Aleksandr Legkov spent last season in an obscure federal league without a work visa, and this week he is skating at Canadiens main camp.
William Nadeau laid the story out for Marqueur on Thursday evening, and it is the strangest line on the whole roster sheet.
The catch is where he landed. Montreal finished sorting its camp groups and he is in Group C, the last one formed.
Seven forwards are in there with him. Vincent Arseneau, Dillan Bentley, Laurent Dauphin, Israel Mianscum, Josh Nadeau and Xavier Simoneau round out that side.
Jacob Dion is the only defenceman identified in the group. Three goaltenders fill it out, with Hunter Jones, Francesco Lapenna and Kevin Mandolese.
Eleven players total, and the read from multiple sources is blunt. These are the guys living on the margins of the main lineup.
They are needed for Saturday, when Montreal plays two preseason games the same night. After that, it looks finished for most of them.
Montreal's first training camp cuts are reportedly out
That is where the actual roster lives. Groups A and B hold almost every established name, and the captain skated on a line with Caufield and Kreider in red.
The centre is coming off 101 points at plus-37 with 32 assists on the power play. Nobody is auditioning him for anything.
His winger did most of the finishing. Fifty one goals, and 12 of them decided hockey games.
Kreider is the newest piece of that trio. Fifty points in 75 games at 35 years old is a useful third wheel on any top line.
He also only dressed for 12 of Montreal's 19 playoff dates last spring. That is worth watching in a market that notices everything.
The spring numbers were not kind to the big two either. Suzuki finished that run at minus-8 and Caufield at -10.
The camp itself is enormous. Fifty seven players split between 31 forwards, 19 defencemen and seven goaltenders.
Twenty three of them make the team. That arithmetic explains Group C better than any quote ever could.
So why keep 57 bodies around for a club that already finished sixth overall at 48-24-10?
Getting sorted into the last group is like being seated by the kitchen door. You are in the restaurant. You are not the reservation anybody was excited about.
Two games against Toronto on Saturday, then the regular season opens there on September 29. Somebody in that C group gets one night to change a career, and most of them will not.
Should the Canadiens give Aleksandr Legkov a real look before sending him home?
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