Price'd Out

It seems that Carey Price's fall from grace continues, now with news coming out that Andrei Markov has called out Price and questioning his heart and his dedication to the team. From playoff failure to Tweets from his tandem partner's agent-- the pressure on Price to overcome this, even while he's still in a developing issue in his career; is immense and who knows if he can do it in that market.

It seems Elliotte Friedman agrees with this ordeal, as does Sean Leahy when he talked about this, which oddly enough sparked my whole thought process.

Granted, my thinking was sparked when I heard about the Markov spat in the locker room through Twitter and I was talking to the girl (go check out I Mean, We Got Guys....., by the way) about this. You have to wonder what would become of Price if he wasn't picked where he was picked and if wasn't as good as he was in juniors. Had he been in a lower-pressure market, would he have developed to a bigger name, albeit in a longer time frame?? We all know that goalies take the longest to develop, so was Price brought up too quickly, even given his success in the lower-levels. Yet, it would have been a catch-22 in most cases, as more often than not, Price would have been selected by a team with a big goaltending issue-- hence why they would have picked a goalie so high in the draft.

Now, if we do a what-if and Price was selected fifth overall again, he'd probably would have ended up with Phoenix or Columbus, depending on where the lotto balls fell. Either way, those are two teams who have had goalie issues in the past. Odds are, they could have ruined Price off the bat by throwing him in the fire too quickly, but it doesn't seem like they would have been in a big rush in order to get him through the system and up to the pros in a time quicker than the speed of light. Odds are they would have developed him better and allowed him to grow. Again--at what point does he get sick of waiting, thinking he's better than he is and lose confidence for not being called up. It's a tight-rope walk, nowadays.

Even if the Habs let Price go, what team would be willing to pick him up?? With goaltending as tight as it is, there's little room for anyone out there. Especially considering his slump and seemingly broken confidence, there's not many people who will be running to Price in order to sign him up for a role on the team, even as a back-up. While the upside in him is there and the pressure would be lesser on him in another market; there's always the idea that he will slump and slump hard during a stretch when you may need him the most. The unreliability of Price now and the possible pressure for him to prove people wrong could actually be his downfall in the end, as well.

It has been quite the fall from grace for Price. From being the savior of the franchise to be the goat who is having his character questioned (of course, allegedly) by his own teammates. He's been outplayed by his partner and now there's a chance he could have a long road back to the hype that got him to where he is today. For a player with a lot of promise, you hope for the best for him and hope he doesn't become a part of the AGM tribe.