MONTREAL — The Montreal Canadiens made some modest moves on the opening day of free agency, but they managed to fill two more holes in the roster.

The Habs added journeyman Alex Auld to serve as the backup for Carey Price and they also reaped a benefit for the deal that sent Sergei Kostitsyn to Nashville when they signed centre Dustin Boyd.

The signing of Auld was a bit of a surprise because it seemed that the Canadiens had their sights set on Dan Ellis. They acquired the rights to negotiate with Ellis in the Kostitsyn deal and both sides expressed interest in getting a deal done before Ellis became an unrestricted free agent Thursday.

“We talked, but the numbers weren’t there,” Ellis told TSN after he signed a two-year deal with the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The numbers were there for Auld, who signed a one-year deal for $1 million US.

In addition to saving money, the Habs were probably thinking that Ellis might not be comfortable playing second-fiddle to Price. Ellis, 30, beat Chris Mason for the starting job in Nashville three seasons ago, only to lose the job to Pekka Rinne. He’ll arrive in Tampa with a fighting chance to unseat Mike Smith.

The six-foot-four, 223-pound Auld has seen action with six different NHL teams in the past five seasons. The 29-year-old had his best season in 2005-06 when he had a 33-26-6 record as the No. 1 goaltender in Vancouver.

At the end of the season, he was traded to Florida in a multi-player which sent Roberto Luongo to the Canucks. Auld appeared in 23 games with Dallas last season and posted a 9-6-3 record with a 3.00 goals-against average and an .894 save percentage. He has a career record of 83-81-28.

In theory, Auld is the No. 1 goaltender at this time because the Canadiens still have to work out a new deal with Price, who is a restricted free agent. They are in a good position to do so because they have 19 players under contract and have about $5.7 million available under the cap. They also have to deal with RFA Maxim Lapierre.

The addition of Boyd on a one-year deal worth $650,000 gives them a 23-year-old with a skill set similar to unrestricted free agents Dominic Moore and Glen Metropolit but at a lower salary.

When he was contacted after the Kostitsyn trade, Boyd said he was happy to be joining the Canadiens organization. He’ll be catching up some old acquaintances in Montreal. He was a teammate of Michael Cammalleri in Calgary and he played with Tom Pyatt and Benoit Pouliot on the Canadian team which won the world junior championship in 2006.

The Canadiens made two other moves Thursday involving players who are ticketed for their American Hockey League farm team in Hamilton. Goaltender Curtis Sanford and Frederic St. Denis each signed one-year contracts.

Sanford and Cedric Desjardins shared the goaltending duties with the Bulldogs last season, while St. Denis signed with the Canadiens as an undrafted free agent after being invited to a development camp.

Montreal Gazette