He enjoyed two solid years with the OHL's Kitchener Rangers, scoring 13 goals and getting 21 assists in 51 games in 2006-07, improving to 20 and 35 in 59 games last season while also being captain of his country at the world junior championship.

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Yannick Weber scores aganst Panthers' Tomas Vokoun yesterday.

Photograph by : ALLEN MCINNIS, THE GAZETTE

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Weber had grown up a fan of Chris Chelios and Paul Coffey, NHL blue-line legends "whose hockey cards you'd collect and who you'd know from the video games."

But it was the New York Islanders' Mark Streit, who played three years in Montreal after being drafted by the Canadiens at age 26 in 2004, who remains his most important role model. Streit showed Swiss players that the NHL is an achievable dream.

"You wouldn't even talk about that dream," Weber said. "But once Streit made it, everyone was like, 'Oh yeah, it could be possible.' "

For his Bell Centre games Friday and last night, he occupied the dressing-room stall Streit had used. Across the room and to the left had sat Swiss goalie David Aebischer in 2006-07.

"Montreal is the team to cheer for in Switzerland," Weber said. "It's always good if you're from Switzerland and you play here. Most Swiss guys were sad that Streit left Montreal. They really like the city and the way he was treated here."

Training together back home during the summer, Streit had a few words of wisdom for a Canadiens prospect in whom he might have seen a little of himself.

"Mark told me to make the best of the ice I get, as he had," Weber said. "He said that the Canadiens believed in him, saw that he could play forward, and gave him time on the power-play point.

"He made the best of it and look where he is now - in New York with a good contract (five years, $20.5 million). Mark tried his best when he was on the ice here and I think that's why he was appreciated."

The Canadiens had been keeping a close eye on Weber, who took the big leap by crossing the pond to learn North American systems and adapt to an elite-level hockey lifestyle with major- junior Kitchener.

They agreed to talk seriously after the Memorial Cup in May, in which the Rangers fell to Spokane in the final, and inked a contract on Aug. 15, 14 months after they'd drafted him in Columbus.

"Signing didn't change my life," he said, "except you know where you're going to be for the next three years. Once I was signed by Montreal, I knew the organization wanted to build me and have me play here one day. It's good to see they believe in me.

"I'm part of it now. They are following my life and they're going to watch me whatever I do."

In that regard, the Canadiens are not alone. The roar of Friday's Bell Centre crowd was echoed half a world away, where in Switzerland eager kids with a dream were watching one of their own move a pretty, top-shelf goal nearer the NHL.

dstubbs@thegazette.canwest.com