Oilers and Canadiens battled for the same veteran, per Bruce Garrioch

Claude Giroux stuck with the Ottawa Senators this week, even with the Edmonton Oilers and Montreal Canadiens circling as options.

That's the story Bruce Garrioch dropped in the Ottawa Citizen on Tuesday, and it's a strange one to unpack.

According to Garrioch, the Oilers had the door wide open. If Giroux wanted a real shot at chasing a Cup, Edmonton was ready to make it happen.

Montreal's interest read very differently. The Canadiens were kicking tires, nothing more, nothing that ever looked like a real offer.

So why pass on a legitimate Cup path to stay put? That's the part of this that doesn't add up cleanly.

Giroux is 38 now, and he's still working on a cap hit of just 2,000,000 dollars. That's nothing for a team like Edmonton to absorb at the deadline for depth scoring.

He wasn't a passenger last season either. Giroux finished with 49 points in 82 games and closed the year at a plus-20 rating.

Ottawa's bargain price looks very different next to Edmonton's pitch

Break it down further and he added 35 assists to go with 14 goals, still moving pucks at an age when most wingers his vintage are fighting for a fourth-line role.

Turning down a Cup window at 38 is a bit like passing on the last flight out because you like your hotel room. The math rarely favors comfort at that age.

Ottawa finished the year at 44-27-11 for 99 points, and the Senators were rolling into the stretch run at 6-3-1 over their last ten.

Edmonton, for context, sat at 41-30-11 with 93 points, a club that's been built and rebuilt around a Cup window that keeps tightening every summer.

Montreal closed at 48-24-10 for 106 points under Martin St-Louis, a number that makes the "kicked tires" framing look even thinner in hindsight.

Here's the one thing worth saying plainly. If Edmonton's door was really open the way Garrioch describes it, this is a swing and miss on the kind of opportunity that doesn't come around twice at 38.

Stan Bowman's front office in Edmonton moves fast when a window's open. Whether they circle back on another depth piece before their own trade deadline is the next thing worth watching here.