Sergei Gonchar's attempt to make the Pittsburgh Penguins roster came to an end on Saturday afternoon when the team announced that it has released him from his professional tryout contract.
It not only ends Gonchar's quest to make the roster as a player, it could also be the end of what has been a pretty outstanding career in the NHL.
Gonchar, 41, showed in the preseason that he can still make some plays with the puck in the offensive zone. The problems came when he was asked to do anything away from the puck in the other two zones.
The question now becomes whether or not any other NHL team saw enough from him to give him another shot. If not -- and it seems unlikely given his age -- it would end one of the most productive careers for a defensemen in recent league history. In 1,301 career games Gonchar has recorded 811 points and was a consistent force on the power play during his peak years with the Washington Capitals and Penguins. Some of his best seasons came in Pittsburgh during the mid-2000s after he signed a long-term deal with the team in free agency. He would go on to become a mainstay on their defense and scored some huge goals on their way to a Stanley Cup in 2009.
If he doesn't want to pursue another roster spot on another team, the Penguins would love to keep him in the organization in some capacity.
General manager Jim Rutherford told Jason Mackey of the Tribune-Review, "We feel that he would be a big asset to some of the things we’re doing."
Along with releasing Gonchar, the Penguins also sent 2012 first-round pick Derrick Pouliot to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League and will open the season with eight defensemen on their roster: Kris Letang, Olli Maatta, Ian Cole, Brian Dumoulin, Adam Clendening, Rob Scuderi, Ben Lovejoy and Tim Erixon.
