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Check out the assignments for the Grand Prix figure skating season, which starts in October. It’s the final series of international events before the Vancouver Olympics, and it’s interesting reading.

There are a few surprises. At the top of the list is the return of Chinese former world pair champions Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo, who haven’t competed since winning the bronze medal at the Turin Olympics. They aren’t calling their return a comeback. They say they were taking only a break and that the Grand Prix series will serve to tell them if they are good enough to go to the Vancouver Olympics.

Even though Shen and Zhao are unseeded skaters because they have been away for so long, they have the maximum two assignments, not only earning a berth at Cup of China, but also at Skate America at Lake Placid, N.Y. But the ranks are thin in the pairs world, and their return is probably welcomed by the International Skating Union, especially during a difficult economic climate.

Their return will make it more difficult for former world bronze medalists Jessica Dubé of Drummondville, Que., and Bryce Davison of Cambridge, Ont., to get a medal in Vancouver. Dubé and Davison are best known for their charisma on ice, something that most other pair skaters don’t have. But Shen and Zhao have this quality in spades.

Obviously the Chinese are back to win a gold medal, something they missed out on at two Olympics. They won a bronze medal at Salt Lake City, but engineered a miracle to return for the Turin Olympics, after Zhao suffered an Achilles injury the previous summer. Zhao feels there is something missing from their competitive career. If they won the gold medal in Vancouver, it would be a popular victory.

Is it a surprise that 2006 Olympic champion Evgeny Plushenko of Russia is back on the list? Yes and no. In recent months, he’s been saying he’s returning for the Vancouver Olympics, although he’s been saying this several times since Turin, and we haven’t seen him. Now it looks real. He will compete at Cup of Russia, and for the first time will meet up with Canada’s Patrick Chan.

And what a meeting that will be. Plushenko won’t have competed against the likes of Chan in his career. See who gets the higher presentation marks in this contest. That will be the most fun. The tough part for Chan, is that he will have to do it on Plushenko’s turf, in his home country. That’s not in Chan’s favour, because, as we all have seen from the world championships in Los Angeles, judges do not always mark what they see on the ice. Not all judges. Just enough judges to affect a certain result.

“Plushenko?” Chan said when asked about the Olympic champion’s comeback. “Oh gosh, it will be fun. It will be a helluva ride. He’s jumping onto the bandwagon, the party bus. It’s a bit late, I think. He’s cutting it pretty tight. But it’ll be cool.’’

Chan said he’s watched Plushenko on television since he was 13 years old. “To be on the same ice would be really an experience,’’ he said.

When Plushenko won the Olympics, Chan was a novice skater. “If he comes back, it’s like I’m going back in time and competing against someone that I looked up to,’’ Chan said.

Their meeting could be a highlight of the pre-Olympic season.

Also, here’s another intriguing development: 2006 Olympic silver medalist Sasha Cohen of the United States is on the comeback trail, although she didn’t look particularly steady with her jumps at the Stars on Ice stop in Toronto. She does, however, chalk up lots of points in the judging system with her spins, spirals and footwork.

Like Shen and Zhao, she earned an unprecedented second assignment, even though she’s been away too long to be a world-ranked skater and eligible for invitation. The Trophée Eric Bompard in France has invited her. She’ll also compete at Skate America.

Skate America has an interesting entry list for women. Traditionally, all of its U.S. women’s champions from the previous year have been atop the list for Skate America, but this time, the U.S. Figure Skating association is not going with its champion Alissa Czisny, who finished only 11th at the world championships in Los Angeles. Instead, the U.S. is opting for Cohen and the consistent Rachel Flatt, who was fifth at the world championships.

And the United States hasn’t yet announced its third entry for Skate America. Why not? Could it be that U.S. officials are waiting on Michelle Kwan to try for another comeback, and resurrect her Olympic dream? Kwan has snared only silver and bronze in Olympic competition, is the most decorated skater in US history, and has won five world titles.

In the past month, Kwan has said she’s skating again and has her triples back. But for most of her career, she skirted the new judging system and when she finished only fourth at her last world championship, she admitted her unfamiliarity with the system hobbled her.

She’ll have a lot of catching up to do to go toe to toe with the brilliant Kim Yu-Na of South Korea. Still, the speculation stirs the skating pot like it hasn’t been stirred in a long time.

Other interesting developments in the Series? The 2008 world ice dancing champions Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder of France are scheduled to compete at Skate America and Skate Canada, which for the first and probably only time, are the final two Grand Prix events rather than the first two of six.

They’ll need the time if they want to compete in the Grand Prix Series at all. Delobel is expecting a child in September. Skate America would traditionally have been the final week of October, but this year it is Nov. 12 to 15. Even so, will they be ready?

Skate Canada goes in Kitchener from Nov. 19 to 22.

Skate Canada will pit Chan against Daisuke Takahashi of Japan, out for the past year because of injury, U.S. champion Jeremy Abbott, who is switching coaches this year, Samuel Contesti, of Italy, who was fifth at the world championships last March and must be considered and the two Tens, Denis of Kazakhstan, who surprised everybody at the world championships with his eighth place finish, and Canada’s promising Jeremy Ten, 17th at worlds.

The women’s event will feature world silver medalist Joannie Rochette against Czisny and a couple of U.S. rising stars, Mirai Nagasu and Caroline Zhang. It’s a light field.

In the pairs event, 2008 Canadian champions Anabelle Langlois and Cody Hay - out for the past year because of injury - finally get a chance to show their wares, but they’ll have to do it against two-time world champions Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany. Dubé and Davison are also there.

In ice dancing, former world silver medalists Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir take on Delobel and Schoenfelder and a very strong group of dancers.

More intrigue? In both of their Grand Prix events, U.S. ice dancing champions Meryl Davis and Charlie White butt up against reigning world champions Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin of Russia - in Moscow and at the NHK Trophy in Nagano, Japan. Davis and White were the best at the world championships in Los Angeles, yet finished fourth, off the podium, in the worst injustice of the event.

Davis and White will have to meet Domnina and Shabalin at Cup of Russia. Shall we make a wager that they aren’t destined to win that one, either?