In three months time, former Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Price will join the game's all-time greats as he's inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame as part of their Class of 2026 alongside Patrice Bergeron, Pekka Rinne, Keith Tkachuk, Brian Burke and Cindy Curley.
After missing out in his first year of eligibility in 2025, Price will become the 58 player and 70th person (players + builders) in the nearly 117 year history of the Montreal Canadiens to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
With Price's induction into the Hall of Fame in November, it begs the question - should the Montreal Canadiens raise his number 31 to the rafters at the Bell Centre?
Should the Montreal Canadiens retire Carey Price's number?
The numbers speak for themselves. In 712 games between the pipes for the Canadiens, the Anahim Lake native had a franchise record 361 wins - good for 24th all-time in NHL history, along with a 2.51 goals against average, a .917 save percentage and 49 shutouts.
One of the arguments against putting Price's number in the rafters comes down to him not winning a Stanley Cup in his career. The closest the Canadiens came during the Carey Price era was in 2021, when they reached the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since 1993.
Despite playing through a severe knee injury, Price stood on his head night in, night out in order to give the Canadiens a chance at hoisting their 25th Stanley Cup. Unfortunately, Montreal came up short as the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated them in five games to win the Stanley Cup for a second consecutive season.
15 numbers honouring 18 different players are currently hanging from the rafters at the Bell Centre. All 15 of those players, from Maurice Richard to Jean Beliveau to Guy Lafleur to Patrick Roy have won the Stanley Cup wearing the bleu blanc et rouge.
As the National Hockey League has evolved over the last three decades, it's become harder to win the Stanley Cup. There's more teams than ever before and the skill level and pure talent of the players and goaltenders is at an all-time high. For that reason alone, combined with the fact of what Carey Price was able to accomplish over the course of his career, he should be considered to have his number retired.
The 38-year-old carried the Canadiens on his back for the entirety of his career and unfortunately, the team around him was never constructed well enough to have a chance to win the Stanley Cup. No disrespect to that 2021 team, but they barely snuck into the playoffs in a weird COVID-year and got hot. Looking at that team on paper going into the season, no one would have said they're a Stanley Cup contender.
To put things in perspective, during Carey Price's career, he had just one player on his team record 80 or more points. That came during his rookie year in 2007-08 when Alexei Kovalev registered 35 goals and 84 points. Meanwhile, Max Pacioretty's 39 goals during the 2013-14 campaign was the most scored by a Montreal Canadien in the Carey Price era.
It's truly unfortunate that Carey Price was never able to win a Stanley Cup in his career. He did all he could to help this organization reach the pinnacle, but they came up short. Hockey is a team sport and it takes a village to win the game's biggest prize. An individual can do all they can to push their team forward, like Price did in 2021, but at the end of the day, you need all four lines and six defenseman contributing in order to have a chance.
So, should the Montreal Canadiens retire Carey Price's number? Personally, I think so. Price made a monumental impact on the Montreal Canadiens organization in his career, even without winning a Stanley Cup. Whether it's this coming season or the 2027-28 campaign, Price's number 31 deserves to hang between the numbers 29 and 33 for two other legendary goaltenders in franchise history - Ken Dryden and Patrick Roy.