Article content

It was 14 years ago, less a week, that the Canadiens drafted Tomas Plekanec into the National Hockey League.

“Fourteen years?” the 32-year-old centreman repeated, almost in disbelief.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Dave Stubbs: Heading into contract year, Tomas Plekanec looks back at his Habs career — and looks ahead Back to video

And then he grinned.

“I’m old, eh?”

That was 1,102 professional games ago – 842 regular-season and playoff matches for the Canadiens, another 260 for their farm club in Hamilton.

Soon, Plekanec will begin his 11th season in Montreal. All things being equal, he will play his 700th regular-season NHL game almost exactly at the midpoint of the 2015-16 campaign.

His next point will be his 500th in scheduled NHL play, parked now at 202 goals and 297 assists in 761 games.

What more do you want as a hockey player than to be part of a place where everybody loves hockey?

It is no small feat in this salary-capped era of free agency, trade-deadline rentals and interchangeable parts that Plekanec has played every pro game of his career for the same organization.

Having outlasted dozens of now-former Montreal teammates and having skated for three general managers and six coaches, he has the second-longest tenure of the Canadiens after defenceman Andrei Markov, who’s heading into his 15th season here.