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Alex Tanguay: still floating around in the ether, four days into free agency.

Proven scorer.

Proven playmaker.

Not yet 30.

So what gives?

Were the shoulder injures worse than anyone let on?

Is the guy a closeted heroin addict?

A year ago, Bob Gainey gave the Calgary Flames his 2008 first-round draft choice and a 2009 second-rounder for Tanguay.

In 50 games, Tanguay scored 16 goals and added 25 assists. His plus-13 was the team's best.

Late in the season, Tanguay joined Saku Koivu and Alex Kovalev (two more players no one is ina rush to sin) to form the Canadiens' most dangerous forward line. The way they threw the puck around was a joy to watch – in a season that was decidedly short of joyful spectacle.

Maybe it's because Tanguay wore the number of thatother guy Gainey chased last summer.

Previous 13s on the Canadiens were Lorenzo Bertrand, Edmond Bouchard and Billy Boucher – none of whom would have made a splash in free agency if it existed in 1913-'14 (Betrand) or 1921-'22 (Bouchard and Boucher).

Or maybe it's the money: Tanguay made $5.25 million – a lot of bread for 16 goals

Whatever, I just find it odd a player this talented hasn't found ANYONE to sign him.

He'll probably decline, but the Canadiens have to at least offer the captaincy to Andrei Markov.

Of course, like Saku Koivu – who was pilloried for it – Markov doesn't speak French.

Mitigating factor: He barely speaks English.

My choices for the C, if Markov turns it down: Roman Hamrlik, Scott Gomez or dark horse Josh Gorges, who captained a Memorial Cup team in Kelowna.

•  •  •

What does it say about the Canadiens bevy of UFAs that as of this writing, only one of 'em has a contract?

Steve Kerley –  our undercover agent in Leafland, code name "24 Cups" – checks in with some thoughts on the makeover.

Be forewarned: He is not a happy man.

CKAC play-by-play announcer Martin Maguire says the Canadiens offered Alex Kovalev a two-year contract worth $9 million.

They thought they had a deal .... until Kovalev's agent balked and tried to use the Canadiens offer to shop his client, probably with the L.A. Kings.

Spurned, albeit temporarily, by Kovalev, Bob Gainey signed Mike Cammalleri – younger, durable, better scorer, if less charismatic.

Maguire's read is Kovy maneuvered himself out of a city he and his family profess to love.

•  •  •

Also on CKAC this morning, Dany Dubé with his customarily trenchant observations.

Dubé focused on Josh Gorges, praising his courage and his ability to make a good first pass. What Gorges can't do at his size, Dubé said, is play 20 minutes a game.

The top two D-pairings to start the season may be Markov-Spacek and Hamrlik-Gorges. This is a band-aid situation, Dubé said, that awaits the development of Ryan O'Byrne and Yannick Weber.

As for the forwards, Dubé was not overly concerned by the size issue. He pointed out that the Stanley Cup finalists were puck-possession teams, as opposed to rock 'em/sock 'em, Brian Burke smash-mouth behemoths.

The Canadiens with some size – Gui! Max-Pac and Gregory Stewart – are going to have to step up. And AK46 could play big if he wanted to.

•  •  •

"The Flying Frfenchmen?" a friend snorts. "Your top line is a Latino from Alaska and two Italians."

•  •  •

So who's captain?

The Canadiens have lost their C and three A's: Kovy, Mike Komisarek and Christopher Higgins.

So does Pierre Gervais walk around the room waving the C and asking if anyone wants it?

"Noooooo thank you, man!"

I'm not going to join the chorus of posters blasting Komo's treachery.

Hockey is a business. Hello!

Mike and his pal Christopher Higgins are good guys who were unfailingly cooperative with the Montreal media. All of us schmucks in the pressbox will miss them.

A personal note:

When my mother became gravely ill and was hospitalized in December, Dave Stubbs posted a note on Habs Inside/Out explaining why I'd be away from the site for a while.

Komisarek's father read it on Habs I/O. He told Mike, who made a point of calling Stubbs over after practice and asking him to pass on good wishes to me. Having lost his own mother a couple years ago, he knew what I was going through.

I'll never forget that: a classy gesture by a very decent human being.

So Leafs, Schmeafs – I wish Komo luck.

•  •  •

And this opens a spot at the top of our Hab Hunks list ...

