TORONTO -- Montreal Canadiens center Tomas Plekanec is entering the final year of his contract with the only NHL team he has ever known, but he's not worried about it.
Plekanec, who turns 33 on Oct. 31, is still the Canadiens' top center, one who plays in all situations, faces top opposition on a regular basis and is a consistent offensive producer. Plekanec has scored at least 20 goals in seven of his past eight full seasons, not counting the 14 goals he scored in the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season, and he has missed 12 games to injury in nine years.
Plekanec is aware of all these things, but remains confident Canadiens general Marc Bergevin will eventually begin discussions with his agent Rick Curran to bring him back.
With training camp looming, however, those talks have not yet begun.
"What am I supposed to do? I'm not going to ask them if they want me," Plekanec said Tuesday at the NHL Player Media Tour. "If they want me, they would call, I guess. Should I call and ask, 'Do you want me here?' I have a phone number. I think it's up to [Bergevin]. If he wants me, I'm sure he'll call the agent and start talking."
Plekanec pointed out the similarities to four years ago, when he signed his five-year, $25 million contract two days before he was set to hit the unrestricted free agent market. He played the 2010-11 season with that uncertainty looming and it was not a distraction, so he doesn't anticipate it being one this time around.
"I've been in this situation before," he said. "I didn't know when I went to training camp. So it's not something unusual."
Plekanec is choosing instead to focus on the upcoming Canadiens season with an eye toward correcting some of their flaws. The biggest one would be just how much the Canadiens relied on the brilliance of goaltender Carey Price for them to win games.
"Obviously we'd like to score more, but as long as we're winning the games that's what matters," he said. "A big part of that was [Price], which is the one thing honestly we want to get better at and play better in front of him."
Plekanec thinks the addition of free agent forward Alex Semin could help boost the offense, particularly on a power play that ranked 23rd in the NHL last season.
"I'm sure he's going to get all the time in the world on the power play," he said. "He's a skilled guy who can make those plays. We struggled on the power play a little bit and he's one of the guys that can help out and get a chance to be successful in that."
The Canadiens' system has come under attack in Montreal for being too defensive, something refuted by Bergevin, coach Michel Therrien, and now Plekanec as well.
He said he has never played a style that was as aggressive on puck recovery as the one the Canadiens have played the past two seasons under Therrien.
"If they make plays at the right time they have all the freedom in the world," Plekanec said. "I never heard the coach saying you can't beat your guy 1-on-1, but if you make a turnover at the blue line and get scored on, that's not how to make a play. If you look at all the guys like [Jonathan] Toews, [Patrick] Kane and those guys, they make those plays but you don't see too many turnovers from those guys. When there's no play they just chip it in.
"There's nothing wrong with chipping the pucks in the zone and wait for the right time to make that play. I don't think we have any structure of not making those plays."
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