing at centre on the second line at a time that better aligns with the Habs’ window to contend for a Stanley Cup. Having signed a five-year deal with a $5.5 million cap hit through 2029, Monahan could become a negative-value player eventually instead.
2. Ryan McDonagh
More than 16 years later, this one still hurts. In 2009, the Canadiens traded 12th-overall-pick Ryan McDonagh (2007) to the New York Rangers for Scott Gomez, Michael Busto and Tom Pyatt. Gomez was eventually bought out as a failed No. 1 centre. A bottom-six forward, Tom Pyatt lasted two seasons, scoring just 12 points in 101 games with the Habs. Busto never played a single NHL game. And, for whatever it’s worth, the Habs also gave up Chris Higgins, Doug Janik and Pavel Valentenko in a trade fans have come to look back on with disgust.
McDonagh is still plying his trade effectively with two Stanley Cups to his name with the Tampa Bay Lightning, including in 2021 at the expense of Price and the Canadiens. Following a two-season stint with the Nashville Predators, McDonagh was traded back to the Lightning ahead of last season, still scoring a highly respectable 31 points at Age 35. For a team seeking veteran leadership on the back end, a left-handed shot like McDonagh could still be valuable, and arguably maybe even more valuable than 27-year-old Mikhail Sergachev, who also contributed to the same Cup-winning Lightning teams after the Habs infamously traded him there for Jonathan Drouin in 2017.
The reasoning is simple, despite Sergachev, now in his prime at Age 27, coming off a 15-goal, 53-point season: A) The Canadiens seem to have their offense from the blue line well in hand with Lane Hutson having emerged as a force and Noah Dobson having been acquired this offseason and B) Having signed an eight-year, $68 million extension in 2022, he is arguably overpaid and will be for quite some time.
With just one year left at a cap hit of $6.75 million on his contract, McDonagh makes much more sense as a theoretical addition to the lineup. If the Canadiens are hell-bent on keeping Hutson’s pairing with the defensively aware Kaiden Guhle together, McDonagh makes for a decent complement to Dobson on paper instead. Sure, there is a logjam on defense currently, especially on the left side. However, in a world in which the Habs are poised to potentially play Mike Matheson, who just led the team in ice time, on the third pairing instead of trade him as a fellow pending UFA, someone like Jayden Struble, with whom Hutson also enjoyed significant success, becomes more valuable as a trade chip (after having hypothetically reacquired McDonagh).
The Canadiens are clearly looking to improve on their first-round finish in 2025-26. A player like McDonagh in the Top 4 is more likely to make that happen than Struble as a seventh (or eighth) defenseman. And instead we can just pencil Struble in as an entry on a list like this five years from now, because isn’t that just how these things work?
1. Corey Perry
Corey Perry was of course on that 2021 Canadiens team that fell short 4-1 in the Stanley Cup Final against the Lightning, after which he signed with Bolts, only to lose in the 2022 Stanley Cup Final to the Colorado Avalanche. It’s kind of become a running gag as he’s played on the runners-up to the Stanley Cup champions five of the last six seasons.
You almost feel sorry for the guy. Or at least you would were it not Perry, a guy you love to hate, as long as he’s not on your team (in which case you learn to just love him). He oozes depth scoring and leadership, especially looking at his long playoff runs just this decade (and the Cup he actually won in 2007). And, at $2 million for a single year, he has the capacity to be a valuable depth player, down the stretch (and into the postseason).
With the departures of Joel Armia and Emil Heineman this offseason, Jake Evans is linemateless as a fourth-line centre in principle. Perry would make for a good complement. The Canadiens may have acquired Zachary Bolduc as a potential replacement, but he is arguably just as likely to end up on the second line after having scored 19 goals last season as a rookie.
With Perry, there is no confusion regarding his role or where he belongs at this stage of his career. That’s reflected in his player profile, contract and the depth up front of the team right now. In the end, it speaks volumes that the Canadiens should prefer a returning Perry for depth purposes over any of the other players on this list. While Price’s contract situation serves as justifiable pretext to reminisce on past seasons, the focus is generally on the future with this crop of Canadiens. The best sincerely seems yet to come, which says a great deal, looking at how far both Perry and Price got in the playoffs a mere four years ago now. So much has changed regarding the construction of the roster (and for the better). It feels like an eternity, doesn’t it?
