One of the problems was that neither goaltender was really being given the regular starting job. As long as another capable man was on the bench it was always about competing for self and not the team. There was always an out for the coach to shake things up instead of improve on what they have.

While other goalies like Evgeni Nabokov (San Jose), Roberto Luongo (Vancouver), and Henrik Lundqvist (New York) get 60-70 starts the Montreal goalies were fighting for 40.

Halak was drafted in slot number 271 in 2003 and was not supposed to be holding back the heir apparent.

They knew about Halak when they drafted Price, and they put Price ahead of Halak in the minors, and they put Price before Halak in the NHL too until this year’s playoffs.

They also had Price ahead of Halak in pay by a difference of $1.7 million.

Yet they didn’t treat Price like he was the number one. Instead they asked the 22 year old to go out and play like Ken Dryden to earn the next start.

It really came as no shock that Halak did well in the 2010 playoffs because he had to earn a job somewhere, anywhere...but that contract year push obviously did not fool those who watched him all the time for seven seasons.

The only way this is a bad deal for Montreal is if all the following things happen.

For starters Canadiens would need to have trouble signing Price for under $2.5 million a year for multiple seasons.

The Habs would need both Eller and Shultz become flops and out of the organization by 2011.

The Habs would have to miss the playoffs and regress to worse than they placed in 2010 and all because of goaltending (not the usual can’t score)....and the St. Louis Blues would need to have a tremendous season just because of Halak.

The chance of all of that conspiring at once against Montreal next season is very remote.

If Montreal has another dismal season it will be for reasons in the middle of all this, but they have already removed one big distraction for 2010-11.

They now finally have given unbridled support to their goaltender of the future, Price, and neither player nor team has an out for at least one year.

Media and fans have been asking the Canadiens to settle on one or the other for a while.

They wanted a trade and a keep.

Well they got their trade, but perhaps the return is not what fans really envisioned. They should really ask themselves though what should a team give up to get a Halak when you know that so many decent goalies just like him are also to be had.

What was trading Halak supposed to fetch?

This is the offseason. There are no games to play tomorrow and no team desperate enough is arming for the stretch drive right now.

It may have been different back in February when the trade deadline passed.

I remember the rumours from back in the winter about potential deals where teams like Philadelphia needed a goalie like Price, but were not willing to part with scorers like Jeff Carter so they all fell through.

Perhaps there was no basis for those reports, but two seasons ago the Canadiens also chose Price when they sent away Cristobal Huet to Washington for a second round draft pick.

That season they gave up Huet for the final two months, a player they knew would be impossible to sign, and got even less for him than what they got for Halak this time.

Huet hardly lost a game the rest of that season until the playoffs and then scooted on over to Chicago for $5.5 million/year where he served this season as a backup to a man earning one sixth his pay that won the Stanley Cup.

Huet and the Hawks were married for 4 years so he isn’t going anywhere.

I know that all the other teams that did not sign Huet, including Montreal are glad they didn’t.

Back in 2008 some Montreal followers and media thought they should have kept Huet.

A real Frenchman born in France, Huet still holds the Montreal record for career highest save percentage and career highest playoff save percentage.

At the time Halak was the number three goalie, so it was not the plan to move Huet to make room for Halak. It was not done so Halak could then push Price aside after Huet left.

Huet eventually got his pay day, but he is today’s NHL poster boy for why everyone in Montreal that do not work for the Canadiens front office are dead wrong with their criticism of the Halak move to acquire two decent prospects.

NHL teams do not want to be tied down to goalies with four year contracts.

They would have to be forced into that type of deal, and with all the goalies available come free agency this summer there is no reason anybody should have to pay too much or pay too long.

The most elite goalie potentially available this summer is Nabokov who could be worth the $5.375 million he is already getting.

It is hard to say Halak has been as consistent as Nabokov and Nabokov is really not that consistent.

Marty Turco is a veteran and is finally free of Dallas where he finished a year that paid him $5.7 million.

If a team thinks paying a few million for a goalie for just one year is a safe bet he may be their man.

None of those teams would entertain a Halak because in most cases those types of teams want to rent a goalie just long enough for their own draft pick goalie to come of age and learn the game.

Jose Theodore, Chris Mason, Michael Leighton, Antero Nittymaki, Johan Hedberg and Dan Ellis make for a group of goalies that will all have reason based on prior performance to command about as much as Halak.

They may all ask for two year deals.

What makes a Montreal fan think their team could have gotten more than Eller and Schultz for their Halak when some of these guys have done greater things for longer and probably come cheaper.

Considering the timing of the Halak deal and what the Canadiens hoped to accomplish to make their team better for 2010-11 they did remarkably well in this deal.

Of course on paper everything looks good. In a hockey fan’s head the grass is always greener somewhere else with some other players.

We won’t really know until all the deals are made and in Montreal’s case that means using the money they saved to sign other veterans who are free agents this summer.

Waiting one more day, insisting on one more player or draft pick, and hoping beyond hope that a better offer would come along would have been silly.

For an organization that showcased netminders like Ken Dryden, Steve Penney, and Patrick Roy just in my lifetime I really have to give them credit.

More often than not they make the right moves and somehow slink into playoff position where as we have recently experienced anything can happen.

The Montreal team is in a better position this week than last and their management team will be able to check this deal albeit to deaf ears around Montreal with this balance chart weighing why Price vs. not Halak.

On the one side is why not Halak?

Well he is not Patrick Roy, and a long way from showing that. Many Habs watchers have noted that Halak would give them maybe two great games when he was given consecutive assignments and then play lousy in the next game and so-so the next prompting the hook.

The salary gods would have unfairly sided with Halak this year because they often look at the last single year performance. He was the fifth best NHL goalie in save percentage last season – not a good time to go to court to figure out his pay.

The Habs spent months feeling the waters on trading their goalies. No team showed them as much as the Blues had. It was conceivably the best trade deal they could have received for either of their guys that still gave them players in return which they could afford to keep.

The forward Eller may be the way to fix the mistakes of acquiring players lacking in size up the middle, and they also have the chance with extra salary room to try and keep the vets from last season that will be full free agents.

On the side of keeping Price the Canadiens can also justify.

They have always said they have confidence in Price and now they are putting money and actions behind that confidence. This ironically is what fans have wanted to see for the last three years going back to right after Price won the Calder Cup in the AHL.

The upside of a 22 year old NHL goalie that has already played 150 games at that age is still a mystery but the Canadiens know he has not reached the level he played at in juniors or the minors yet.

They think he will improve toward that, but they doubted that Halak could improve beyond where he reached in parts of 2009-10. That means the parts where he played well. We remember the playoffs but Canadiens coaches and fans can surely also remember the average Halak that would make good trade bait.

Finally, the plan was to draft a goalie of the future in 2005. They got the best goalie that year and that was to give them a player they could mould and instruct into greatness.

To be fully vindicated for taking that route they have to stick to that road map. It’s time for that organization to know for sure with no excuses if the player can be what he promised to be when they picked him.

So they picked Price again for a third time by choosing him over Halak on this occasion. This time amidst the jeers of their loyal nation they give this guy a “final” opportunity to win his own job.

It all seems like a good move to me, and I won’t be surprised if it works, by January maybe Habs fans too will be asking: “Halak who?”

Then the new story will be about how the best moves are always the most unpopular and gutsy moves. Kudos for the Canadiens management for finally figuring that out before it was too late.