The World Hockey Championship provided an excellent stage for Jaromir Jagr to begin playing mind games with professional clubs on both sides of the Atlantic, as his contract with Avangard Omsk of the KHL is expired and it doesn't appear he will be renewing with that team any time soon.

So, knowing full well what kind of chatter has been going on in North America on the possibility of him making an NHL return in 2011-12, a season during which he will turn 40, Jagr decided to fan the flames a little after grabbing an assist on Tomas Plekanec's empty net goal that sealed the Czech Republic`s 7-4 win over Russia in the bronze medal game Sunday.

The assist gave Jagr nine points in nine games at the worlds, good for sixth on the tournament scoring list and – amazingly – the tournament directorate`s top forward award and a spot on the all-tournament team.

After the game, Jagr spoke to the Edmonton Journal`s Dan Barnes about what the future holds and spoke about the possibility of returning to the NHL.

"You never know. Maybe it will be still fun to go back to NHL," Jagr told Barnes. "Maybe Pittsburgh. I don't know. Maybe Montreal. Maybe New York."

Jagr then went on to sing the virtues of Pittsburgh, playing for his mentor Mario Lemieux and alongside two of the top talents in the game in Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. But he also spoke about the relationship he had with New York City and how the Rangers gave him a second chance after he flopped in Washington. Then he spoke about Montreal.

"And Montreal and Canada, it's totally different hockey," he said. "The fans are crazy about hockey and I've never played in Canada in my life. You never know."

His performance alongside Plekanec at the worlds provided good fodder for floating the Canadiens out there, and I can tell you Plekanec thinks the world of Jagr. He is literally Plekanec's idol and an influential mentor, both being natives of Kladno and spending some time together in the offseason.

But is this whole thing realistic? A better question would be to ask if it's even for real.

Negotiating tactics?

Jagr is a free agent, not only in North America, but also in Russia. Getting word out there that he wants to make an NHL comeback before finally playing one last year with his hometown team in Kladno and eventually taking over its management from his dad helps his negotiating power with the KHL clubs who are after him.

One KHL team is reportedly already "deep" in talks with Jagr, as mentioned in the Sean Leahy Yahoo! piece linked above, and he also told Sovetsky Sport that he has received a few offers from clubs, though he wouldn't specify whether it was strictly Russian clubs or if it included NHL clubs as well.

Under these circumstances, anything Jagr says has to be placed within the context of contract talks in that openly talking about coming back to the NHL would certainly help his bargaining power in the KHL.

And Jagr remains a top end player in Russia, finishing 10th in league scoring with 50 points in 49 games this past season, one of only nine KHL players to play at least 40 games and register at least a point a game.

But does that performance, coupled with the one he put on at the worlds, mean he is still a top end player in the NHL?

That's hard to say.

Rumours abound

Jagr mentioning the Canadiens as a possible landing point Sunday was preceded a couple of weeks prior by a rumour that he offered up his services to Montreal for $2 million, and that Pierre Gauthier turned him down. On Sunday, Marc-Antoine Godin of La Presse reported that according to his sources, Gauthier has not completely shut the door on the possibility of signing Jagr.

Now, no one but Jagr knows if the Canadiens are at the top of his list of three teams, or even if his desire to return to the NHL is completely sincere. On top of that, most of us have never even seen a KHL game – I definitely haven't – which makes Jagr's numbers over there difficult to judge.

But I figured I'd try.

As mentioned earlier, Jagr was just one of nine KHL players this season to average at least a point per game. Among the others, we find such NHL flameouts as Patrick Thoresen (66 points in 54 games played, second in the league), Josef Vasicek (55 points in 54 games, seventh in the league) and Brandon Bochenski (45 points in 40 games, 14th in the league).

So really, while Jagr's season is among the league's elite, it cannot necessarily be described the same way by NHL standards.

However, Jagr's 2010-11 season was in many ways his best since he bolted for Russia in 2008, at least statistically. It was the first time in his three KHL seasons that Jagr has been at the point-a-game mark, and his 18:38 average time on ice in the regular season was also his highest since moving to Russia.

So Jagr's age doesn't appear to be as much of a factor as one may believe, seeing as he just had the most productive of his three seasons in Russia.

Will the attitude be able to adjust?

Now, having established the potential ulterior motives in Jagr's public comments and trying to establish the level of his play in Russia, we need to figure out if he would be a fit in Montreal.

While everyone sees Jagr playing on a line with Plekanec and Mike Cammalleri, I really don't see that happening over 82 games. No, I would see Jagr filling a third line role with limited minutes, perhaps with David Desharnais and/or Lars Eller, while serving as a weapon on the power play. Would Jagr be willing to play such a role? Would he come to Montreal if he wasn't guaranteed to play with Plekanec on a regular basis? I'm not sure he would.

But if he was willing to do that – and also willing to play by Jacques Martin's system and also willing to defer to the established leadership group and not rattle the Canadiens dressing room chemistry too much – then I see no reason why Jagr would not be a welcome addition in Montreal.

He would not cost too much, he would add depth to the team and provide great insurance against a top-six injury.

Except all those "ifs" rest on Jagr accepting the fact he is no longer in any position to be the star of an NHL team, and that acceptance is far from a guarantee.