Sabres still need a captain

Last season I tried to anticipate who the team would pick as captain, and was completely off picking Connolly and Campbell. Instead the Sabres went with a rotating captaincy, and besides Campbell who is no longer on the team, the obvious captain appeared to be Hecht and Pominville.

Despite the assumption that the Sabres will stick with a rotating captain, I think it is likely that they will not do so for this season. I think the pattern that we saw before with Lindy Ruff and the Sabres will hold true, in that after a single year of a rotating captain, that Ruff will pick from those who were captain during that time, and give them the full time job.

The obvious candidates are Jason Pominville, Jochen Hecht and Teppo Numminen. Both Hecht and Pominville were very strong in the role of captain, and would be the go to guys to take on the role. Numminen meanwhile was the alternate captain behind Briere and Drury before having to sit out all of last season due to heart issues. Teppo is unlikely to wear the C, but will probably represent the defense as an alternative captain.

Between Hecht and Pominville, Pominville most likely has the slight edge to act as captain, but unless he signs a contract extension, the team is not likely to grant him the role if only to avoid seeing their captain leave the team again. As such, Hecht (who has a four year contract) becomes the obvious choice. There is also the possibility that the two of them are named co-captains as the team has done before. In fact the last captain that was neither a co-captain or a rotating captain was Stu Barnes.

Rules the NHL should change

Everyone has a few gripes with some of the rules within the NHL. Some almost everyone agrees on, some are more controversial, and some even have almost no support. Still these are all things that I feel should be changed in the league (in order of how much they annoy me).

#1 - Puck over the glass
This rule is really annoying, and furthermore may have cost the Sabres the cup in 2006. The fact of the matter is that the vast majority of the time the puck goes over the glass it is a simple mistake, and not an attempt to "delay the game" or anything like that. So in addition to the fact that the team has already just messed up a clear under the current system they also get penalized as if they had just elbowed someone in the head. Additionally if the game has broken down to the point where the refs have stopped calling almost all the penalties, they will still feel compelled to call this one as it isn't really much of a judgment call. If you want to still prevent the team from bailing themselves out of trouble, treat it like an iceing where the defensive team is not allowed to change their lines.

#2 - Fake overtime
Five minutes of four on four overtime is really just weird. This should really be played five on five, and should go at least ten minutes, so that the teams actually have a chance to score. While we don't want ties, we don't really want games to be decided based upon a glorified skills competition either. Personally I would love if they did continuous sudden death like in the playoffs, but can understand why they may not like to do that.

#3 - Three point and two point games
The fact that some games are worth more then others is fundamentally a problem. Additionally it gives added incentive to play for the tie. Under the current system playing a low scoring safe game will give you an average of 1.5 points, while playing a high scoring exciting style will return an average of 1 point. The easiest fix to this would be to make all games worth three points, so that the expected average return would be 1.5 regardless of the style of hockey played.

#4 - Ignored elbows
The way the league currently ignores elbows to the head is very annoying as this is one of the few penalties that often results in injuries. If players are expected to control their stick regardless (high sticking), then we can expect them to do the same with their arms.

#5 - Distinct Kicking Motion
Nobody in the league knows what this phrase means. It changes every single game, and nobody ever has any clue if the goal is going to stand or not. Personally I don't care if they disallow all goals off of skates or allow them, but the current system of counting them sometimes is really annoying. If they feel that goalies need to be protected from skateblades, they can add a separate "kicking at the goalie" or "kicking in the crease" penalty that has nothing to do with goals, but is instead based upon goaltender safety.

#6 - Rewards for bleeding
A high stick gives a two minute penalty, but it becomes a four minute penalty if the player hit is bleeding. However, this doesn't make much sense as the reason for a player bleeding often has more to do with how tough his skin is or if he has been in a fight earlier, then it has to do with how hard they were hit with the high stick.

#7 - Only three shooters in the shootout
One of the complaints about the shootout is that only four players on the team of twenty are involved at all. This could be easily increased to six players by simply having each side take five shots. Every other sport that has shootouts (Soccer, Water polo, and Handball) all use five shooters a side, hockey should as well.

#8 - No tv timeouts in OT
There are currently no tv timeouts in OT. While this does help the games end a little earlier, this also wears out players and results in lower quality hockey. Also it helps the networks financially, and perhaps would make them less likely to cut away to show horsey races.

