22-year-old Canadiens defenseman suddenly announces retirement, closing the Carey Price trade
Photo credit: Stan Szeto-Imagn Images
Gannon Laroque retired from hockey this month at 22, ending a career that reached its real conclusion long before the announcement.
The Edmonton native cited long-term concussion problems and a run of injuries that kept him off the ice since April 2024.
He is remembered now as the former Victoria Royals captain and a 2021 fourth-round Sharks pick whose body gave out early.
There is a thread underneath that story worth pulling.
Laroque was the player Montreal received last September when it moved Carey Price and a 2026 fifth-round pick to San Jose.
The Sharks needed a contract to reach the salary-cap floor; the Canadiens needed cap relief and a roster spot, and Laroque was the piece that made the paperwork balance.
The return that never suited up
Assigned to the Laval Rocket for 2025-26, Laroque never played a single AHL game there.
The Canadiens declined to tender him a qualifying offer on June 29, making him a free agent.
Days later, he stepped away entirely, meaning Montreal's on-ice return for facilitating the Price deal came to zero games played.
Two careers ending in the same week
The timing sharpens it. Price's contract expired July 1, formally ending his own career, and Laroque's retirement followed almost immediately.
Within a single week, both names attached to that trade reached their conclusions, one a franchise legend and one a prospect who was effectively ballast in an accounting move.
Cap-dump trades are usually judged on the star leaving, but the human being sent back is a real career too, and this one ended before it started.
For every team shuffling injured prospects as contract filler, Laroque is the quiet reminder of what that ledger actually costs.
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