Best goalie in the league in 2024: Carey Price named by an NHL player

This morning, The Athletic wrote an excellent article. The subject? Players voting on their peers.

Basically, a lot of players are asked anonymously about the other guys in the league and about things like the best city on the road. And since it’s anonymous, the guys let loose a little more, shall we say.

Who’s the best player in the NHL?
Who’s the best goalie?
Who are the best and worst refs?
Who’s the player you’d most like to punch?

Welcome to another anonymous player poll.

Here’s what today’s NHL players really thinkhttps://t.co/Z0WOf3Jqrw pic.twitter.com/P6Rv0OYDog

– The Athletic (@TheAthletic) January 31, 2024

As for links with the Canadiens or Montreal, there are several. And that’s even if Nick Suzuki doesn’t fit into any category. I couldn’t wait to see if he’d be named one of the most underrated players… but no.

Among the things that might interest you is this. I’m not going to give it all away either: you’ll have to read the original text to see it all.

• Trevor Zegras, Pierre-Luc Dubois, Max Domi and Joel Edmundson (?) are among the league’s most overrated players.
• Nick Cousins, Brad Marchand and Matthew Tkachuk are among the players their peers most want to punch in the face. Brendan Gallagher and Alexis Lafrenière are honorable mentions.
• The Habs have the fifth-best jerseys in the league. The top-6 is made up of the six original teams, and only the Bruins are not ahead of the Habs among the six clubs in question.
• Aside from Las Vegas and New York, Montreal is the players’ favorite city to play in on the road. No one put the Quebec city in their picks for the worst city on the road.

That said, that’s not what struck me most. What struck me most was the fact that a player under contract with the Habs was named the league’s best goalie.

And we’re talking about Samuel Montembeault on five-on-five Carey Price.

It’s important to remember that the title of The Athletic’s article refers to the year 2024. We’re talking about a ranking of the best players on the Bettman circuit right now . And whether the questions were asked in September 2023 or January 2024, it makes no difference.

After all, as we all know, Carey Price, whose last game was in 2022 and who hasn’t played on a regular basis since the Stanley Cup Final in 2021, is here.

Of course, this just goes to show that you have to take it or leave it when it comes to such polls. After all, had the player in question been accountable for his answer and revealed his name, perhaps Price’s name wouldn’t have come up.

I say “maybe” because, when it comes down to it, we don’t know if the joke would have gone far even if the names had been revealed.

Still, I’m curious to know if it was a Habs player (or a former teammate of Price’s in general) who put the name of the Habs goalie on the list.

In gusto

– Still, eh?

Second place on Apple in front… pic.twitter.com/3bUC50AT9P

– Mathias Brunet (@mathiasbrunet) January 31, 2024

– Clearly.

Bob Hartley loves Sean Monahan! pic.twitter.com/2VofMkPrJ5

– L’Antichambre (@Antichambre) January 31, 2024

– Notice to interested parties.

Those coaches I loved so much. The @MA_PerreaultTVA columnhttps://t.co/sQd62Z2yyU

– TVA Sports (@TVASports) January 30, 2024

– The Twins have confidence in Édouard Julien. [BPM Sports]

– Well done.