Andrei Kostitsyn

The Canadiens most potent line has been broken up – at least to start the exhibition season.

When the Canadiens take on the Boston Bruins Monday night in Halifax, Tomas Plekanec will still have Andrei Kostitsyn on his left wing. But coach Guy Carbonneau says Sergei Kostitsyn will play RW on the line.

Has Alex Kovalev been placed on waivers?

Of course not. Kovy will make his exhibition season debut Wednesday night in Detroit, Carbo  said, with the linemates who joined him at this morning's practice: Robert Lang and Guillaume Latendresse.

Another new line that Carbonneau will try Monday: Prized acquisition Alex Tanguay with two rookies: Ben Maxwell and Max Pacioretty.

This is what training camp is for. Carbonneau, an inveterate line-tinkerer, can really go to town.

If you can keep your head while all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on Lowe ... you'll be a man in the treacherous world of salary cap hockey.

Bob Gainey is a man.

He has locked up Andrei Kostitsyn for three years at a fair-but-affordable $3.5 million per.

Gainey has re-signed Jaroslav Halak for $1.5 million over two seasons. Halak will play about 20 to 25 games as the Canadiens Number 2 goaltender. Should Carey Price falter or succumb to the sophomore jinx, Halak has the experience and talent to step in and carry the team.

With Marc Denis rediscovering his game and sharing time with young Cedric Desjardins in Hamilton, the organization is set at hockey's most important position – and every goaltender is playing for six figures.

AK46: three years, $3.25 million per

Seems about right, eh?

A Belarussian in the bag makes for a  great Canada Day.

Anyone else getting nervous about the Andrei Kostitsyn negotiations?

While Bob Gainey has been wooing Mats Sundin, who plays hard to get better than he plays hockey, there's another clock ticking:

AK46 can become a restricted free agent on Tuesday.

As Pat Hickey points out in his column today, Jeff Carter's deal with the Flyers – three years, $15 million – raises the bar for Kostitsyn, who posted similar numbers this past season and was drafted one spot ahead of Carter in 2003.

Carter has completed a three-year contract that paid $942,000 per. Kostitsyn's deal paid $942,000, $802,000 and $612,000.

Yes, AK46 is said to like Montreal.

Yes, he enjoys playing with his kid brother.

Yes, he's undoubtedly grateful the organization took  a chance on drafting him and helped with his medical issues.

But No, he's not an idiot – and neither is his agent, Don Meehan. The market is overheated, and come Tuesday, some loony NHL general manager might dangle a Carter-sized offer sheet in front of Kostitsyn, obliging the Canadiens either to match an iflated number or say goodbye and settle for draft choices.

The Canadiens will not give AK46 $5 million based one good season. But if I'm Meehan, I'm not taking a nickel less than $3.5 million and I'm not going for a  day longer than two years, with the idea of cashing in huge on the next contract.

•  •  •

The Toronto Star updates the Sundin soap opera with a report that he was supposed to give the Canadiens an answer yesterday but didn't and is supposed to give the Leafs an answer tomorrow.

Theory is that if Sundin hasn't said Yes to either team by July 1, he'll be saying No to both.

•  •  •

Two good pieces on free agent frenzy in the Globe today by Eric Duhatschek and Tim Wharnsby.

Agent Don Meehan told Marc de Foy of the Journal du Montréal he's in "active" negotiations and has four or five meetings with the Canadiens to discuss a new contract for Andrei Kostitsyn.

They'll talk again today.

Is there reason to believe an agreement is imminent?

"Not yet," Meehan told de Foy. "We'll see what Friday has in store for us."

If Kostitsyn is not signed by Tuesday, he becomes a restricted free agent. Should another team offer him huge money – a distinct possibility in the wacky, wonderful NHL (see VANEK, Thomas and PENNER, Dustin) – the Canadiens would have the right to match the offer or obtain draft choices as compensation.

