Jun 24 Francis Bouillon Has Played Last Game as a Montreal Canadien

French language sports station RDS is reporting that according to numerous sources, longtime Montreal Canadiens defenceman Francis Bouillon will not be back with the club next season. According to the article (in French  ) the Canadie  ns informed Bouillon they   would not be offering a ne w deal and he will become an unrestricted free agent on July 1st.

Bouillon had played nine seasons in a Canadiens uniform but only participated in 481 games due to numerous injuries over the years. One will note that last season, Bouillon was out with an injury just prior to the playoffs, and in an attempt to come back early, re-aggravated his groin injury in his first game back and never returned to play.

At only 5'8", what Bouillon lacked in size, he surely made up for in heart, however, perhaps his injuries year to year were a contributing factor in the Habs' decision to not even extend an offer.

RDS also goes on to say that Canadiens general manager Bob Gainey's next priorities will be the negotiations with players such as Saku Koivu, Alex Tanguay and Mike Komisarek. First impressions of this statement on my part was the absence of Alex Kovalev from this list. This could either mean that an understanding has already been reached between the club and Kovalev, or he may be one of the next to be announced as not returning to the team. These next few weeks will definitely keep us busy, both with speculation and facts.

Tags: Alex Kovalev \ Alex tanguay \ bob gainey \ entry draft \ Francis Bouillon \ last game \ Mike Komisarek \ Montreal Canadiens \ NHL \ Saku Koivu \ UFA \ unrestricted free agent