I called general manager Bob Gainey yesterday and received the usual message:

"Hi, this is Bob Gainey. I'm not in. You can leave a message, but don't expect a call back until I do something."

There's no reason to expect a call from Gainey, who was busy last month. He said goodbye to 10 unrestricted free agents and brought in seven new bodies.

The roster appears set with 20 players under contract and about $2 million left to sign restricted free agents Matt D'Agostini and Gregory Stewart.

So why are there all the rumours about an impending trade and some expensive, big-name players?

Perhaps, it's because Gainey himself left the door open on July 1 when he announced the first wave of acquisitions and said he had until October to find the elusive big centre.

Or maybe it's because the salary cap and Dany Heatley's desire to be traded have set forces in motion.

The most common rumour involves a hockey ménage à trois involving San Jose, Ottawa and the Canadiens. The bottom line is Montreal gets big centre Patrick Marleau; Heatley goes to San Jose and Ottawa gets Tomas Plekanec and Jaroslav Halak and/or Roman Hamrlik.

The problem is that the numbers don't add up. All three teams are up against the cap and, while Ottawa and San Jose would get much need relief by dumping Heatley and Marleau, they'd be in the same mess by adding contracts.

There is one scenario that could make sense for the Canadiens if they are interested in Marleau. He carries a $6.3-million cap hit and Montreal could account for most of that by trading Plekanec, who would be redundant, and Andrei Kostitsyn, who could be the next Mike Ribeiro.

Plekanec eaarns $2.75 million and Kostitsyn makes $3.25 million.

But, as long as we're dealing with rumours, I'd like to propose a daring deal guaranteed to produce a Stanley Cup contender: Let's swap the Canadiens straight up for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Russians go to camp: Thirty-eight players - 19 from the National Hockey League and 19 from the Russian-based Kontinental Hockey League, have been invited to the training camp for the 2010 Russian Olympic team.

Canadiens defenceman Andrei Markov is on the list and so is former Canadien Alex Kovalev, who hasn't been a part of the Russian program in recent years.

The team is loaded with talented snipers like Alex Ovechkin, Alexander Semin, Evgeni Malkin and Ilya Kovalchuk.

But there were a few surprises in the initial selection. Former Canadien Alexander Perezhogin, who helped Russia win the last two world championships, wasn't invited, and neither were NHL veterans Nikolai Khabibulin, Slava Kozlov or Sergei Samsonov.

Another absentee of interest to Montreal fans is Alexei Yemelin, the defenceman who has spurned the Canadiens' advances.

Yemelin has played on the world championship teams, but didn't make the cut this time around.

phickey@thegazette.canwest.com