Sergei Gonchar signs tryout contract with Penguins

Sergei Gonchar will be in training camp with the Pittsburgh Penguins on a tryout contract. He previously spent five years with the team between 2005-06 and 2009-10, winning a Stanley Cup with them.

Sergei Gonchar is getting a training camp tryout with one his former teams. (USATSI)

The Pittsburgh Penguins announced on Friday morning that they have signed veteran defenseman Sergei Gonchar to a tryout contract. 

Gonchar, 41, previously spent five seasons with the Penguins between 2005-06 and 2009-10 and was a key player on a team that appeared in back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals, winning one of them in 2009. He scored what was perhaps the biggest goal of his career late in Game 3 of that series to lift the Penguins to their first win of the series and begin their comeback from a 2-0 deficit. 

One of the most productive defensemen to ever play in the NHL offensively, especially on the power play, Gonchar's 811 points currently rank him 16th on the all-time list for defensemen in league history. 

Gonchar spent the 2014-15 season split between the Dallas Stars and Montreal Canadiens, scoring one goal to go with 13 assists in 48 games. He's also played for the Washington Capitals, Boston Bruins and Ottawa Senators in his 20-year career. 

The Penguins could probably use another defensemen following the free agency departures of Paul Martin (San Jose) and Christian Ehrhoff (unsigned) this summer, but it's quite a stretch to think that Gonchar at this point in his career can play a significant role on a contending team. Especially one that already has another veteran in Rob Scuderi that is well beyond his prime years in the league. 

With Martin and Ehrhoff moving on this summer, and the team investing most of its resources into upgrading the forward lineup with the additions of Phil Kessel, Nick Bonino, Eric Fehr and Sergei Plotnikov, the Penguins seemed to be prepared to move forward with a younger, cheaper defense with players like Olli Maatta, Derrick Pouliot and Brian Dumoulin taking on bigger roles this season. 

The best-case scenario for Gonchar and the Penguins at this point is that he shows that he has enough left in the tank to maybe be a depth defenseman, one that doesn't dress every night, that can help chip in on the power play. Expecting anything more than that is probably expecting too much.