Hickey on hockey: Canadiens need summer of clarity on several fronts

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Inquiring minds want to know: How’s your health, Carey Price?

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When the Canadiens held their post-mortem, goaltender Carey Price said he was seeking other opinions about his knee problems and general manager Kent Hughes admitted that it was difficult to go forward without clarity about Price’s health.

That was a month ago and there’s still no update on Price. Does he need more rehab? Does he need more surgery? Will he play again? If he doesn’t play, will the NHL allow the Canadiens to bury his US$10.5-million salary cap hit?

Hughes has already indicated the team doesn’t have a No. 1 goaltender if Price isn’t available and that’s why he needs answers before he can look for a deal at the NHL draft or go shopping in the free-agent market.

Looking down the road, Cayden Primeau’s work in the AHL playoffs is encouraging. He was a disaster when he was called up to the Canadiens last season, but he is rebuilding his confidence with performances that have ranged from solid to brilliant. He has a 6-1 record, a 1.93 goals-against and a .936 save percentage. He gave up five goals Wednesday in Rochester, but held on until the Rocket won it 6-5 in the third overtime period.

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How many Laval Rocket players will be with the Canadiens next season? Not many.

For starters, the Canadiens don’t have many roster spots available. Unless Hughes can shed some bodies — and cap space — up front, there’s a full complement of forwards and they might have to make room for presumptive No. 1 draft pick Shane Wright. That means Jesse Ylönen and Rafael Harvey-Pinard will have to wait for a call-up when the Canadiens run into injuries.

There could be an opening in the top four on defense if Hughes can find a new home for Jeff Petry. The veteran turned his season around after the arrival of coach Matin St. Louis and seemed willing to reconsider his request for a trade, but any mending of fences might depend on Petry’s wife feeling comfortable about returning to Montreal.

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If Petry goes, Hughes has indicated he’ll try to find a veteran defender — former Hughes client Kris Letang has been mentioned as a possible choice — but the Canadiens aren’t in a position to contend and might be better off going with youngsters Jordan Harris, Justin Barron and Kaiden Guhle.

The kids will have to get ice time somewhere and if there’s an odd man out, he’ll be in Laval rather than sitting in Montreal as a seventh defenseman. That could be a role for Corey Schueneman, a 26-year-old who didn’t look out of place in the 24 games he played with Montreal last season.

How’s the new contract, Marty? The word on the street is that the Canadiens will announce a new contract for interim head coach Martin St. Louis in the near future, but this is something that should have been resolved a while ago.

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We hope that the Canadiens have delayed removing the interim tag from his title because they want to make a big splash with the announcement or possibly they didn’t want to steal the thunder from the Rocket and it’s not because they have been haggling over money or the length of the deal.

Why is Jaromir Jagr still playing? Jagr, who is 50, recently announced on his Facebook page that he will return to Kladno for his 35th professional season and said he was doing it for teammate Tomas Plekanec.

“Pleky has a dream to play in the playoffs with Kladno,” he wrote. “Are we going to try to make it happen for him together?”

Plekanec, who played 984 of his 1,001 NHL games with the Canadiens, will be 40 next season, but he’s still a productive player. He led Kladno this season with 53 points (17 goals) and that ranked fifth in the Czech Extraliga. Jagr, who is the team’s main owner, had 19 points, including eight goals, in 43 games.

Making Plekanec’s dream come true might prove difficult. Kladno finished near the bottom of the standings and had to win a relegation-promotion series against Dukla Jihlava to keep its place in the Extraliga. Plekanec had three goals and seven assists as Kladno won the best-of-seven series 4-1.

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