The Montreal Canadiens have signed winger Alex Semin to a one-year contract.

The Summer of Marc continued today as the Montreal Canadiens gave former Carolina Hurricanes forward Alex Semin a one-year contract for $1.1-million next year. The Hurricanes bought him out after the second year of a 5-year, $35-million contract just before free agency hit this year, making the 31-year old a free agent.

It may come to a bit of a surprise the age this guy is to some more casual hockey fans. This isn't a player who is just coming into the downside of his career. He will be 32-years old before the next regular season is over, which means those 40-goal days are a pipe dream, not a plausible reality.

When something like this comes up, I generally go through the process of "what do we know" to establish what is known for certain about a player. This is what we know about Semin:

He was a healthy scratch last year often for the Hurricanes, purportedly due to a lack of work ethic.

The numbers show a steep decline from a couple of years ago: in the lockout-shortened season, Semin posted 2.52 points per 60 minutes at five-on-five; last year that plummeted to 1.16.

As a whole, his Carolina career was not the unmitigated disaster it is made out to be: Out of 218 forwards that played at least 2000 minutes at five-on-five, he finished 102nd in points per 60 minutes. Doing some quick math, that's top-six production. It just wasn't worth $7-million a year.

The top-six production is not a mirage, just take a look through here.

It also should be noted that the Hurricanes did not make very many people look good. This is a team that plays Jeff Skinner on the third line, and as a whole, over Semin's tenure, they were the worst shooting team in the league. Worse than Arizona, worse than Florida, worse than Buffalo.