#9 - Exception to offsides rule
This doesn't happen often at all, but if the defending team puts the puck over the blueline, all offsides rules suddenly do not apply. The instances in which this is a problem are very rare, but this rule just does not make sense.

#10 - Stay in the box
I'm am sure this will never go in effect, but I think it would be really cool. If a player is in the penalty box at the end of a period, they will have to stay there until the penalty is over, and will not be allowed to go to the locker room for intermission. I'm still not sure what we should do with penalties that result with a player in the box at the end of the game, but I am sure we can come up with something.

Third Jersey

The Sabres have announced that they will announce their third jersey on September 20th. Of course the whole world has already known for months what the third jersey looks like. In short it is a revival of the classic blue and gold jersey, and is a barely updated version of of the one they wore two seasons ago.

Sabres sign Jimmy Bonneau

Jimmy Bonneau is a left wing who picked up one goal and four assists in 24 games last season between the AHL and the ECHL. In short there is pretty much no way he is going to be up with the Sabres at all this season, but is rather yet another example of the Portland Pirates getting a well stocked team.

Tyler Bouck

The Sabres have signed Tyler Bouck to a contract. Last season Bouck was the captain for the Portland Pirates and will probably reassume that role this year. Last season he scored 29 points in 79 games for Portland.

Individually this signing is not a big deal, but coupled with the signings of Colton Fretter, Colin Murphy and Mathieu Darche it is. Portland is set to have a really good year, as the Sabres have signed a number of experienced top AHL guys for this season. With the exception of Darche, not a single one of these recently signed players really has much of a chance of playing in the NHL this season. Gerbe, MacArthur, and Kaleta will all get called up before these players do.

One of the issues of contention with Rochester had been Buffalo's lack of willingness to sign players like this for their AHL team. Now that they are doing so, appears to be more of an issue with how management in Rochester was working then a philosophy against having AHL veterans.

Teppo back for at least one more season

Teppo Numminen has signed a one year $1.1 million contract with the Buffalo Sabres for this coming season. Teppo was only able to play in one game last year, but is still in good shape, and although not the fastest player on the ice, he is still a solid and experienced defenseman.

For the Sabres this solidifies there blueline, with a top pairing of Tallinder/Lydman, a second line of Rivet/Spacek, and a third line of Numminen/Sekera. That final pairing will not see as much ice time as the top two, but leaves us with a very capable numbers seven and eight of Weber and Paetsch.

Numminen is accepting a deal of less then half of what he made last season, but I think realizes that at his speed he really can not demand more money. Really it is good to see him playing at all. He worked hard last season just to get in the one game he did play. Hopefully his heart problems are behind him, and we get Teppo for a full season. I would assume that he will even be given a chance to be the alternative captain once again, with Hecht and Pominville taking the other two leadership spots.

Mats Sundin and the Long Offseason

There has been a lot of question over where Mats Sundin will sign during this off season. However, there is no guarantee that he will be playing at all this coming season. While he still is able to play if he wants to, there is little reason to believe that he does. While there has been no official word on his retirement, he has been rather quiet this off season, and well there are many teams that would love to sign him nobody knows exactly what to expect.

One of the leading candidates to sign Sundin are the Vancouver Canucks. At the start of free agency on July 1st, Mats Sundin turned down a contract offer from them. The Montreal Canadian's are another leading contender, but nothing has happened there either.

One of the issues, may be Sundin's die hard loyalty to the Toronto Maple Leafs. He has played his entire career with the team, and really doesn't want to leave. Last season when he was asked to waive his no trade clause, he refused, despite being in the final year of his contract, and with a team that clearly had no shot at making the post-season. However, going back to the trade Toronto has made it rather clear that they don't really intend to bring back Sundin for another season, and are surely not offering him another no trade clause.

Still the Maple Leafs refusal to bring back Sundin for another season is puzzling. Well I can understand why they may not want him on a long term contract, there is no reason not to sign him for one more year. Toronto currently has a young and weak team, that has very little chance at making the playoffs. At least bringing Sundin back would give them some credibility even if it won't improve the teams chances too much. In the end it is a bit pointless to watch your best player wander off without trying to keep him.

With these limited options Sundin may very well just retire this offseason. There are teams that would love to have him, but if he doesn't feel like continuing his career there is no reason he should feel forced to. Well Mats is smart to take his time and weigh his options before rushing into retirement (see Favre), the end result is that Sundin will not be playing this coming season. At the end of the day, there is nothing wrong with that.

