An excerpt from NHL.com (Lindsay Kramer):

Going to Russia last season could wind up as the best move that center Yanick Lehoux ever disliked.

“It made me a better person and a better player,” he said last week.

If that’s true, the rest of the AHL should be on notice.

Lehoux, 26, signed a free-agent deal with the Canadiens organization last month. He spent most of last season skating with Khimik Mytishi of the Russian Super League. That was something of a rebound option after playing just seven games in San Antonio because the team had too many veterans.The way Lehoux describes it now, he might have had more fun working as a stick-boy with the Rampage than going overseas. It was nothing against the Russians or the country, but he, like many North American players who give that country a try, found the culture a little too rigid and suffocating.