The Ottawa Senators have signed free agent forward Alex Galchenyuk. The forward is coming off of a deal originally signed by the Montreal Canadiens, although he ended the contract as a member of the Minnesota Wild. His new deal is one-year in length and has a $1.05 million cap hit.
Hearing that the Ottawa Senators are close to signing UFA forward Alex Galchenyuk.
— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) October 28, 2020
Alex Galchenyuk Signs With the Senators
Over his eight-year NHL career, Galchenyuk has played for the Montreal Canadiens, Arizona Coyotes, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Minnesota Wild. He has put up 135 goals and 185 assists for 320 career points in 549 career games. He was originally drafted in the first round, third-overall of the 2012 NHL draft by the Montreal Canadiens.
Last season, he split time with the Penguins and the Wild and scored eight goals and 24 points in 59 games to finish the season. He’s had a bit of an up-and-down career, with a career-high of 56 points and 30 goals. Those are impressive numbers and is a ceiling that many hope he can reach once again. Clearly, Ottawa is among that group of hopefuls.
What This Means for the Future
Alex Galchenyuk is playing for his fifth team in three seasons. Despite being a 30-goal scorer back in 2015-16, his play has fallen off a bit since his time with the Canadiens.
But at only 26, he is not that old and this new opportunity might give him a chance to turn things around. Coming into Ottawa, they likely won’t depend on Galchenyuk to be the team’s best offensive player. Rather he may be a complementary player somewhere in the top-nine.
In many ways, this is a great fresh start for Galchenyuk, to reboot his NHL career and potential land himself a long-term extension. Getting the opportunity to play with skill players like Brady Tkachuk and Evgeny Dadonov should help as Galchenyuk only needs to focus on what he does best; score goals and create plays.
If he is able to become a 20-goal, 50-point player for the Senators this season, this might be considered one of the more underrated signing in the NHL this off-season.
Main Photo:
