Canadiens will not re-sign D Markov

Montreal Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin said Monday that defenseman Andrei Markov will not return to the Montreal this season after a two-season sojourn in the Kontinental Hockey League. Markov, 40, left the Canadiens after the 2016-17 campaign and signed with Ak Bars Kazan. He had spent his previous 16 NHL seasons with Montreal (he spent the 2004-05 lockout playing in Russia with Dynamo Moscow of the Russian Superleague), and the Canadiens are the only NHL team with which he has ever played.

"We have some young kids pushing and as far as where Andrei was two years ago, where our team was two years ago, things have changed," Bergevin said at the Canadiens annual golf tournament. "And now we're going, you know I call it a reset, refresh, and we did that, and now we're going to keep in that direction." In August, Markov said he wanted to return to the franchise for what would likely be his final professional season. He has been practicing in Florida. In 990 NHL games, Markov had 119 goals and 453 assists. With Kazan last season, he had two goals and 12 assists in 49 games. 

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