Mathieu Dandenault

We're 36 days into free agency, and Mathieu Dandenault is still looking for work.

In La Presse, Mathias Brunet looks at Dandy's dilemma and points out that five other Canadiens' UFAs remain unsigned: Alex Tanguay, Robert Lang, Mathieu Schneider, Francis Bouillon and Patrice Brisebois.

Tell me again: How good was the team Bob Gainey blew up?

To be fair, players of a certain age carrying a significant price tag are going to have a tough time in the current market. The unsigned list includes Todd Bertuzzi, Mike Comrie, Petr Sykora, Brendan Shanahan, Miroslav Satan, Emmanuel Fernandez, Philippe Boucher, Denis Seidenberg, Mike Grier and Chris Chelios.

Oh yeah, and a certain big Swedish centre who looked very attractive a mere 12 months ago.

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• Stephen Brunt on Gary Bettman.

• James Mirtle on the Islanders' problems.

• Russian journalist interviews Alexander Ovechkin, whose voice is hilariously dubbed into English.

• Today's featured video: We'll miss you, J.R.

Mathieu Dandenault leans into a slap shot at practice.
John Mahoney, Gazette

A funny thing happened to Mathieu Dandenault on his way off the Canadiens roster this week. He’s still on it.

Dandenault is in the twilight zone, a proud and versatile player with good tools and valuable experience who is on the outside looking in as the Canadiens head into the final quarter of their uneven season.

He has played forward and defence this year, missed 24 games with a broken arm, had two goals and two assists in seven games back, then has sat for the past three. Dandenault has seen rookies called up and returned to the minors, some having played monster minutes.

Friday night, from the ice or the press box, he expects he’ll see Patrice Brisebois play his 1000th regular-season NHL game, a goal Dandenault has set for himself – he’s at 854 – and would love to achieve in a Canadiens sweater.

But he’s been a healthy scratch 13 times this season. And he’s within months of the end of a four-year, $6.9-million contract that will make him an unrestricted free agent on July 1. It all added up, in the eyes of many, to Dandenault being dealt by general manager Bob Gainey at Wednesday’s trade deadline.

Stubbs column continues here.

With a steel plate and 12 screws in his left wrist and forearm, versatile Mathieu Dandenault is eager to get back onto the ice. He'd prefer defence, where he was playing excellent hockey before having his arm broken on Dec. 9, but he'll go anywhere the team needs him.

Maybe a little something was lost in the phrasing, but New York Islanders' Mark Streit tells The Hockey News that he believed he was "the joker a little bit" in Montreal, shuttled from defence to forward.

Meanwhile, a similarly versatile player, Mathieu Dandenault, was the talk of the Canadiens yesterday for his having finished a shift Tuesday with a broken arm. Dandenault underwent surgery on his left arm yesterday.