Kevin Dineen will be our AHL coach

Kevin Dineen will be the coach of the Sabres' AHL team in Portland this season. Dineen was the coach in Portland the past three season (when the team was affiliated with Anaheim), and put up a very respectable 135-76-13 record. He also won AHL coach of the year honours in 2006. He should be a solid coach, and should do a decent job of getting our younger players ready. I still think that losing Randy Cunneyworth is a huge blow to the Sabres organization, but that Kevin Dineen really isn't that bad either.

Colton Fretter and Colin Murphy signed

The Sabres have signed right wing Colton Fretter and left wing Colin Murphy to their team. Don't expect to see them in Buffalo too often though. Both of these players will be spending the season mostly in Portland with the Pirates. The most likely call ups from the AHL level are still Kaleta, Gerbe, Mathieu Darche, Kennedy, and MacArthur. Still under this new deal with Portland the Sabres seem to be committing much more to their AHL team as far as bringing in veterans goes.

Rumors continue about Marian Gaborik being traded to the Sabres. From the sounds of it though, it is not going to happen. Still Gaborik is an awesome player, and I would love to see him in Buffalo.

Why I support Chicago

Starting last season, and assuredly continuing this year, my team to root for in the Western conference is the Chicago Blackhawks. Well, this isn't to uncommon in Buffalo apparently I need to justify my allegiance for the Blackhawks.

Like me, most of my friends are really into hockey, and with the NHL center ice package will often just turn on a random game and watch it. Early last season that focus landed on Chicago. Following the draft I had heard alot through the Buffalo News and such, about number one draft pick and Buffalo native Patrick Kane. Well I had never seen him play I was glad that a local player was doing so well, and was mildly interested. Meanwhile one of my friends happens to be a big fan of the University of North Dakota hockey team, and as such knew Jonathan Toews and was excited to see him play in the NHL.

Then this goal pretty much sold me on the team full time. We were talking and only half paying attention to the game, but around midway through that play, we both kindof just stopped and watched in awe as Toews pulled off that spectacular play.

Between Toews and (rookie of the year winner) Kane, Chicago had a rather exciting team last season. I probably only watched around 30 of their games, but that is more than I watched for any other team besides Buffalo. Khabibulin and other players such as Byfuglien, Sharp, and Buffalo native Kevyn Adams made the team easy to root for.

This season the team has picked up Huet, who I've always kindof liked and former Sabre Brian Campbell, who unlike some others who have left Buffalo I still like.

Furthermore, my other favorite players in the west, Jerome Iginla, and Marty Turco are both on teams that have signed some scum players this off season.

How Sabres management imporved the team by allowing players to walk

The Buffalo Sabres have gotten a lot of criticism for allowing alot of their star players to leave town, notably Chris Drury, Daniel Briere, Brian Campbell, Jay McKee, and JP Dumont. While I would love to have Drury and Dumont back, it is important to remember why the team let Dumont walk in the first place. If the Sabres had signed JP they would have been over the cap. If the Sabres had signed all of these players they would have been well over the cap.

As a starting point I looked at the roster of the famed 2005-2006 team that did so well in the first season after the lockout. If Buffalo had resigned all of those players the cap hit for this season would be $73.846 million which is an astounding $17.146 million over the cap. The team that year consisted of Maxim Afinogenov, Chris Drury, Ales Kotalik, Daniel Briere, Tim Connolly, Thomas Vanek, Derek Roy, Brian Campbell, Jochen Hecht, J.P. Dumont, Teppo Numminen, Jason Pominville, Paul Gaustad, Mike Grier, Henrik Tallinder, Dmitri Kalinin, Toni Lydman, Jay McKee, Rory Fitzpatrick, Ryan Miller, and Martin Biron. This 21 man roster consists of all the players who had over 45 games played and the two starting goalies. Left off are Taylor Pyatt and Adam Mair, who played in 41 and 40 games, as well Andrew Peters who had 28 games, and goalie Mika Noronen who had four starts before being traded mid-season. However these extra players are still making close to the NHL minimum and would only have a small effect to the numbers.

