I disagree with those saying there would be NO interest - especially when using "free" as a baseline, because it's difficult for any team to add any player in the $9M range for free lol. I'm sure another contract (albeit maybe in the $4-5M range) would come back.
However, history is not on our side if we want a good return
- Robin Lehner won the Jennings last year and got traded for spare parts (although that raised a lot of eyebrows).
- Grubauer was a good young backup that Colorado picked up in the hope of getting a starter - traded WITH a cap dump for a 2nd rounder.
- Earlier, a promising Varlamov's rights were traded by Washington for a 1st and 2nd rounder.
- Halak for a young Eller.
But a few bright spots in the landscape:
- Luongo (similarly big and long contract into old age) got traded for Markstrom and Shawn Matthias
- Schneider vs 9th OA pick
I think that Montreal could get great value in a Luongo/Markstrom type swap. It also could be interesting from a contender's point of view, since Price is a known value and they would not want to take the time in developing/nurturing a young up and coming goalie. A contender/playoff team lacking an established #1 that is, like the Hurricanes for example. Montreal can then move to a 1A/1B situation, shed some salary and still get some solid starts. Add a pick or prospect into the mix and I think that's a good trade scenario.
If you want to stay away from another goalie - I assume that we'd take back a bad contract, so Price might fetch a 1st and a good prospect?
And even non-contenders would be interested I think. Look at a team like Ottawa or the Sharks. Ottawa is carrying the corpse of Craig Anderson to its limits with no replacement in sights (to my knowledge). For such a young up and coming team, bringing him a Price could help stabilize the defense a bit, and give them time to develop a young goalie. They'd also have the cap space and a lot of futures, so might offer a little more than elsewhere.
That's my take anyway. I don't think it's worth trading him now, as I'm fairly confident the returns would not match the loss unfortunately.
TLDR: A 1st and prospect from the right team. An up and coming young goalie and a pick/prospect/depth player