Frédéric St. Denis joined an exclusive club when he made his National Hockey League debut with the Canadiens. He became one of the few players to make a stop at a Canadian university en route to the bigs.

St. Denis wasn't swamped with offers after he finished his junior career with the Drummondville Voltigeurs and he took advantage of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League's scholarship program to enrol at Université du Québec a Trois Rivières. He had four goals and 14 assists in 28 games with the Patriotes in 2007-08 and attracted enough attention to earn a tryout with the Canadiens.

St. Denis joins Mathieu Darche, who earned a degree at McGill before embarking on a pro career. Before him, the last Canadien with a university pedigree was P. J. Stock, who spent one season at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, N.S., after playing junior. Bob Berry played 541 NHL games after a standout career at Sir George Williams. He made his NHL debut with the Canadiens, but played only two games in 1968-69 before he was sold to the Los Angeles Kings in 1970. Berry later returned to the Canadiens as the head coach and also coached in Pittsburgh, Los Angeles and St. Louis.

Larry Carrière, the Canadiens assistant general manager, played at Loyola College before embarking on an NHL career with the Buffalo Sabres. Loyola also sent goaltender Jim Corsi to the NHL, while Bernie Wolfe of Sir George Williams tended goal for the Washington Capitals. One of his teammates, the late Ron Lapointe, kicked around the minors and eventually became head coach of the Quebec Nordiques.

Gallagher gets contract: Brendan Gallagher, who was an offensive standout in training camp this season, has signed a three-year entrylevel deal with the Canadiens. He has 18 goals and 13 assists in 18 games with the Vancouver Giants, and served as captain of the WHL team that faced the Russians in the Subway Series Wednesday night in Regina.

OHL doesn't mess around: The Ontario Hockey League is at the forefront of trying to eliminate dangerous hits to the head and blindside hits. Commissioner Dave Branch has instituted a no-tolerance policy on head shots and it was reflected in the 20-game suspension he handed out last week to Niagara's Tom Kuhnhackl for his hit to the head of Kitchener's Ryan Murphy. It's the eighth suspension of 10 games or more handed out by Branch this season.

Murphy suffered a concussion and was ruled out of the OHL's Super Series games against a Russian squad. Murphy, who was the 12th overall pick in the 2011 draft by the Carolina Hurricanes, is considered one of the best offensive defencemen in junior hockey, but the injury may well prevent him from representing Canada in next month's world junior championships.

Risky business: The Nashville Predators received a vote of confidence this week when Western Canada businessman W. Brett Wilson purchased a five-per-cent interest in the team. This isn't the first sports venture for Wilson, who was the most active participant on the CBC show Dragon's Den before starting his own reality investment show, Risky Business on Slice. Wilson owns Derby County F.C., a First Division soccer team in England and the Jackson Generals, a Double-A baseball team in Jackson, Tenn.