Player	2008 cap hit
Thomas Vanek	$7.143
Brian Campbell	$7.1
Chris Drury	$7.05
Daniel Briere	$6.5
Derek Roy	$4
J.P. Dumont	$4
Jay McKee	$4
Jochen Hecht	$3.525
Martin Biron	$3.5
Maxim Afinogenov	$3.333
Tim Connolly	$2.9
Toni Lydman	$2.875
Ryan Miller	$2.667
Teppo Numminen*	$2.6*
Henrik Tallinder	$2.562
Ales Kotalik	$2.333
Paul Gaustad	$2.3
Dmitri Kalinin	$2.1
Mike Grier	$1.775
Jason Pominville	$1.033
Rory Fitzpatrick*	$0.55*

*2007 cap hits are used for Numminen (who is unsigned) and Fitzpatrick (whos cap hit for Florida can not be found)

Furthermore, besides being well over the cap and needing to trade away over $17 million worth of salaries for this season. This would also not make room for players such as Daniel Paille who only a bit player at this point, and Drew Stafford, and Patrick Kaleta who both had yet to play their first NHL game. Now looking back, with the notable exception of Chris Drury it would not have done the team any good to sign any of these players. Furthermore Miller is due an $4 million raise next season, and Pominville is likely to get the same. Yet only the salary for Numminen shows any possibility of going down (and even then it can not drop by more than $2 million).

So please stop complaining whenever Buffalo's management allows a player to walk. From this line up you could replace Dumont, McKee, Biron, Numminen, Afinogenov, and Connolly, all with players making the NHL minimum and you would still be over the cap. I think our current team is a huge improvement over that.

Hockey in Iowa

A lot of craziness has been going on in Iowa with their AHL team. After changing their affiliation this season from the Dallas Stars to the Anaheim Ducks, their name of the Iowa Stars, just didn't make too much sense, so they changed it. They did however get a tad bit carried away.

They renamed their team to the Iowa Chops, which well a bit cheesy really isn't too bad. Then they made their logo the head of a roasted pig. Then as if the team wasn't getting enough attention despite being a minor league team out of season, they then offered a contract to Brett Favre. Now Favre has had an odd enough off season to begin with, but nobody (including those who offered him a contract) have an clue how his skating ability is. Suddenly Jagr going to Russia isn't the oddest story of this off season.

Jordon Southorn and Jay McKee

Die By The Blade has an excellent interview with recent Sabres draftee Jordon Southorn. Southorn was taken by Buffalo in the fourth round, and is a defenseman for the PEI Rockets.

Former Sabre Jay McKee however, was busy dressing up as Marilyn Monroe. Honestly, he was at the Wedding of teammate Dan Hinote where for some reason, everyone was asked to come in a 1950's era costume. The party also featured Jim Carrey dressed as Fidel Castro.

Back to hockey, the Goose's Roost has picked out the five worst valued Sabres games of the season. In short, they are charging big money for the Friday night games regardless of who the opponent is (and the platinum games are all overpriced, but that is only to take away money from those Canadians).

Where is Michael Ryan?

Michael Ryan is an unrestricted free agent, and while he hasn't resigned with Buffalo, he hasn't signed elsewhere either. While he is not going to be the top forward for any team, he is definitely good enough to sign somewhere, but there has been no word about his off season at all. The assumption is that Buffalo would resign him for about the same amount he made last season, but there has been no news on this front. Even My Safety is Harvard has nothing to report. So what is the deal here? I assume that Michael Ryan will be in the NHL, but he has to sign with a team first to do so.

Platinum Games

The Sabres have added another layer of complexity to their pricing schedule, adding Platinum games to the current Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Value levels. This should actually help fans, as it will result in the prices for Gold games to actually drop a little. The Platinum games are mostly designed to suck the money out of Canadians visiting HSBC, with the four platinum games consist of three matches against Toronto, and a Friday night game against Montreal. I'm not sure why people get excited about Maple Leafs hockey, but I'm glad to see that the Sabres are willing to take their money.

Cunneyworth leaves the Sabres organization

Randy Cunneyworth has long been the coach of the AHL’s Rochester Amerks, but this coming season will instead be working as an assistant in the NHL with the Atlanta Thrashers. While Cunneyworth had always been viewed as a potential candidate for NHL head coaching jobs, it appeared as if he would have rather stayed on as head coach in the AHL. However, the Buffalo Sabres split with Rochester would have uprooted him anyways, so he took the job with Atlanta instead.

