Sometimes non-verbal communication is more instructive than the regular old spoken kind.
The Montreal Canadiens' Alex Galchenyuk strode purposefully into the media spotlight at the team's annual charity golf tournament with a conspicuously bulkier body, a grown-up haircut and – this is something he couldn't have pulled off a year ago – a full beard.
The not-so-subliminal message: I'm not a kid anymore.
For the Habs' sake, such had better be the case.
The American-born forward oozes talent, but as he enters his fourth NHL campaign, it's time for him to show he can be a focal point.
To that end, the Habs are committing to using the 21-year-old at centre, his natural and preferred position. The decision will come as a surprise to those who listened to general manager Marc Bergevin's post-season news conference.
The Canadiens also announced a captain will be appointed before the end of training camp (bet against Max Pacioretty at your peril), which is a topic for another day.
"I'm really excited," Galchenyuk said of the promotion. "It's really huge, especially for a young player like me, knowing your role, knowing your position, just to be confident [in] yourself and coming into games knowing what you have to do ... but at the end of the day, I still have to prove I'm good for the job."
Perhaps some context is in order.
The Habs haven't had an elite-level scoring centre since Vincent Damphousse helped the team to its last Stanley Cup conquest in 1993, although you could argue it's been longer than that since it had a prototypical, physically dominant No. 1.
Thus, the 6-foot-1, 200-pound Galchenyuk, drafted third overall in 2012, is not just a hockey player; he's the Habs' equivalent of a certain white whale of literary myth.
There have been times on the ice when he looks every inch a franchise cornerstone, and others where he still looks like just another handsy kid barely out of his teens.
But Galchenyuk has become a more assertive presence as he's matured and evidently his bosses feel he has learned to read the NHL game.
"We think he's ready," said coach Michel Therrien, who expects his young charge to play first– or second-line minutes.
Why is this a big deal, beyond the symbolism of addressing a long-standing organizational weakness?
Well, goals.
For a team with Cup pretensions, the Habs don't score very many. Montreal's goal production was 20th in the NHL last year.
Addressing their woeful power play is the obvious short-term fix. Having Galchenyuk produce at a first-line-centre clip (60-80 points) is the long-term one.
Defenceman P.K. Subban gave voice to a popular sentiment Thursday in saying the team can't pin its hopes on the league's best goalie, Carey Price (although Price, when asked if it was reasonable to expect him to improve on his all-conquering campaign of a year go, said "yup.") Subban said every player in the room needs to improve and highlighted the importance of Galchenyuk, who he feels "can be the best player in the league ... he's that talented."
That's hyperbolic, but Galchenyuk did reach the 20-goal plateau for the first time last year, and put up 46 regular-season points (plus four in 12 playoff games). Somehow it felt disappointing.
Galchenyuk made a mid-season cameo at centre, but the experiment lasted barely 10 games before Therrien, an inveterate line jumbler, decided he wasn't progressing quickly enough on the defensive-zone learning curve.
Then, after the Habs' second-round playoff exit, Bergevin let it drop he wasn't sure Galchenyuk would ever be an NHL pivot.
It felt a little like a negotiating tactic – Galchenyuk's entry-level contract had just run out.
Now we learn that within days Bergevin and Therrien met with Galchenyuk to go over his season. Soon after he fired his agent, and at the NHL entry draft in June, coach met prodigy for dinner in a Florida restaurant.
The upshot of the discussion: You're going to play centre.
"I wanted him to have a summer where he could concentrate on one job," Therrien said. "We want him to be himself on the ice, be creative, be dynamic."
Galchenyuk's move to the middle means someone else will have to shift to the wing, the likeliest candidate is David Desharnais, although some in the hockey department see Lars Eller as an effective option on the left side.
Five weeks after that meeting, Galchenyuk signed a two-year bridge contract that requires him to justify a long-term deal.
The Habs have been here before, most recently with Subban.
He responded by winning the James Norris Memorial Trophy and making Team Canada, then was awarded a new $72-million contract.
One suspects Bergevin would gladly deal with stratospheric salary demands from Galchenyuk in two years' time.
It will mean he's earned it.