Goalie Day: Reflecting on Carey Price’s Legacy

Kevin Woodley | Co-Founder & Managing Editor — InGoal Magazine | November 1, 2022 | 6 min read

Co-founder and Managing Editor of InGoal Magazine. NHL.com correspondent covering the Vancouver Canucks and author of the Unmasked series. Previously with the Associated Press, USA Today, Sports Illustrated, and The Hockey News.

Carey Price set the Montreal Canadiens all-time wins record with 361 victories across 15 seasons in the crease.
Price won both the Hart Trophy and Vezina Trophy in 2015, cementing his status as the most influential goalie of his generation.
International Goalie Day is celebrated on November 1, honoring the date Jacques Plante first wore a goalie mask in 1959.
Carter Hart collected Price magazines as a nine-year-old in Alberta during Price's NHL rookie season and cites him as a primary inspiration.
Price's impact on goaltending crossed national borders and age groups, influencing equipment choices, technique, and the next wave of NHL starters.

Carey Price is still holding out hope for a medical “miracle” that will allow him to overcome the knee injury that has prevented him from playing this season, but even if the long-time Montreal Canadiens superstar never plays in the NHL again, his legacy will live on through all the goalies he inspired to play.

From the way he played, to the equipment he chose and some of the innovative ways he wore it, no one moved the needle in the goalie world like Price.

Beyond all the awards won and records set during 15 seasons in the Canadiens crease, including the most wins (361) in franchise’s storied history and the 2015 Hart Trophy and Vezina Trophy, he is the most influential goalie talent dating back to his World Junior Championships coming out party way back in 2007.

With that in mind, InGoal is celebrating the fifth anniversary of International Goalie Day, a holiday created by one of our own on November 1 in honour of Jacque Plante first donning a mask on that date, by kick starting a series of stories featuring the goalies that Price has inspired with his play. It’s a list that includes several of rising Canadian stars, but it’s certainly not limited to them. Price’s impact on goalies crossed borders and age groups, and it’s one worth celebrating, even as every goalie we talked to for it wished mostly to see him play again.

We’ll start the series with Philadelphia Flyers goalie Carter Hart.