His departure will be a huge blow to the Sabres organization. Buffalo has long depened on Cunneyworth to train and prepare their young players on the farm team. His similar coaching style allowed players to easily transition to playing under Lindy Ruff, and to prepare themselves for the NHL. Almost the entire current Buffalo roster played for him in Rochester, and his help was critical to forming the current team.

Hopefully the Sabres current high profile prospects such as Nathan Gerbe, and Tim Kennedy will be able to adapt to Buffalo’s system just as well playing for a different coach in Portland Maine. Kevin Dineen is expected to be offered the coaching job after coaching in Portland for Anaheim the last few seasons. Still it is a huge loss to no longer have Cunneyworth as the mentor for this young team.

Sabres sign Mathieu Darche

Left wing Mathieu Darche has signed a one year, two way contract with the Buffalo Sabres. This is an interesting singing as the Sabres appear to anticipate using Darche mostly as a leader for their AHL team. Yet Darche played 73 games last season with Tampa Bay, and earned 22 points. While not quite an all star, he is an NHL quality player and will be hoping to get some ice time with Buffalo, perhaps even displacing Nathan Gerbe as a call up.

On his side Darche stated that he was mostly attracted to Buffalo, because of coach Lindy Ruff, with who he feels he will be able to earn a good amount of playing time in Buffalo's system. Either way this is nothing more then a temporary depth signing and is nice, but not really a big deal either way.

Miller signs five year extension

Ryan Miller has agreed to a five year contract extension, which will result in him staying in Buffalo for the next six years. The contract is for an average of $6.25 million per season.

This is good as not only do we have the 2008-09 Sabres pretty much set, but the 2009-10 team is pretty much in place now as well. Jason Pominville being the obvious exception there.

At $6.25 million a season, Miller is slightly overpaid, but not too much, so it shouldn't create any problems for the team down the road. The real question mark is the length of the contract. It is a tad bit risky to commit to a single goaltender for the next six years based only on the play of the last three. While Miller is a solid number one right now, there is no guarantee that he will be in the future, so Sabres management is taking a bit of a gamble on that front. Still it could pay off for them.

Sabres Schedule

The NHL's schedules have all been released. After looking over Buffalo's there really isn't too much of interest there. The first game of the season in October 10th against Montreal. There are apparently no home and homes this year, or at least the Sabres are not involved in any. The three wildcard games that Buffalo has are against Detroit, Phoenix, and Anaheim which may be a tad bit difficult, but doesn't appear to be over the top.

Elsewhere, the season is opening in the Check Republic and Sweden, with two games in each country. Also Detroit and Chicago, are taking over the winter classic this season, playing in Wrigley Stadium. Game pricing and the like hasn't been announced yet.

Paille (and MacArthur) resigned

Restricted free agent, Danial Paille has resigned for two more years with the Buffalo Sabres for an average of $1.125 million a season. The Sabres other restricted free agent Clarke MacArthur has also resigned, by accepting a qualifying offer.

With these two signings the Sabres have more or less set their team for next season. The only question remaining at this point is if Numminen will be coming back for another season or not.

The NHL's schedules are released today, more on that tomorrow.

Should Buffalo sign Brendan Shanahan?

The Sabres have not exactly made a name for themselves in the free agent market, but they still have an opportunity to. While the list of available players is getting short, there is one big name that sticks out. Brendan Shanahan.

Obviously Shanahan is no longer the absolute top of the line player that he was in his time with Detroit, but he is still a solid player who can provide leadership and strength on the powerplay. Furthermore he only made $2.5 million last season, so bringing him in wouldn't exactly break the bank either. While the Sabres certainly are not short on forwards, most of Buffalo's players are on the right wing, while Shanahan plays on the left.

Is this a deal that is likely to happen? No, but it would be cool if it did.

Nashville's Portability

A lot of news over the fact that Boots Del Biaggio was partially motivated to buy the Nashville Predators for their Portability Value. Now that a man known as "Boots" (so much so that the legal documents even refer to him as William "Boots" Del Biaggio) who was financially backed by an organization with an empty arena in anther city had an interest in moving the team should come a surprise to no one.

Still looking at the numbers it's hard to say that Nashville is not portable. While they had a pretty good season last year, the team is not making it financially. A team not making it financially is bad for the league as a whole. It's going to become harder, and harder to ignore Jim Balsillie's money and the fact that Canada does love hockey more than Tennessee does. If the New York City area can support three NHL clubs there is no reason to suspect that Toronto would have any trouble at all with two. Furthermore this current mess is going to hurt AEG's standing in the league and reduce the possibility of a new team in Kansas City (which never really looked like a better option then Nashville).

