Andrei Markov with Judge Gilles Duguay and an RCMP officer following Markov's swearing-in ceremony Friday in Montreal.
Allen McInnis, Gazette

Defenceman Andrei Markov was sworn in as a Canadian citizen Friday morning along with 31 other new Canadians who spent 30 minutes aftrer the ceremony having their pictures taken with the veteran defenceman.

Team president Pierre Boivin and general manager Pierre Gauthier both attended the ceremony. Gauthier spoke briefly about Markov's leadership qualities but stopped short of offering the defenceman a new contract – he has one year remaining on his current deal – or announcing that Markov would fill the vacanat captaincy.

On another note, the Hamilton Bulldogs suffered another loss when Julien BriseBois joined the Tampa Bay Lightning as assistant general manager. The 33-year-old lawyer was the Canadiens vice-president, hockey operations and also served as general manager of the Bulldogs. He served as Montreal's capologist and will fill a similar role in Tampa.

* RDS says Jacques Martin says the team will have a captain this season. Discuss candidates.

* RDS also reports Julien Brisebois is outta here ... which throws the Hamilton situation into a bit of disarray.

• Arpon Basu compares the Plekanec and Koivu contracts

• Louis Leblanc likely headed back to Harvard. Shout-out to Mark C for finding this Boston Globe piece on Harvard hockey.

• Carolina will retire Rod Brind'Amour's number

• All UFA team: The Best of what's left (No Moore or Metro)

• Donald Fehr not hired yet

• Nothing to fear but Fehr himself

* Elliotte Friedman's pre-holiday column

Re the Koivu contract, nsjohn130 posted this to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune web site:

I am statistically and logically looking at his worth. His points can only go up if he can get a first line player or two with him, he is a leader on a seemingly leaderless team at the moment (a leader must be born), he works harder than any player on the ice besides clutterbuck and brodziak (if only brodziaks skills were on par with his work effort) which creates a dynamic on the team to which other players will work hard, he is likable-- i dont care so much about PR as I do staff and locker room relations, and lastly and honestly as important as the numbers he puts up is his loyalty. After all this is a business. Above all attributes, loyalty is the most important. At the end of the day everything is done for the organization first, not Mikko. Mikko gives direction to the team. It gives them identity, and if you don't think that ALL of these things are worth 7 mill for a 27 year old player, I dont know what is.

Mikko Koivu signs the richest contract in the history of the Minnesota Wild: seven years, $47.25 million.

Maybe Tomas Plekanec was a bargain, no?

In other news, Robert Byrne – all the way from The Rock, with Danny and Sheena in tow –  showed up at the Habs I/O mini-summit with something Patrick V. Hickey can use on his car next time he's in Philadelphia.

Shout-out to Manoir owner Peter Sergakis and his staff for keeping 20 hockey fans happy for a few hours.

It didn't get bad between the Price and Halak fans until the very end ...

Final reminder about tonight's Habs Inside/Out microsummit, from 7:30 pm onward at Le Manoir in Pointe-Claire, corner of Hymus and St. Jean boulevards. Stubbs, Boone, Hickey, Mio and cold beer, if not necessarily in that order. All the details at this post, which appears a short scroll down. Hope to see you there, provided you're 18 and older.

• Your pre-summit Laugh of the Day

• And another one

• Toews Lake? Not so fast ...

• The NHLPA's free agent tracker

The Canadiens have signed Russian prospect Alexander Avtsin to a three-year contract.

The 19-year-old played in 30 games with the KHL's Moscow Dynamo last season and scored three goals and added six assists. The 6-foot-2, 188-pound right winger was selected 109th overall in the 2009 NHL entry draft by the Canadiens.

Canadiens all-star defenceman Andrei Markov, a Russian native, reportedly will be sworn in as a Canadian citizen in a Montreal court this week.

Radio-Canada is reporting the news tonight, echoed by CKAC, but credit columnist Mike Cohen of The Suburban for breaking the story in his column last week. Cohen reported that a source told him a pitch had been made to the Canadiens to hold a swearing-in ceremony at the Bell Centre during a game, but that it was turned down.

• Desharnais signs – Pat Hickey

• Julien Brisebois following Guy Boucher to Tampa?

• David Shoalts on Donald Fehr and the NHLPA

What Price is right?

Put less cloyingly, what should the Canadiens pay their newly-anointed Number One goaltender?

As per CapGeek, the team has 20 players under contract and $4.7 million of salary cap space.

Carey Price's base salary through his first three seasons has been $850,000. Bonuses have brought his annual cap hit to $2.2 million.

Josh Harding, the backup goaltender in Minnesota, signed a one-year contract for $1.2 million today.

Harding played in 25 games last year, cmpared to 41 for Price. But their career numbers make an interesting comparison:

Price: 134 regular season GP, a record of 60 wins, 48 losses and 18 overtime losses. GAA of 2.73, save percentage of 91.2

Harding: 83 GP, 28-39-8, 2.66, 91.5.

