Canadiens take a long shot, signing former Senators defenseman to a PTO.

We are living in the flat cap era of the National Hockey League and this means that general managers around the league are going to have to exhaust every possible option to squeeze the most out of every dime of salary cap space that they have.

On Monday morning the Canadiens showed us a sign of exactly this when general manager Marc Bergevin extended a professional tryout offer to former Ottawa Senators defenseman Cody Goloubef. The tryout offer does not guarantee Goloubef a contract for the 2021 - 2022 regular season, but instead will allow him to join the Canadiens in training camp where he will compete for a chance at earning an NHL contract and a spot on the Canadiens roster.

Now to be clear this seems like something of a long shot on the part of the Canadiens given that, over the last few seasons of his career, Goloubef has spent more time playing in the American Hockey League than at the NHL level. It could even be that the Canadiens are simply looking for another defenseman to use in training camp, while Goloubef is looking for a shot to showcase his skills to both the Habs and to any other NHL teams that may be watching.

If Marc Bergevin does end up extending a contract offer to Goloubef following a successful training camp, I would fully expect that it would be a two way deal that would allow the Canadiens to move him more freely between the NHL and their AHL affiliate team the Laval Rocket.

Goloubef, who was drafted in the second round (37th overall) of the 2008 NHL Entry Draft, did not play a single game at the NHL level last season and instead made all 31 of his appearances with the Belleville Senators of the AHL. Over that stretch he had 4 goals and 2 assists for a total of 6 points and finish with a plus minus rating of -8 on the season. His last stint in the NHL saw him split 26 games between the Senators and Red Wings during the 2019 - 2020 regular season, and over that stretch he had 1 goal and 1 assist for 2 points and finished with a plus minus rating of -3.