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When Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin started free-agent shopping on July 1, he was disappointed Montreal was not a popular destination for some of the players.

“I kicked tires on a lot of UFAs,” Bergevin said during a news conference on July 2 after signing goalie Carey Price to an eight-year contract extension worth US$84 million. “We made really, really good offers to these guys and we pretty much thought we had them locked up, but they decided not to. There’s players out there that re-signed with their own teams and there’s players that flat-out said right now Montreal is not a place we’d like to go for whatever reason.”

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That wasn’t the case with Jonathan Drouin.

The Ste-Agathe native was thrilled when he learned Bergevin had acquired him from the Tampa Bay Lightning on June 15 in exchange for top defence prospect Mikhail Sergachev, immediately signing a six-year contract worth US$33 million to play in Montreal’s hockey fishbowl. No Canadiens player will face more pressure this season than Drouin in a city starving for another French-Canadian superstar.

Photo by Dave Sidaway / Montreal Gazette

“I am pumped,” Drouin said at a news conference Tuesday to announce he was donating $500,000 during the next 10 years to the CHUM hospital with a goal of raising $5 million more. “It’s cool to be in this city. I can’t wait to step out at the Bell Centre for the first time.”

Drouin will make his preseason debut with the Canadiens Wednesday night at the Bell Centre against the Washington Capitals (7 p.m., RDS, TSN Radio 690).

Former Canadiens captain and general manager Serge Savard was at Tuesday’s news conference as a member of the Fondation du CHUM and had a message for NHLers who don’t want to play in Montreal.