Carey Price Officially Traded: What the Move Signals for the Maple Leafs

It's the end of an era in La Belle Province.

After effectively retiring though still not officially, Carey Price's time with the Montreal Canadiens has come to an end after tons of speculation. Montreal needed to get out from under his massive contract, and rumors a deal was in place emerged recently.

Well those rumors certainly had some smoke, which led way to a blazing inferno as the Canadiens traded Price to the San Jose Sharks on Friday as well as a fifth-round pick in exchange for defensive prospect Gannon Laroque.

The Canadiens social media page relayed the trade to its fans, and while a few are excited for Laroque, the big news is Price, the legendary netminder, is gone.

One fan however had a very good point, which would essentially make all of this moot, and it's just a matter of time.

Price last played in the 2021-22 season where he went 1-4-0 with a 3.83 GAA and .878 SV% as he struggled to stay healthy; he has a career 361-261-79 record with a 2.51 GAA and .907 SV%.

He won the Hart, Vezina, Masterton and Pearson Awards in 2014-15 after his astounding seasons where he went 44-16-6 with a 1.96 GAA and .933 SV%.

While Toronto doesn't have anything to worry about in terms of a contract like Price's, and they are probably happy that they no longer need to worry about him (he torched them for years to the tune of a 27-17-5 record).

Toronto's already had to deal with their own mishmash of aging and injured veterans who were signed only to be shipped elsewhere or just dead cap weight.

Stephan Robidas, David Clarkson, Nathan Horton, Nick Foligno, Jani Hakanpaa; these players all were older, injured, or both and it didn't make sense that the team brought them in under any circumstances.

It seems the team is learning from their mistakes, as they are already cutting ties with bad deals like Ryan Reaves, and are trying to find buyers for other ones like David Kampf; buyer's remorse is real but they can remedy things in time.

The main focus now is what exactly Montreal is going to do with all that extra space, as they can now add that premium star to their ranks and make a serious push in the Atlantic.

For now though, #31 is no longer a part of the Habs organization but it's probably not the last time he'll be associated with Montreal.