Bob: Trade for a blonde guy with blue eyes!!!!

First wave: Gomez, Cammalleri, Markov, Spacek and ... AK46? Kovy if he comes back? Tanguay?

Not a Johan Franzen among them, but still pretty good.

Weber and Hamrlik on the second wave, with Gui!, maybe the brothers ...

This was an interesting day.

The D is better with Spacek and Gill.

Gomez and Cammalleri are very good forwards.

The team still needs some size, though.

•  •  •

You look at the money Mike Komisarek signed for and you wonder what the Canadiens' offer was, and how much value they put on a player they know more about than Brian Burke does.

•  •  •

Not exactly a stampede out in the market to sign Saku Koivu, Alex Kovalev or Alex Tanguay.

Scott Gomez, Jaroslav Spacek, Hal Gill and Mike Cammalleri.

Pick out a good spot on the parade route.

And Mike Komisarek is a Leaf.

I dunno, folks.

Is there another deal to come.

Komisarek is out of here, to the Rangers, New Jersey or maybe – gulp! – Boston.

So who's the next physical defenceman in the pipeline?

David Fischer?

Please.

McDonagh is all of 20. He was considered a blue-chip draft prospect.

So Trevor Timmins andhis staff work their butts off to feed fodder into the cannon of Trader Bob?

I'm not happy.

Bob MUST be on the hunt.

But when there aren't even any good rumours on the RDS web site ...

The week begins with great news.

Guy Boucher.

Remember the name. He'll be coaching the Canadiens in two years.

Like Mike Babcock, Boucher, 37, is a McGill  grad. While playing for the Redmen from 1991 to '95, Boucher earned a degree in history, with a minor in environmental biology.

Smart dude – just the kind of guy you need to motivate young players.

He's been coaching in the Q for 11 years, most recently in Drummondville (where Boucher coached Canadiens' draft choice Gabriel Dumont). The Voltigeurs had the best season in Franchise history in 2008-'09.

Boucher was also Pat Quinn's assistant on Under-18 and national junior teams that won world championships.

Free agency kicks in on Canada Day. And Bob has two days to work on how it will kick the Montreal Canadiens.

The good news: $34 million, by my calculations, to spend.

The bad news: Only 10 players under contract for next season – and of that 10, the only forwards are the Kostitsyn brothers, Maxim Lapierre and Georges Laraque.

Gainey has said his priority is Mike Komisarek, who made $1.7 million last season. The Canadiens have made an offer, rumoured to be a four- or five-year deal at $4 million per.

That's a nice raise. But Komo probably will do better in the open market – and his agent, Matt Keator, is known for moving  players.

Fearless prediction: Jersey number 8 will be available at training camp in September.

(Gazette photo shot at the draft by Allen McInnis)

Trevor Timmins is paid to be optimistic.

And as the Canadiens' director of player development said after the draft wound up today, the success of his efforts can be guaged most accurately five years from now.

But I share Timmins' sanguine view of the team's eight picks.

Note that five of the junior-age players selected are centres – three of whom are righthanded shots.

The Canadiens also drafted a puck-moving defenceman.

In other words, the players chosen fill organizational needs. They help the Canadiens build a stockpile of players at varying stages of development – which is the smart way to run a forward-thinking franchise in a salary cap league.

So far, two Round 3 picks: Joonas Nattinen, a centre from Finland, and Mac Bennett, an American high-school defenceman.

Round Four pick is Alexander Avtsin, a big forward from Moscow Dynamo.

And in round five, Gabriel Dumont, a forward who played in the Q at Drummondville

Dustin Walsh of OHL Kingston goes in Round 6 and the Canadiens end their 2009 draft by selecting Michael Cichy, a 5'11", a87-lb centre from Indiana of the USHL, where he scored 34 goals and added 42 assists.

To the surprise of no one – least of all 12,700 noisy fans at the Bell Centre – the Canadiens take homeboy Louis Leblanc with the 18th pick of the draft's opening round.

He's off to Harvard this fall, but Leblanc projects as a heady, two-way forward in the NHL.

Bob Gainey described Leblanc as "intelligent, very competitive, with good skills and the opportunity to get better and get bigger."

Trevor Timmins says Leblanc "participates in all aspects of the game, offensively and defensively ... he gets his nose dirty in the corners and he's a natural scorer."

