On Day 2, the Canadiens select Mark MacMillan, a forward from the BCHL and Morgan Ellis, a Dman who played for Cape Breton in the Q, in the fourth round (113 and 117 overall).

The fifth round (147 overall) brought an intriguing pick: Brendan Gallagher, a 5'9" RW who scored 41 goals and had more than 110 PiM for Vancouver in the WHL, and  Gallagher, who's not afraid to drop 'em, is the son of the team's strength and conditioning coach.

The team's final choice, 207th overall in the seventh round, was John Westin, who plays for the Modo Juniors in Sweden.

Those tempted to dismiss these kids as no-chancers might consider Andrei Markov, a sixth-round choice (162nd overall) by the Canadiens; Hal Gill, who was an eighth-round pick (207th overall) by the Bruins; Travis Moen, a fifth rounder (155th) for Calgary, Jaro Spacek, a fifth-round pick (117th) by Florida; Tom Pyatt, fourth round (107) by the Rangers, and Josh Gorges, who wasn't drafted at all.

Oh, and in 2003 the Canadiens picked a pretty good goaltender in the ninth-round, 271st overall

AUDIO: Pierre Gauthier | Morgan Ellis | St. Louis Blues president John Davidson talks about getting Jaro | Danny Biega of Pointe Claire (Louis Leblanc's teammate at Harvard, drafted by Carolina)

Pierre Gauthier trades up five spots to pick a big – 6'6", projected to go to 230 lbs – defenceman who has impeccable bloodlines and was captain of the U.S. Under-18 national development team.

Jarred Tinordi, the son of former NHLer Mark Tinordi, turned 18 in February.

Scouting reports laud a kid with size and the inclination to use it. Tinordi can skate and has a hard shot.

He is supposed to go to the University of Notre Dame this autumn. But Tinordi's junior rights belong to the London Knights, and the Canadiens may wish to guide him toward a first-rate OHL organization and the coaching of Dale Hunter.

How badly did the Canadiens want Tinordi?

To move up from 27 to 22, the Canadiens surrendered their second-round pick.

The Vancouver Canucks conditionally traded their pick, at 25, to Florida but would have kept it if Tinordi were still available.

DRAFT AUDIO: Jarred Tinordi | Mark Tinordi | Guy Boucher

• No qualifying offer to Pouliot

• Emerson Etem is a hot prospect from the golden state – Pat Hickey

• Much suspense surrounds Canadiens

• TSN's predictions

• Who the heck is Tyler Toffoli? Scott Cullen's mock draft

• Top Russian prospects

• Boone blogs live, at 7 p.m.

And, if your stomach can take it, Sergei sounds off.

Canadiens general manager Pierre Gauthier met the media today in Santa Monica.

Pat Hickey was there and recorded the proceedings.

RDS reports that the Canadiens have made qualifying offers to 10 restricted free agents, most notably goalie Carey Price and forwards Maxim Lapierre, Tom Pyatt and Sergei Kostitsyn.

Benoit Pouliot, the team's other RFA, has not yet received an offer. The Canadiens have until next Monday to do so, if that's in fact what they choose to do.

Pierre Gauthier on Pouliot, quoted by Marc-Antoine Godin on Twitter: "The evaluation is not finished. A qualifying offer should come before Monday."

Others to receive offers: farmhands Mathieu Carle, David Desharnais, Cédrick Desjardins, Brock Trotter, Ryan Russell and James Wyman.

A few notes from our friends at CKAC:

• Price: earned $850,000 last season, the final year of his entry-level contract.
• Lapierre: earned $800,000 and had a good playoffs after a lacklustre season.
• Pyatt: earned $685,000, second-low on the team to SK74.
• Kostitsyn: earned $585,000, spent quality time with Hamilton or in Jacques Martin's doghouse.

The Canadiens have four UFAs who next Thursday could be shopping their services anywhere they wish: Glen Metropolit, Dominic Moore, Marc-André Bergeron and Paul Mara.

"National Hockey League" and "funny"

Thanks, GG11

•  •  •

Marleau and Pavelski re-up in SJ

Pat Hickey files this NHL awards roundup from Las Vegas. A photo gallery from the awards.

Capitals goalie José Theodore expresses more pride in Masterton than the Hart and Vézina he won with Canadiens.

Here's a look at how voting went for the awards and all-star team.

J.T.'s draft-week Habs notebook.

Mock draft: Who is John McFarland?

Former Habs goaltending coach Rollie Melanson eager to work with Canucks' Roberto Luongo.

Cap casualties: Big Buf, Sopel and Eager traded.

Canadiens' all-time draft list.

Paul Henderson, star of Team Canada in the 1972 Summit Series, photographed with his history-making jersey this month.
Mike Cassesse, Reuters

• Update: Read below for a news release issued by Goldhar's company this morning, outlining his plans for the sweater.

And you thought the Canadiens jersey was called the sacred flannel.

It would take the nouveau riche Tomas Plekanec almost 17 games, before taxes, to buy it. Which he didn't. But Paul Henderson's 1972 Summit Series jersey broke every conceivable record for hockey memorabilia last night by selling at auction for $1,067,538 U.S. after frenzied late bidding pushed it up by more than a half-million dollars in the final hours.

The jersey's new owner is Mitchell Goldhar, owner of SmartCentres, a private real-estate development company based in Vaughan, Ont., north of Toronto. Read more on the sale here.

