First off let's get something straightened out - Carey's cap hit on the Habs THIS SEASON is 10MUS$ but his salary is of 15MUS$, placing him first among goalies, way ahead of the second goalie (Lungquickst @ 7.5MUS$.)
source:
https://www.hockey-reference.com/friv/current_nhl_salaries.cgi
Even taking into account the "we pay the players for their past performances not their future ones." Carey has only won individual trophies and has never been beyond the third playoff round.
Marc Bergevin has got to be on the spectrum to give that kind of money to a single player - much less a goalie that has proven year after year he is of delicate mind and fragile ego.
Next thing I want to show is how badly flawed is the "paying players for their past performances" theory.
The point of the theory being that you want to attract, or keep an established superstar in your franchise because he will sell tickets, merch and airtime/publicity.
We are all witness of how well that worked with Scott Gomez, Rick DiPietro, Roberto Luongo, Derek Stepan, Brent Seabrook and many more though.
The theory of paying players for their past seasons only works if they are Sidney Crosby or Alex Oveshkin that are consistently there season after season. For everyone else out there they can get paid 10MUS$/yr no problem but not for ad-nauseam number of years. What is wrong with you? Give them 2-3 years maximum 4.
The bottom line is clear: The Habs gave Carey a super-bad contract (for them) that is going to bite them in the ass eventually, maybe this season captain beachball can recover, maybe next year he'll be fine but no way can mister delicate play at the top of his game until the contract runs out.
I'm willing to state right now that unless they can find a scapegoat team to take him in a trade, Carey Price's contract will eventually be bought out by the Habs and you can quote me on this if it doesn't happen by 2026.