BREAKING: Price (lower-body) will miss at least six weeks

On Monday, the Montreal Canadiens announced via Twitter, that goaltender Carey Price will be out for a minimum of six weeks with a lower-body injury.

Price will be out until at least the middle of January, which means that he will miss the Winter Classic, but it could have been worse because Price will not require surgery. Price had previously missed nine games with a lower-body injury and aggravated the injury in just his third game back.

This is obviously a huge loss for the Canadiens, but Mike Condon has played well in Price’s absence to this point. Price, who was a fantasy hockey first rounder this year is 10-2-0 with a 2.06 GAA and .934 SV%. If he misses exactly six weeks from today, Price will miss the next 18 games, which puts a lot of pressure on the young duo of Condon and Dustin Tokarski. Don’t be surprised in Montreal General Manager Marc Bergevin makes a move to provide short term help in the Canadiens’ crease.

For Price owners who were unable to pick up Condon, some other goalies to target on the waiver wire are:

Michal Neuvirth (36% owned on Yahoo!) – Neuvirth has been splitting time with Steve Mason, but has been out playing him, so he could start seeing more starts. The 27-year-old netminder is 5-3-1 and leads the NHL in SV% (.939) and shutouts (3). His 2.05 GAA is also good for sixth in the league.

Thomas Greiss (17% owned) – Like Neuvirth, Greiss is also splitting time in Brooklyn and outplaying his crease-mate Jaroslav Halak. Halak has never started more than 59 games in his career, so the door is open for Greiss to continue to get a start or two per week. He is 6-3-2 with a 2.24 GAA and .927 SV% this season and went 3-3-0 with a 1.96 GAA and .929 SV% in his first six outings in November.

Anders Nilsson (9% owned) – The Oilers are not a great team, but when you’re hurting for goaltending, it is hard to find a guy on waivers who is starting the majority of his team’s game, but Nilsson is doing that. On Monday, he will start his 10th game of the month versus Cam Talbot’s three. In nine starts this month he has gone 4-4-1 with a 2.43 GAA and .914 SV%. You can do worse than Nilsson.

Connor Hellebuyck (8% owned) – After it was announced that Ondrej Pavelec was going to miss all of December, a lot of eyes turned to Hellebuyck. He is on of the top goalie prospects in the league and had gone 2-7-1 with a 2.41 GAA and .927 SV% as Manitoba’s (AHL) best player before being called up. He earned a victory in his NHL debut and Michael Hutchinson has given up a combined 12 goals in his last three starts, opening up the door for Hellebuyck to become the Jets’ No. 1 for the month of December.