Training camps are just days away, and teams are sending out their final invites to round out their rosters.
The Philadelphia Flyers were the latest club to do some last-minute tinkering on Monday morning, reportedly signing forward Antoine Roussel to a professional tryout offer with an invite to training camp.
Roussel has had a decidedly rocky tenure in the NHL over the past few seasons.
After breaking out for a career-high 31 points with the Vancouver Canucks back in 2018-19, Roussel failed to follow up his most encouraging season with anything of note in the years since, posting point totals of 13 and four in 2019-20 and 2021, respectively, before ultimately being traded to the Arizona Coyotes last summer as part of the Oliver Ekman-Larsson deal.
Suiting up in 53 games for the lowly Coyotes in 2021-22, Roussel racked up just four goals and four assists for eight points on the whole, occasionally winding up as a healthy scratch while averaging just a smidge above 12 minutes in ice time whenever he did manage to draw into the lineup.
Not to mention, Roussel didn’t do much with his limited ice time, either.
While admittedly being given some unfavorable usage by starting just 35.6 percent of his shifts in the offensive zone last season, Roussel was still caved in by opponents at even-strength to the tune of a dreadful 42.59 percent expected-goal share while generating just 44.14 percent of the available scoring chances.
At this point in his career, Roussel is no longer a regular NHLer. But he does have 607 NHL games under his belt, is accustomed to playing depth minutes, and could be a serviceable 13th forward for a team like the Flyers who will likely struggle mightily to put up wins this season.
For the very low-risk price of a training camp invite, why not?
