300 in His Twilight Year

“If you would have told me in the off-season I’d be getting my 300^th win with the Nashville Predators, I would’ve said you were absolutely crazy.” A Carey Price quipped, with a chuckle of course.

Carey Price is the first ever goaltender to reach 300 wins in the Elite Hockey Experience. Granted, 289 of those wins came with the Dallas Stars, a team he back stopped for 8 seasons, dating back to 2014. So Price’s comment about getting this milestone with the Predators, a team he spent his whole career eliminating from the playoffs, makes a lot of sense as it is the unlikiest of destinations he saw himself in.

“The Predators were always our biggest rival, they were a team who challenged us the most within’ the division. A team that was desperate to usurp us, and admittedly I made it a goal of mine to never let them beat us.”

A goal Price backed up with his elite play any time the Stars matched up against the Predators. Carey Price’s aided the Stars in eliminating the Predators from two conference finals in 2019 and 2021, and a semi-finals in 2020. “The Stars bounced us out of the playoffs 3 years in a row” GM Eric Wolf said, “And a big contributing factor was because we could never overcome Price’s elite play in net. He was a huge pain in our ass.” Wolf joked.

It wasn’t until 2022, when the Predators FINALLY redeemed themselves, and swept the Stars in the opening round of the playoffs. Payback for 3 straight years of misery at the hand of the Stars. Despite the Predators sweeping the series 4-0, Price still boasted a very impressive .921 SV% in that series. “Nashville was very determined to beat us, and we just couldn’t find our scoring or get our bearings underneath us all series. I think every game was decided by one goal.” Price said.

Nashville finally defeating their arch nemesis, the Dallas Stars, and Carey Price. It signalled somewhat of a ‘changing of the guard’ within the division, but some never expected what happened, to have happened…

“My contract had one year remaining in Dallas, we had just been swept, freshman GM Justin Tang was still putting his own stamp on the franchise, so you could sense some changes were coming, but I still fully expected to stay in Dallas and finish my career there.” Price admitted.

But a part of the changes by the front office in Dallas, story franchised goaltender Carey Price was shipped off to Tampa Bay in the off-season.

“I didn’t know what to think at the time. Tampa Bay had just missed the playoffs, and had 3 starting goaltenders on their team, it felt like a bit of a strange spot for me to be in, considering I had every intention of finishing my career with Dallas.”

That’s when Nashville entered the picture. “We had just put our finishing touches on the roster in the off-season, but we were in the hunt for a veteran goaltender with a lot of experience that could backstop our team. We felt we had a competitive chance to go deep in the playoffs this year, so we were in the market for a goaltender who had ‘been there, and done that’ so to speak. When we saw the situation in Tampa Bay, myself and our collective front office sat down and decided that bizarrely enough, it made a lot of sense to make a play for the goaltender who had spent his whole career making sure we didn’t advance to the Stanley Cup final.” GM Eric Wolf said.

The Predators were able to strike a deal with the Bolts before the start of the season. Price, whom was in the process of finding accommodations in Tampa Bay, was suddenly informed he was going to Nashville instead. “I thought it was some kind of joke at the time, never in a million years did I think I’d be dawning a gold Predators jersey.” Price said. “But once it all sank in, I felt relieved that I was going to a situation where the team was competing and had a clear need for my services. Admittedly though, it took awhile to get used to the fact I was playing for Nashville now, a team who had finally just beat us in the playoffs only months ago, so in a weird way, a way I never would have expected… things came full circle, and now here I am.”

And with that, Price, whom only has 11 wins with his new team, the 11^th win was career win #300. A milestone and EHE record thus far. “It’s not exactly how we drew it up.” Wolf said “But we’re honoured to have a goaltender like Carey Price, to have his experience and leadership, even if he is in the twilight of his career, we’re thrilled it is here, and he’s one of us now.”

Price concluded, “I never would have expected this, but I can say that I am grateful of my time in the Elite Hockey Experience, with the Dallas Stars, and now here where I hope I can finish my career with at least one more story book type of ending here in Nashville.”

Article Photo Cred: Doug Waite