Wednesday Habs Headlines: Jonathan Drouin poised to take a step forward

Montreal Canadiens news and notes:

• Jonathan Drouin is poised to take a step forward. [TSN 690]
• Andrei Markov brought a little piece of Montreal with him to Kazan. [Montreal Gazette]
• Cayden Primeau is following his father’s footsteps to the NHL, but is also forging his own path. [NHL.com]
• Following the recent season ticket printing controversy, the Habs’ customer service is causing fans’ resolve to waver. [Montreal Gazette]
• Victor Mete, Will Bitten, Ryan Poehling, and Joni Ikonen are all suiting up at USA Hockey’s World Junior Summer Showcase. [USA Hockey Arena]
• 1st round pick Ryan Poehling is making things happen in Team USA White’s romp over Canada Red. [Twitter]/

Harpur (#preds) -> Poehling (#Habs) -> Anderson (#Devils) -> back of the net

USA up 8-2#WJSS pic.twitter.com/DzgrEdsmgj

— Ryan Biech (@ryanbiech) August 1, 2017

Around the league and elsewhere:

• Fresh off signing Nino Niederreiter, the Minnesota Wild inked Mikael Granlund to a 3 yr/$5.08 million AAV contract. [TSN]
• The Florida Panthers have apparently backed out of a promise to offer Jaromir Jagr a contract. [TSN]
• What if the New York Islanders... never hired Mike Milbury? [Yahoo! Sports]
• John Tavares doesn’t seem to be that interested in leaving Long Island/Brooklyn. [TSN]
• The Los Angeles Kings are paying the price for their previous successes. [Fear the Fin]
• Newly minted sole owner Andrew Barroway talks about the future of the “new”  Arizona Coyotes. [Five for Howling]
• The Buffalo Sabres hired a familiar face as a player development coach. [Buffalo Sabres]/

We've hired Mike Komisarek to serve as a player development coach. pic.twitter.com/A4Rwo3wE29

— Buffalo Sabres (@BuffaloSabres) August 1, 2017

• Hockey Canada has invited two members of the Concordia Stingers to their Summer Showcase event. [Stingers.ca]
• The Chinese WNT will headline Concordia’s 50th annual Theresa Humes tournament in Montreal. [The Ice Garden]/