The San Jose Sharks have acquired Carey Price.

Well, Price’s contract, that is.

The future Hall of Famer, 38, who hasn’t played since Apr. 2022, had a $10.5 million AAV cap hit in the coming season, the last year of his contract. The Montreal Canadiens need cap space, while the San Jose Sharks do not.

So the Sharks acquired Price and his $10.5 million AAV, along with a 2026 fifth-round pick, for prospect Gannon Laroque, whose career has been derailed by injuries.

San Jose will owe Price just $2 million cash (mostly covered by insurance), after Montreal paid their 2005 No. 5 selection a $5.5 million signing bonus on Sept. 1.

So why would the San Jose Sharks help out the Habs? According to Puckpedia, the Canadiens now have about $4.57 million cap space, while the Sharks still have $9.24 million, even counting the ticketed-for-IR contracts of Price and Logan Couture ($8 million AAV).

In short, San Jose has tons of cap space, and cap space isn’t as valuable as it used to be with a rising salary cap, now $95.5 million and exploding. And Montreal, while they were over the cap with Price, could’ve simply put him back on LTIR, as they’ve done in recent years. But this move gives them more cap flexibility this year and next.

Marc Dumont of Montreal Hockey Now gave SJHN more context:

“Montreal could have simply put Price on LTIR to solve the issue. But, it would have meant that their cap space wouldn’t accrue (LTIR funds are different from regular cap space).

“So, they wanted to move Price, but they weren’t in a position where they had to move him.

“This also ensures the Sharks can trade some of their players at the Deadline without worrying about the cap floor. So it works out for everyone.”

This move, however, doesn’t help the San Jose Sharks’ other crunch. They’ve got acres of cap space, but right now, after Price and Laroque’s contracts cancel each other out, they’re still at 49 of the 50 allowed NHL contracts.

This isn’t counting Sam Dickinson and Michael Misa’s contracts, which will count toward the 50 if both prospects burn off a year of their entry-level contracts — or in Misa’s case, prospective ELC — once they play their 10th NHL game this coming season.

In short, the Sharks need to have another move up their sleeve if they want to prepare for Misa and Dickinson to play full-time for the team in 2025-26.