Jill and Dennis Williams saw that firsthand from 2003-07 when they were Price's billet family in Pasco, Washington, when he played for Tri-City of the Western Hockey League.
The Williamses welcomed Price as a 16-year-old, dropped off by his parents, Linda and Jerry, who entrusted them with playing a vital role in their son's upbringing.
They would see him selected by Montreal with the fifth pick in the 2005 NHL Draft, carry the Americans to a record season, win a trapper full of awards and return from Europe as a 2007 World Junior champion, having brilliantly backstopped Canada.
"That was as excited as I've seen Carey, ever," Jill Williams said of his gold-medal performance in Sweden.
During the 2008-09 NHL season, the Willamses made a trip to Montreal to watch Price play for the Canadiens, staying in an apartment he shared with friend and then-teammate Kyle Chipchura. Jill was shocked to watch Price take inventory of his fridge, which didn't look much like what he'd had the run of in Pasco: "Two cans of beer, a few canned soups, some chocolate eggs and probably a lot of condiments."
It's for that reason she bought him a grill, a pantry's worth of groceries and made him steak and potatoes on the first night of their visit.
Price is eating better these days, enjoying the home cooking of his wife, Angela. But despite the goalie's enormous fame and fortune, Williams still sees him a little like the peach-fuzzed teenager who arrived on her doorstep 14 years ago.
Last week, Price dropped back into Pasco from his summer home in Kelowna, British Columbia, and enjoyed some success fishing with Dennis Williams.
If few see it in the mannerisms of the never-too-high, never-too-low goaltender, Jill Williams said Price has "a heck of a sense of humor. The last time we were in Montreal, and I don't even remember what we were talking about, he said, 'That's makes about as much sense as having an elevator in an outdoor toilet.' He says some very weird things."