• Plekanec a man of his word

• A romantic at heart – Arpon Basu

• Expensive, but that's the market – François Gagnon

• Gauthier plan unfolds – Sean Gordon

• Darche's hard work pays off – Pat Hickey

• MAB goes under the knife – Pierre Durocher

• Pierre LeBrun recaps a crazy Tuesday

• Michael Farber's awards ballot

And video scout Jarred Friedman checks in with a Pleks Tribute

Centreman Tomas Plekanec's no-trade clause will keep him in Montreal for six seasons.
Bruce Bennett, Getty Images

• AUDIO: Tomas Plekanec conference call

Tomas Plekanec probably could have fetched more on the open market, an unrestricted free agent come July 1.

But the popular centreman likes Montreal, made no secret of that and, like defenceman Andrei Markov before him a few seasons ago, chose to pass on the UFA route by today signing a six-year contract estimated to be worth $30 million.

Plekanec has a no-trade clause in the deal, but he wouldn't say for how much of the contract that exists. He also wouldn't address whose idea it was to sign for six years, referring both points to GM Pierre Gauthier.

The native of Kladno, Czech Republic had a career-best 70 points during the 2009-2010 season (25 goals and 45 assists). He was also a fixture on the team's power-play and penalty-killing units while taking important defensive zone faceoffs.

Although only 5-foot-11 and generously listed at 198 pounds, Plekanec has missed only four games over the last four seasons.

There was speculation he could have drawn as much as $6 million per in the UFA market. He was the 71st overall by Montreal in the third round of the 2001 NHL Entry Draft and has played his entire career with the Canadiens.

The signings today of Plekanec and Mathieu Darche leave the Canadiens with less than $9 million in salary cap space. Still unsigned: Carey Price, Benoit Pouliot, Tom Pyatt, Dominic Moore, Glen Metropolit, Maxim Lapierre, Marc-André Bergeron and Sergei Kostitsyn.

Mike Boone and Kevin Mio contributed to this post wih early reporting.

They don't face Jaro until March 10.

In St. Louis.

More highlights from the schedule:

• Holiday road trip is to Colorado, Dallas, Carolina, the Island, Washington, Tampa Bay and Florida. Six games in 12 days. Brutal.

• The western swing is in February: Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver

• December is a bitch. In addition to the long road trip, four sets of back-to-back games. And from the 10th to the 16th, at Detroit, at Toronto, home to Philly and Boston.

• Fifteen sets of back-to-backers.

• Longest homestand: four games in November.

• Nine road games in March, six at home.

•  Four of the last five games on the road, ending at the ACC on April 9. And the only home game in that stretch is against Chicago on April 5.

• Of seven pre-season games, five are at the Bell Centre. Road games in Ottawa and Quebec City.

•  •  •

Nathan Horton to Boston, and Roland Melanson is Roberto Luongo's new goaltending coach.

The Canadiens have signed Mathieu Darche for the coming season.

The team's release appears below.

We know the Canadiens begin the season in Toronto on Oct. 7.

We know they open at home on the 13th against Tampa Bay.

And at about midday – just as France has finished fighting for its World Cup life – the NHL will announce its complete 2010-'11 schedule.

Check Habs Inside/Out for coverage.

To enlighten you while you're waiting, Arpon Basu has a great analysis of what whould be a busy week for Pierre Gauthier and  Robert L discovered a monumental draft study.

• Valium for Don Cherry. STAT. Brent Sopel, his wife and kids will bring the Stanley Cup to Chicago's Gay Pride parade. Bravo Hawks!

• Pain-in-the-butt Matt Cooke re-signs for three years.

RDS reports the Canadiens will play their 2010-'11 home opener against Guy Boucher and the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday, Oct. 13.

As was the case in 2009-'10, the Canadiens will begin their season in Toronto, on Thurssday, Oct. 7.

Fans may recall the 4-3 win at the ACC last Oct. 1 – notable because:

• Josh Gorges scored the winner with 13 seconds left in OT.

• Georges Laraque fought Colton Orr 1:51 into the season.

• Carey Price made 43 saves; and

• Andrei Markov was injured.

The full schedule will be announced tomorrow.

Here's a list of home openers.

•  •  •

On Thursday afternoon, while Quebecers are celebrating June 24, Pierre Gauthier will meet the media in Santa Monica on the eve of the draft.

The Canadiens have five picks – 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th and 7th rounds.

Carolina has 11 picks, the Oilers and Islanders 10 each.

Anaheim, Atlanta, Boston and Phoenix have two first-round picks.

Calgary, New Jersey, Philadelphia and Toronto have no picks in the first round.

• TSN's Top 75

•  •  •

Shout-out to Watsatheo for this Ian Schultz compilation

Just for laughs – and to start a few water-cooler arguments – let's look back at the Canadiens' recent first-round draft choices.

For each of the last 10 years, we list the Canadiens pick(s), then a player or players whom they might have chosen, followed by later-round choices that have worked out well.

We'd have gone back farther, but that gets you into the heartbreak of such first-round busts as Éric Chouinard, Jason Ward, Matt Higgins, Terry Ryan, Brad Brown, David Wilkie, Brent Bilodeau and Turner Stevenson.

With the notable exception of Saku Koivu, 21st overall in 1993, the '90s were a lost decade for first-rounders.

On the other hand, the Canadiens got Andrei Markov with the 162nd pick of the 1998 draft (which also yielded Mike Ribeiro, François Beauchemin and Michael Ryder).

The 1980s began with the team's last first overall pick. And with Denis Svard available, they took Doug Wickenheiser – kicking off a dreary decade that saw first-round choices wasted on Mark Hunter, Alain Héroux, Alfie Turcotte, José Charbonneau (that's him, with the poofy hair, in the pic), Mark Pederson, Andrew Cassels, Éric Charron and Lindsay Vallis.

The 21st century has been better for first-round picks ... but let's second-guess them anyway.