Four Quebecers were selected in the draft's opening round: Leblanc, Jordan Caron by Boston, Philippe Paradis by Carolina and the last pick of the round, Simon Despres by the Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins.

The draft's second round begins at 10 a.m. on Saturday. The Canadiens have no second-round selections.

My man Steve Kerley, who posts as 24 Cups and contributes all kinds of terrific, knowledgeable stuff to the site, offers his take on the Canadiens' first-round pick.

I think it will be a Quebecer: Louis Leblanc if he's still there at 18.

Another possibility, floated by Trevor Timmins in Brossard today, at the prompting of Marc-Antoine Godin of La Presse:

If the players the Canadiens covet are gone by the time the 18th pick rolls around, Bob Gainey may trade down.

The team currently has no second-round picks, and Timmins says this year's second-round crop is very good.

Jay Heinbuck is the Pittsburgh Penguins' director of amateur scouting. My guru, Pierre McGuire, is an old friend of Heinbuck's and was kind enough to set up a phone interview with the man who's helping to shape the future of the Stanley Cup champs. Here's our conversation.

First Bob Gainey fires his good friend Guy Carbonneau.

Then Gainey fires Roland Melanson.

Then he fires his good friend Don Lever.

Then his really good friend Doug Jarvis.

Colonel Mustard, in the Bell Centre, with a goalie stick.

When will it end?

And will we need a truffle pig to find the bodies?

(An updated version of a pre-draft piece I wrote in 2007):

In 1985, with the 12th choice of the first round, the Canadiens drafted a 6-foot, 195-pound RW who scored 44 goals in his final year of junior hockey with Drummondville of the Quebec junior league. The Voltigeurs had selected him first overall in the Q's 1983 midget draft.

Over the span of two seasons, José Charbonneau played 25 games for the Habs. He scored one goal.
Later, he was to score 33 goals for Vancouver: eight for the Canucks, 25 for the Vancouver VooDoo roller hockey team.
Charbonneau's best season was 1995-'96. He scored 32 goals ... for Landshut EV of the German league.

So was José Charbonneau the biggest first-round bust in the history of the Montreal Canadiens?

For being an American who understood what the Canadiens mean to this wacky city.

For eight years of enlightened, first-class, spend-to-the-cap ownership.

For letting hockey people make hockey decisions.

For never publicly criticizing the general manager or coach – not even when they may have deserved it.

For the new Bell Centre scoreboard.

For a great centennial celebration that injuries and some of your immature, underachieving players screwed up.

And finally, as a parting shot, thank you, Uncle George, for selling to good people.

Yeah, Gillett made out like a bandit. He bought the Canadiens and the Bell Centre for $275 million and sold for well in excess of $500 million.

But the team is a hot property. Gillett would have made a huge profit no matter who bought the Canadiens. I'm betting that he picked the right hands to receive the torch.

George Gillett is a good guy.

He'll be missed.

How do you spell relief?

M-O-L-S-O-N

Not a two-four of Export for what ails you ... although that might work.

No, relief – in this case – means Quebecor will not own the Montreal Canadiens.

Instead, the Molson family – with historic ties to the club – will buy out George Gillett and continue the great Canadiens tradition of non-interventionist owners who hire good hockey people and trust them to make sound decisions.

It's the way Robert Kraft owns the New England Patriots.

It's the way John Henry owns the Boston Red Sox.

It's the way Mike Ilitch owns the Detroit Red Wings.

It is not the way meddlesome egomaniac Pierre Karl Péladeau would have owned the Montreal Canadiens and run them as a "content" element of his Quebecor media empire.

Canadiens best draft ever?

You have to like the class of 1971: Guy Lafleur with the first overall pick (which the late, great Sam  Pollock winkled out of hapless Frank Selke Jr., general manager of the Oakland Seals); Chuck Arnason with the seventh pick, Murray Wilson with the 11th and Larry Robinson, 20th overall in the second round.

Two Hall of Famers, two solid NHLers. Not too shabby.

Contrast the Class of '71 with 1999:

The Canadiens didn't have a first-round pick (Pollock was long gone by then) and chose Alexander Buturlin in the second round, 39th overall.

The Russian forward never played a game in the NHL. Of 11 players the Canadiens drafted in '99, only Matt Carkner, a defenceman chosen 19 picks after Buturlin, made it to The Show.

