The Montreal Canadiens announced that Carey Price will be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame this November, with the organization set to honor him at the Bell Centre the following night. It’s one of the biggest tributes the franchise has paid a player in years — fifteen seasons, a Vezina, a Hart, and more signature moments than fit in one article. And it reignites a question fans have been debating for a while now: does Carey Price’s number belong hanging from the rafters?

Let’s get into it.

The Call of Fame

It starts in Toronto on Monday, November 9, when Price officially becomes a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame — sharing that stage with the other legends of this era. Coming from the Hall itself, a neutral body with zero bias toward Montreal, that’s about as strong a confirmation as you’ll get that this guy belonged with the all-time greats at his position.

Then the very next night, Tuesday, November 10, the Canadiens bring it home. Montreal honors Price at the Bell Centre in a pre-game ceremony before hosting the Minnesota Wild. He becomes the 62nd name in the Ring of Honour — the first new addition since Shea Weber back in 2024.

Carey Price spent all 15 of his NHL seasons with the Montreal Canadiens, cementing his legacy as one of the greatest goaltenders in franchise history.

Some of his standout achievements include:
🥅 Winning the Hart Trophy, Vezina Trophy, Ted Lindsay Award and William Jennings… pic.twitter.com/6WqE8t0tXF

— Hockey Hall of Fame (@HockeyHallFame) August 17, 2026

A Legendary Career Built on Performance and Persistence

Price’s story — from a young goaltender in Anahim Lake, British Columbia, to the face of this franchise for a decade and a half — is the kind you tell your kids about. Drafted 5th overall by Montreal in 2005, he didn’t just show up and play well. He rewrote the record book:

• Most wins by a Canadiens goaltender: 361 — the most in franchise history, ahead of legends like Jacques Plante.
• Most games played by a Canadiens goaltender: 712 regular-season games, another franchise record.
• The 2014-15 season for the ages: Price didn’t just win one award — he swept them. Hart Memorial Trophy (League MVP), Vezina Trophy (Best Goaltender), Ted Lindsay Award (MVP as voted by the players themselves), and the William M. Jennings Trophy (fewest goals allowed), which he shared with Corey Crawford of the Chicago Blackhawks after both teams tied for the league’s stingiest defense that year. He was the first goaltender in NHL history to sweep all four in one season.
• International résumé: Gold with Team Canada at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, gold again at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, and gold at the 2007 World Junior Championship, where he was named tournament MVP and top goaltender.

Stats only tell half of it, though. What Price gave the Canadiens was stability — a wall behind a roster that, for long stretches, needed him to be near-perfect just to stay competitive. He carried the franchise through some genuinely difficult years, delivering nights where he single-handedly stole games the team had no business winning.

The Great Debate: Does Number 31 Belong in the Rafters?

Here’s where it gets heated. Montreal’s bar for jersey retirement is about as high as it gets in hockey — every retired number belongs to a Hall of Famer, with Shea Weber as the lone exception. The sticking point with Price’s case is the one thing missing from that résumé: a Stanley Cup.

The case for retiring it: Price’s impact goes beyond a ring. Hockey is a team game, and no goaltender can win a Cup alone — but for over a decade, he was the reason Montreal stayed in the fight. The winningest goalie in franchise history, an MVP season no goaltender had ever matched, gold medals for his country, and an improbable run to the 2021 Stanley Cup Final that doesn’t happen without him. That’s a Hall of Fame résumé by any measure, Cup or no Cup.

The case against: The counterargument is simple and very Montreal — this is a franchise built on championships, and every other name in the rafters (Weber aside) was part of a Cup-winning team. Individual brilliance is one thing; Price never got Montreal over the final hump, and for a franchise with 24 Stanley Cups in its history, that bar isn’t moving.

My take: I lean toward retiring it. You can’t ask one goaltender to win a championship by himself, and for fifteen years Carey Price gave this organization everything he had, night after night, without ever taking a shift off. That’s exactly the kind of excellence and loyalty a franchise like Montreal says it wants to honor — but it’s a fair debate, and reasonable fans land on both sides of it.

Whichever side you’re on, one thing isn’t up for debate: for fifteen seasons, Carey Price was the heart of this team, and his Hall of Fame induction and Ring of Honour night this November are a well-earned celebration of that legacy.