Habster:
I’m not sure I’m of the same opinion as Pat Hickey when it pertains to giving the goaltending reins to Carey Price, even into the playoffs. The Eastern Conference is pretty much wide open with no clear cut Stanley Cup favorite so it’s difficult to agrue with Hickey’s view about keeping Cristobal Huet as an insurance policy but hear me out.
Here are my agruments for considering a trade of Huet:
- Carey Price has a history of carrying teams to the promised land: 2008 WJC and 2006-2007 Calder Cup,…….Stanley Cup????? Yes, he’s 20 year old and relatively inexperienced at the NHL level but there are previous examples of inexperienced/young goaltenders carrying teams far into the playoffs and even winning the Stanley Cup (ie- Cam Ward, Patrick Roy, Ray Emery, Ken Dryden……etc).
- Letting Huet walk away at the end of the season for nothing isn’t an appealing situation especially when re-signing him will be difficult with Price waiting in the wings and Huet wanting a 3-4 year contract at $4-$5 million per season…..pretty steep price for a potential back-up!!!
- Trading Huet (in a package or alone) could bring the Canadiens a strong return to strengthen other areas (top 6 forward, #3-4 defenseman, big/strong face-off guy,…..) for a strong playoff run.
- It’s only been three games but Carey Price looks strong in every aspect of his game right now and simply put, has outplayed Cristobal Huet whose game has been average at best his last few games. Huet also hasn’t proven anything in his limited playoff exposure……if you truly look at the situation with an open mind, you could even agrue that Carey Price has accomplished more as a 20 year old than Cristobal Huet has as a 32 year old, it’s not even debateable!!!