The Canadiens have made a contract offer to Sheldon Souray, and the all-star defenseman will take a little time to digest it, and consider what might await him on July 1, should he decide to test the waters of unrestricted free agency. Paul Theofanous, Souray's New York-based agent, said last night that Canadiens general manager Bob Gainey made the offer on Tuesday, 24 hours after the club had signed 28-year-old defenseman Andrei Markov to a four-year, $23-million (U.S.) contract, making the Russian the best-paid Canadien of all time. "We got the offer," Theofanous said. "It's May, late May, but it's still early, and we're just going to sit here and evaluate Sheldon's free-agent options over the next couple of weeks."