Harding is 26. Price turns 23 next month.

Here's a look at some other NHL goaltenders in their 20s:

We've got till 2012 to learn to like basketball.

•  •  •

John Ferguson died three years ago today.

Jimmy Murphy, of ESPN-Boston, Tweeted this link.

When the biggest Canadiens news is Shawn Belle signing with Edmonton, we have officially begun the Dreaded Dog Days of summer.

One more sleep until the HIO mini-summit at the Manoir.

• Pat Hickey on Maxim Lapierre signing

• Arpon Basu's take

• Jacques Demers on the mend

• Pierre LeBrun updates UFAs

• TSN's UFA tracker

• Another fun-filled season of Daniel Carcillo in Philadelphia

• Why the Bruins shouldn't trade Marc Savard

Who we are, in pie graph form, courtesy of Gazette marketing stats wizard David Klimek

Interesting proportions of women and young fans: 42 per cent in the 18-34 sweet spot that advertisers covet.

(No breakdown on what percentage of the women find Boone better looking than either Stubbs or Hickey. Conservative estimate: 80)

•  •  •

The Canadiens make it official: Maxim Lapierre signed for 2010-'11 season; also Mathieu Carle and James T. Wyman.

And then there was one: Carey Price

• Lapierre wanted term, got one year – Richard Labbé

• RDS says Goldenberg is gone

• NHL players want Donald Fehr

• Having matched San Jose's offer to Niklas Hjalmarsson, the Stanley Cup champions have 15 players signed and $113,400 in cap space for six more. Who's next to go? Pierre LeBrun  thinks Brian Campbell, Patrick Sharp. And Antti Niemi is going to arbitration

• SI has a slide show on biggest NHL contracts. Scott Gomez is 13th ... and they show him in a Rangers uni!

• Another SI slide show: NHL celebrity WAGs, leading off with Mike Fisher and Carrie Underwood. No current Canadiens on the list, but Sheldon Souray and Valeri Bure make it

Shout-out to Kevin van Steendelaar for finding this hilarious video from Wayne Gretzky's golf tournament

Brasserie Le Manoir, where the HIO crew will greet site visitors and hecklers this Thursday evening.
Allen McInnis, Gazette

• Pat Hickey on Thursday's HIO event

Since hockey season must almost be over, Habs Inside/Out is idling back a bit. But a “team dinner” for those of us who keep the site afloat seemed unfulfilling without the participation of the HIO users in the Montreal area who often ask where they can find us to talk hockey, so…

HIO founding members Dave Stubbs and Mike Boone, joined by Gazette hockey beat writer Pat Hickey and HIO contributor Kevin Mio, plan to break buns and sip a pint (singular?) on the West Island this coming Thursday, July 15 at Brasserie Le Manoir, at the southwest corner of Hymus and St. Jean boulevards in Pointe-Claire.

We'll then hang around to chat Habs with anyone (18 and older ONLY) who wishes to drop in to join us from 7:30 pm until whenever. Spread the word. It will be extremely informal and we’ll not be buying chow or beer beyond our own – we’ve got new owners and we’re not pushing the expense-report envelope yet.

The AMT's 200, 202 and 203 buses stop almost at the door. Please plan your transportation accordingly.

• PLEASE NOTE: If you're pretty sure you'll join us, let us know with a comment below; we'd like to advise Le Manoir on Thursday morning so they can prepare some space for us. And please, use Comments on this post only to discuss this event; use other posts for general chatter.

Gary Bettman makes more money than all but 11 players – including the Canadiens' new number 11 – in the NHL.

More than Patrick Marleau, even with his new contract.

More than Anze Kopitar, Pavel Datsyuk or Nicklas Backstrom.

More than Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, the Sedin twins or Ryan Miller.

Gary Bettman makes more than 539 NHL players.

That ain't right.

Good and depressed now?

Here's something to cheer you up.

Doesn't really roll off the tongue, does it?

Maybe Tsar Ilya?

But the hockey team the prize of the UFA market is meeting today is not called the Los Angeles Tsars (maybe that will be part of the deal)

• Patrick Lalime talked to the Canadiens

• Jonathan Toews brings the Stanley Cup to Winnipeg

• Bruins beat man Fluto Shinzawa suggests "untradeable" Michael Ryder be sent to the AHL as a cap move

• Dan Hamhuis hopes people don't forget Haiti

• Viva Espana, but what a crap game

The Spanish Chantal Machabée gets a big wet one from the Spanish Jaro Halak

It'll be too small to even call a mini-summit, but stay tuned to Habs Inside/Out Monday for complete details on a little event that's in the works for this coming Thursday evening, July 15, in Montreal-suburban Pointe-Claire.

Very informal, but a chance for Habs fans and HIO visitors to gather in 30C temperatures of July and talk about, what else, the Canadiens.