•  •  •

From Larry Brooks of the New York Post, who reports today the Russian Super league has offered Jaromir Jagr a cool $35 million for the next three of his declining years:

Multiple sources have told The Post that Mats Sundin will be the
Rangers' No. 1 target when the free agent market opens Tuesday at noon
. . .

•  •  •

Sean Avery eight times a season?

The Toronto Sun reports the NHL's Pestmaster-General may consider signing with the Leafs if the price is right:

" ... money is the new motivation, with the unrestricted free agent and the Rangers as much as $1 million US apart in talks during the past season and now near an impasse. Avery had made $1.9 million and though he loves the Big Apple limelight, he currently is an intern at Vogue magazine and likely will make New York his permanent residence, the source said he'd be willing to take his on-ice act here, if it meant a big pay day.

Last season Avery, a native of Pickering, just outside Toronto, said "I don't enjoy hockey-obsessed Canadians. The (US-Canadian dollar) exchange is not very good right now. And it's going to cost me a lot of money in tickets for people I don't even like."

There's also some buzz in Toronto that Gary Roberts (who is not working at Vogue this summer) may be on his way back to the Leafs – which would help Don Cherry get over the departure of Darcy Tucker.

Well, to his agent, Don Meehan, anyway.

A report in La Presse quotes Bob Gainey as saying that impending RFA Andrei Kostitsyn is the team's top priority and that contract talks have begun.

Gainey, interviewed at the general managers' meeting yesterday, also said the team will be talking contract with Mark Streit within a week or two.

Based on a conversation with super agent Don Meehan, the Journal du Montreeal reports Andrei Kostitsyn would like to pursue his career with the Canadiens.

Kostitsyn, the team's first-round draft choice (10th overall) in 2003, becomes a restricted free agent if he hasn't signed a new contract by July 1. Meehan denied rumours that the 23-year-old left wing would sign a lucrative deal with AS Bar Kazan in the Russian super league.

Kostitsyn's wife and daughter spent the past season in Belarus. The family would move to Montreal if Kostitsyn signed a new contract.

Kevin Lowe continues to make life interesting for his fellow NHL general managers.

Last summer, the Edmonton GM went on a spending spree. His offer sheet to Thomas Vanek forced Buffalo – which had lost Chris Drury and Daniel Brière – to sign Vanek to a seven-year contract worth $50 million, starting with a cool $10 million this season.

Then Lowe made Dustin Penner an offer Brian Burke could and did refuse to match: $21.25 million for five years. The contract infuriated the Anaheim GM, who has been trashing Lowe ever since.

Edmonton also signed Sheldon Souray – whom no one else, including the Canadiens, wanted – for $27 million over five years.

Lowe's latest signings are defenceman Tom Gilbert and forward Robert Nilsson, young Oilers who were pending Restricted Free Agents.

Gilbert, who's 25, got a six-year contract worth $24 million (3.5, 3.5, 5.5, 5, 3.5 and 3). Gilbert, who made $825,000 this season, played 82 games. He scored 13 points, added 20 assists, was minus-6 and blocked 159 shots – tops among NHL rookies.

Nilsson, 23, signed for $5 million over three years (1.5, 2 and 2). He played 71 games, scored 10 goals, added 31 asssists and was plus-8. Nilsson made $942,000 this season.

Bear those Edmonton numbers in mind as you weigh the value of a couple Canadienss:

• About to become an Unrestricted Free Agent, Mark Streit, 29, scored 13 goals, had 49 assists, was minus-6 and made $600,000.

• Looming RFA Andrei Kostitsyn, 22, had 26 goals, 27 assists and was plus-15. His salary was $612,000.

Josh Gorges, who made $425,000 this season is another pending RFA. So's Maxim Lapierre.

And we won't even talk about Tomas Plekanec and Christopher Higgins, who become RFAs at the end of next season; or Mike Komisarek, who will be a UFA in the summer of '09.