Carey Price Opens Up - Speaks on Addiction, Rehab and Returning to The NHL?

Price's future in the NHL now remains undecided as he is required to have another surgery this off-season, adding another surgery to the long list of many throughout Price's career.

Price recently spoke out about his addiction, and when he knew the time was right to accept the referral to the NHL players assistant program:

"I think after we lost in the [2021] Finals and coming close to a goal and having a surgery, and knowing I'm right on the 18th hole [of my career] here, I was not a happy person, I wasn't being a good father. I was drinking a lot, I just got to a point where I was like,
'I'm not even having fun doing this.' Like, 'what am I doing?' I felt like I was getting to a point in my life where I had to make a decision.

"It would have been October 3rd and waking up, I was in a pretty bad place, and I was just like, you know what?
This isn't working for me; it's not working for my family," Price said on when he decided to enter the NHL's assistance program last fall.

"Substance abuse has been a very big issue in First Nations communities. I've had friends and family that have passed away from it," he said. "So, I could have done this privately. Nobody ever would have known about it. But at the end of the day, I wanted to be able to show it's OK to ask for help."

"We'll have to take it step by step. I don't have a plan to retire right at this moment," Price said. "Right now, my goal is just to be pain-free from day to day. I'm still having some issues getting up and down stairs and carrying my kids up and down stairs is difficult. So my first priority is just to get my body pain-free in just day-to-day living.
"There's that outside hope of a miracle happening, that maybe I could come back out and play at some point."