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Alex Galchenyuk was the last Canadiens player to come to terms on a contract this summer, but he doesn’t understand the angst over the prolonged negotiations.

“It didn’t take that long at all because we’re not even in August,” Galchenyuk said Friday morning during a conference call from his off-season training base in Miami. “I changed agents and then I went back to Russia for three weeks, and with the time difference I didn’t speak to (new agent Pat Brisson) a lot. Once I got back to Montreal, everyone went pretty quickly.”

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The result was a two-year bridge deal worth US$5.6 million. It’s similar to the deal defenceman P.K. Subban signed coming off his entry-level deal following the 2011-12 season. Subban signed for $5.75 million over two seasons at that time before cashing in last summer with an eight-year deal worth $72 million.

Galchenyuk said both he and Brisson agreed that a short-term deal was “a good way to go.”