The Montreal Canadiens have agreed to terms with defenseman Mark Streit, the team announced on Tuesday. Streit, a 39-year-old defenseman, has signed with the Canadiens on a one-year, $700,000 contract, according to Renaud Lavoie.
Montreal Canadiens sign defenseman Mark Streit to a 1-year, $700,000 deal
The 39-year-old veteran defenseman is a depth signing for Montreal.
Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images
Streit is a journeyman defenseman over his 11-year NHL career, but has previously played with the Canadiens in the past. Montreal drafted Streit out of the Switzerland National League in 2004 and the defenseman played in a Canadiens sweater for three seasons before signing in free agency with the Islanders.
He has 434 points in 784 career games across four different teams in his NHL career. Streit started the 2016-17 season in Philadelphia, where he put up 21 points in 49 games, but was traded to the Lightning in exchange for Valtteri Filppula. His tenure in Tampa Bay lasted hours, as he was then flipped to the Penguins, where he won the Stanley Cup.
Streit had six points in 19 regular season games for the Penguins, then had two points in three games played in the postseason.
This signing for the Canadiens adds an extremely cheap, yet versatile defenseman to their back end. While Montreal has approximately $8.5 million in cap space to play with this offseason, the signing of Streit could very well signal that the Canadiens are out on re-signing fellow blueliner Andrei Markov. The 38-year-old defenseman had 36 points in 62 games last season with the Canadiens, but his asking price of two years at $6 million each is likely too much for Montreal.
The Canadiens now have a defensive core of Streit, Shea Weber, Jeff Petry, Karl Alzner, David Schlemko, Brandon Davidson, Jordie Benn, and Joe Morrow locked up under contract for the 2017-18 season.
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