Canadiens GM Pierre Gauthier decided Andrei Markov's (knee) recently inked three-year/$17.25 million contract in the face of Markov's recent setback. Markov needed fluid drained from his knee and still isn't close to being 100%. "It's always a risk when you sign older players, first, and it's a bigger risk when you sign older players who have had injuries," said Gauthier. "But you evaluate that as a calculated risk, and you also evaluate what your options are. In the case of Mr. Markov, he's such a professional, such a hard working person. One of the things that was interesting about his knee is he had absolutely no collateral damage. The ACL was torn a second time, but in a lot of cases with knee injuries there's something else that's gone wrong, like an MCL or some cartilage. In his case it was strictly one band that was ruptured. So we feel pretty good about his prognosis." We'll keep an eye on Markov. Until we know more, we recommend erring on the side of caution and regarding him as questionable for the season opener.