Goaltender of the Future

With Slovakia's tight win based on Jaroslav Halak's tight goaltending versus Russia, the goaltending debate for the Habs is picking up so much steam its beginning to scald. The problem is most armchair observers seem to be using logic reminiscent of a certain San Jose Sharks pro scout.

The Montreal Canadiens are currently in eighth place in the Eastern Conference, one point ahead of Tampa Bay (who have two games in hand) and two ahead of the New York Rangers who hold one game in hand. We may just make the playoffs this year, and if we do, we'd likely want the strong goalie we had for much of the season to try and keep us in against Washington, New Jersey, or whoever we get seeded against.
Reality however, states we'll likely make a first round exit unless we perform a miraculous upset. Our team has been too up and down to really be consistent - our longest winning streak all season is only three games. In that case we need to be focused as much on the future of the franchise, and which goaltender we hold on to. No matter what Pierre Gauthier thinks, both of our goalies are RFA at the end of the season and we really can't afford to have them both alongside a resigned Thomas Plekanec.

And this is why we need to resign Carey Price and trade Jaroslav Halak.
I'm sure right now there's coffee hitting your monitor not unlike a Jason Blake wrist shot to the chest of a goaltender on those words, but hear me out. Price has had certain flashes of brilliance this year, and is statistically better in save% than Olympian Marc-Andre Fleury, Ottawa savior Brian Elliot, LA starter Jonathan Quick, and most other hyped up underachievers (I'm looking at you, both Philedelphia goaltenders, all three goaltenders to suit up for the Maple Leafs this season, Nicklas Backstrom, and both Nashville goalies). Admitted Halak's .923 is nicer than Price's .911 but it's not like Price is making a huge gap of less saves - especially as he's generally been put in following a Halak loss, suggesting the team wasn't bringing much effort anyway (further proven by Price's GAA being higher than goaltenders with worse save percentages, though still a reasonable though not outstanding 2.81).
So Price can compete, he just isn't playing as well as Halak right now. But here's where the future comes in.

Halak is a positionally sound goalie, will be 25 at the end of the season, has calm emotions and fast reflexes. His weaknesses are controlling the puck, and his size ( 5'11 is short for a goaltender). While reflexes don't degrade quickly, it's unlikely they will ever improve noticeably, and as he's already positionally sound there's not a whole lot of upward motion. Halak can practice with the puck but he's never going to get four inches taller.

Price, 22, is excellent with the puck (can you name four goaltenders better than him with the puck?), 6'3, and has just as sharp reflexes. His biggest issues are a weak glove hand (that is nonetheless greatly overplayed), some positional awareness issues, and having some difficulty dealing with the emotional stress of working in the Montreal environment. In short he's immature. Funny thing is, in the league, there aren't a whole lot of mature 22 year old goaltenders - let alone 22 year old goaltenders to begin with. He calms down and works on his positioning, and he's got a clear advantage on Jaroslav, who has effectively reached his ceiling. Is it really a gamble to say that Price will be a different player at 24 than he is at 22?

Can we risk giving up that potential to try to hold on to our eighth place seed this season?
Can we risk not getting any return for our current hot goaltender?

I'm a bad Habs fan.

Guys, I have a confession. I'm a bad Habs fan.

There are a lot of things that make me a bad habs fan, here's a list of the reasons:

I don't think it's appropriate to boo the team I love if they're evidently trying, or to boo a specific player on the team I love if he's had a rough night yet is still trying.

I believe singing songs referring to, or referencing the term "goodbye" should be reserved for when we actually win a playoff series or knock a team out of playoff contention.

I don't think my team's rich and illustrious history needs to have a 30 minute ceremony before every regular season game.

I desire success but I only expect effort

I think the captain of my team should be the leader of the players, not the player who's most fluent in the language of the reporters.

If my team has a rough night and defensively collapses, my mind doesn't immediately jump to "goaltender controversy"

My love of things catching fire and my love of hockey are only connected on playoff series with actual trophies on the line.

When a player is underperforming I don't associate that with media pressure, or ostracize him for his origin, be it French Canadian or Belorussian.

I think, through his time with the team, Bob Gainey has been a good general manager, and calling for his removal every time he makes a move that isn't for Vincent Lecavalier is inappropriate.

Finally, I think 1993 was a long time ago, and I want to get back to that, but I don't think every time we're near the playoffs it's fair to our goaltending staff to start mentioning Patrick Roy.

This makes me a bad Habs fan. Who's with me?