When Andrei Markov agreed to another three years with the Montreal Canadiens, he did something almost unheard of in the modern hockey era: he spurned unrestricted free agency to re-sign with his original team for a second time.

Even if the deal is more about serving their mutual business interests than it is about loyalty, there's something honorable about a player of Markov's experience and calibre re-committing to his teammates rather than looking for the shortest route to the Stanley Cup.

It can come off as unseemly, cheap and contrived when a veteran player puts personal ambition ahead of the greater good, like Ray Bourque did when he requested a trade after 21 seasons in Boston so he could win a Stanley Cup with Colorado.

There's also a lot to be said for being identified exclusively with one franchise, especially when it's the Montreal Canadiens.

Jacques Plante as a Toronto Maple Leaf, Serge Savard as a Winnipeg Jet and Guy Lafleur as a Quebec Nordique detract from their otherwise distinguished legacies more than they add to them. Markov is on a course to join Jean Beliveau, Maurice and Henri Richard, Toe Blake, Elmer Lach, Yvan Cournoyer, Ken Dryden and Bob Gainey in the pantheon of hockey greats who wore the CH for their entire NHL careers.

Legacy-building aside, the Markov contract makes sense for both parties.

I'm no doctor, but I'll put my trust in the ones who say Markov is in excellent health and ready to rejoin a team that in his injury-forced absence advanced to the Stanley Cup semifinals in 2010, came within an overtime goal of eliminating the eventual Cup champions this year, and should be significantly better with Markov in the lineup than they were without him.