And Carkner (whose brother Terry was a solid Nordique) wasn't exactly a H of Fer: 2 GP, one assist.

Stephen Panunto is a Montreal expat living in Calgary and following the Canadiens from Flames country.

A lawyer in what we laughingly call real life, Panunto is a keen analyst of draft-age prospects.

At my invitation, he e-mailed some thopughts on what Habs fans might expect when 30 NHL teams invade the Bell Centre to shape the future of hockey on Friday.

Panunto's pick to click: Zack Kassian of the Peterborough Petes.

He's 6'3", 210 lbs. of nasty, a power forward who's drawn comparisons with Milan Lucic.

"(Kassian) is actually probably a little ahead of where Lucic was at this stage of his career," a scout told The Hockey News. "And who dreamed Lucic would end up being this good?"

As previously announced, you guys are on your own for the climactic game of a very long hockey season.

My dear friend, the beautiful barrister, is singing Tosca at La Scala tonight, and I'm on a 9 a.m. flight to Milan. Should make it just in time for the curtain to rise ... just as the curtain falls on hockey for 2008-'09.

In the immortal words of the Grateful Dead, what a long strange trip it's been.

I'd review the Canadiens' season, but would rather save my tears for Puccini.

As a special treat for Habs Inside/Out readers, the Living Legend of Sports Journalism is handling the live blog tonight:

Pre-game: That rocket's red glare song sounds familiar. I think they used to sing it at the Olympia.

1P 20:00: Come with me now to the anxious moments before Game 6 of the 1958 final ...

Just kidding. Red Fisher will be home watching the game ... like everyone except me.

Enjoy it and post lots of Comments.

How do you spell relief?

M-O-L-S-O-N

Cross your fingers, cross your toes and pray to whichever deity floats your ark that Geoffrey Molson his brothers and their unidentified partners (likely including BCE) make a successful bid for the Canadiens and George Gillett's other Montreal holdings, including the Bell Centre.

If Molson wins, Quebecor loses. And this would be good.

Because if Quebecor wins:

• RDS loses, because the new owner will move Canadiens hockey to its TVA Sports channel

• All the great La Presse beat guys and columnists lose, because Quebecor's Journal de Montréal will get plum access

• The team will lose because the Canadiens will become just a cog in a huge, multimedia mess – albeit a cog that Quebecor boss Pierre Karl Péladeau (pictured) will fuss over, micromanage and screw up

• The fans will lose, because down the road Quebecor will figure out a way to put Canadiens hockey on some sort of pay-per-view channel.

Bids closed yesterday, and it's game on.

And if it looks like the deal is going Molson's way, expect Péladeau to wrap himself in the fleur-de-lys and start whining about how important it is for a great icon of our patrimony to be owned by a  "real Quebecer" – wink-wink, nudge-nudge ... and screw the Molson family's long history in Montreal. 

•  •  •

Fellow Gazette blogger Andy Riga offers this take on Quebecor buying the Canadiens

Suppose Guy Carbonneau will get an interview?

This sucks.

François Allaire, who would have been a great help to Carey Price, instead will become VesaToskala's goaltending coach.

Allaire was the Canadiens' goaltending coach from 1984 to '96 and is generally credited with helping to make Patrick Roy a Hall of Famer.

As goaltending coach in Anaheim, he developed Jean-Sébastien Giguère and Jonas Hiller.

Allaire left Anaheim because he wanted to be closer to his teenage children, who live in the 450 area code north of Montreal. He has spurned the 514 for the 416.

Pursued by several teams, Allaire chose the Leafs. He will be working with people he knows from Anaheim: general manager Brian Burke, assistant gm Dave Nonis and head coach Ron Wilson.

Anyone else get the queasy feeling that things are looking up at the ACC?

Steve Kerley (24 Cups), our undercover agent in Leafs Nation, checks in with a customarily comprehensive look at what may befall the Canadiens on Draft Day.

Game 7 at the Joe on Friday.

Tyler Kennedy, of all people, scores the winner in a 2-1 thriller. 

Superb efforts by Jordan Staal, Marc-André Fleury, Rob Scuderi 

Too funny!

From our friends at Pucku.ca

Spotted outside the Joe last night and posted to the Pittsburgh Post Gazette's hockey blog.