- Carey Price calls Alex Ovechkin the toughest player he ever faced
- Keith Tkachuk gets emotional talking about his father at the Hall of Fame Fan Forum
- Read below for more from Price, Pekka Rinne and the Class of 2026
Carey Price has a clear answer on the toughest player he ever faced, and it is Alex Ovechkin.
The newest Hockey Hall of Famer was asked about Ovechkin on Sunday at the Inductee Fan Forum inside the Great Hall in Toronto. A Canadiens fan from Sturgeon Falls, Ontario, wanted to know who gave him the most trouble. Price smiled and said everyone already knew the answer.
“He gets over there in a spot and he gets to wire one a hundred miles at you from 30 feet away 12 times a game.”
Price said Ovechkin always seemed to bring extra when the Capitals visited Montreal.
“He’s just a competitive guy by nature and he just brought it when he played specifically, I think. He’s definitely probably the toughest player I played against.”
Ovechkin, the NHL’s all-time leader with 930 goals, has been making goalies say things like that for two decades.
Pekka Rinne got the same question and said he was happy to only see Ovechkin twice a year. He went with Patrick Kane as the guy he dreaded facing.
Take a look at the packed Great Hall for the forum:
Host Gino Reda also asked the inductees which team they always secretly wished they could have played for. A fan in a Maple Leafs jersey set the question up, and Reda pushed Price on it.
Price shut it down fast. “Most certainly not,” he said to applause, adding there was never another team he wanted to play for besides the Canadiens. Patrice Bergeron said the same about the Bruins, though he admitted playing with Joe Sakic and Peter Forsberg would have been nice, since he grew up a Nordiques fan.
Keith Tkachuk had the moment of the forum. A fan from Boston asked what moment as a kid made his dad proud, and Tkachuk talked about his father, John, a Boston firefighter for more than 40 years who worked a second job to support the family.
Tkachuk said his dad was happiest when he committed to Boston University because it meant he could stay home and go to games. He also pointed out his father was a Marine who did two tours in Vietnam. “That’s the guy who should be in the Hall of Fame, not me,” Tkachuk said.
The class also got a laugh out of Tkachuk’s favorite team answer. He picked the 1996 World Cup team and added, “We pounded Canada.”
Price is back in the spotlight in Montreal too, with the Canadiens ring of honour ceremony set for Nov. 10. Rinne’s road to Toronto is covered in our look at his eighth-round Hall of Fame story.
