issue with custom module

I have a few issues I am dealing with since enabling the (very nicely constructed) print module to do a simple "print this page" (not a pdf)

Note that I have placed these issues is separate posts.

Preface: I have a correctly configured and enabled a "helper module" for dealing with these issues. I also have a .tpl file print_html.node-activity.tpl.php in the same directory that (at the moment) is the same as the print.tpl file.

This post concerns the following:

I cannot seem to get the MYMODULE_print_manager_print_format_link() to work with my module that controls this functionality. At the moment, all I want to do is add a custom wrapper to the link using '#prefix' and '#suffix' .

Here is the code I inserted to wrap the links - - using the theme_print_manager_print_format_link()

function MYMODULE_print_manager_print_format_link() {

//Note that this section is included "as-is" in the print.module

	$print_html_link_class = variable_get('print_html_link_class', PRINT_HTML_LINK_CLASS_DEFAULT);
	$print_html_new_window = variable_get('print_html_new_window', PRINT_HTML_NEW_WINDOW_DEFAULT);
	$print_html_show_link = variable_get('print_html_show_link', PRINT_HTML_SHOW_LINK_DEFAULT);
	$print_html_link_text = filter_xss(variable_get('print_html_link_text', t('Printer-friendly version')));

	$img = drupal_get_path('module', 'print') .'/icons/print_icon.gif';
	$title = 'print this activity';
	$class = strip_tags($print_html_link_class);
	$new_window = $print_html_new_window;
	$format = _print_format_link_aux($print_html_show_link, $print_html_link_text, $img);

//Note that I added the prefix/suffix 
	return array(
		'text' => $format['text'],
		'html' => $format['html'],
		'attributes' => print_fill_attributes($title, $class, $new_window),
		'#prefix' => '<span class = "print-link-wrapper">',
		'#suffix' => '</span>'

	);
}

It is not seeing the wrapper called for by the prefix/suffix- - is this n

Note that my hook_perm and hook_init work correctly but this function does not seem to matter

This is what is returned via dpr($node->links['print_html'])):

Array
(
    [href] => print/8
    [title] => print this activity
    [attributes] => Array
        (
            [title] => Display a printer-friendly version of this page.
            [class] => print-page node-text-orange
            [rel] => nofollow
        )

    [html] => 
    [query] => 
)

So - - 2 questions:

1) why cannot I not seem to use the print_insert_link() function (pre my comment below)

2) why can I not insert the prefix and suffix to this link?

Thanks to all