Still the Nashville is still better off then the Florida Panthers, and the Phoenix Coyotes, but the NHL's expansion to non-hockey markets has to come to a decision sooner or later.

Lecavalier under contract until 2020

Vinny Lecavalier has just signed a contract extension to keep him in Tampa Bay through 2020, and most likely the end of his career. While the rate of $7.72 million a season is a bit high, it isn't unreasonable and it appears clear that Lacavalier wants to stay with the organization for some time.

Despite this huge contract, the Lightning have actually been more fiscally responsible, and balanced this season. Tampa Bay still has Martin St. Louis on the team, but have traded away Brad Richards and the overpaid Dan Boyle and are actually in a better position because of it.

What is going on with Bernier?

Steve Bernier has been getting quite the tour of the NHL lately. After playing for a number of years in San Jose, he got traded to Buffalo last spring for Brian Campbell. Most analysts felt that a change of location would do Bernier good, and that Buffalo was a good fit for him. After finishing out the season for the Sabres instead of being resigned as a restricted free agent, he was traded to Vancouver for draft picks. Before he could get a deal done in Vancouver, he signed an offer sheet from the St. Louis Blues, but later had the offer matched by Vancouver.

Either Bernier is the most wanted player in the league, or the least wanted. Still Vancouver at least seems committed to him, and playing on a line with the Sedins should be a good fit for Bernier.

Had Vancouver not matched the deal he signed with the Blues, the team would have only received a second round pick as compensation, which is less then the second, and third rounders that were traded to Buffalo for him in the first place.

His contract is $2.5 million for one year, and while he is a good player, I'm not sure he is worth that. As such I'm glad the Sabres had traded him out for the two draft picks instead of the one we would have received instead. With the mass amount of right wingers that made trading him possible to begin with there is no way that Buffalo would have signed him for more than Gaustad is making.

Buffalo and Bernier both appear to have made out nicely from all of this. However if this is how the restricted free agent market is going, I want Paille signed as soon as possible, and am really glad that Paul Gaustad is not going anywhere anytime soon.

Why I will not be rooting for any team in the West

Cheering for an eastern conference team, leaves you with a lack of knowledge about what is going on out in the western conference. However come playoff time you have to pick a few teams to root from on the other side of the country.

After watching his team get eliminated in seven games after earning three shutouts in the series, I got over the whole no-goal thing, and started rooting for Marty Turco and the Dallas Stars. Given how much they rely on their goaltending they had a decent postseason this year. And then this offseason they sign free agent Sean Avery. It's already hard enough to root for a hockey team in Texas, and with Avery now in the equation I don't think I can do it.

So out west I then have to turn my attention to the Calgary Flames. The Flames have Jerome Iginla as a captain, who is probably the best and most classy player in the league. Given that Kiprusoff and Phaneuf are both likable enough, and being in Canada, the city has no below the frost line reasons to dislike it. Then what does my beloved western conference team do? They sign Todd Bertuzzi. I'll still have a problem rooting against Iginla, but this isn't going to have me rooting for the Flames this season. Even without the whole Moore incident there are plenty of reasons to not like Bertuzzi. It's sad to see a class organization like Calgary go down like this.

Next thing you know the Chicago Blackhawks will be trading hard working Buffalo boy Kevyn Adams to Ottawa in exchange for Chris Neil. Then I really would have no use for any team not in the East.

Craziness in Chicago

The Chicago Blackhawks have not shied away from big money free agents this season, and as a result currently have a bit of an odd roster. The team should be a favorite to make the playoffs next season, but they still need to clean up their roster a bit.

First the did sign former Sabre Brian Campbell. At $7.1 million per year for the next eight years, Chicago entered a contract that was way high on the money side. As good as Campbell is, there is no way to justify spending that much money on just him. The upside for Chicago is that Campbell does fill an actual need. Instead of this being the Blackhawks overpaying just to get someone, they are getting the offensive defenseman that there team needed last season.

Of course they could still end up regretting the decision. The team is currently just shy of being two million over the cap at $58.608 million. Furthermore they still have to resign a few support players such as Buffalo native Kevyn Adams.

Part of their salary cap problems come from the fact that they currently have $12.375 million of cap space tied up in their goaltenders next season. Nikolai Khabibulin who has been Chicago's goalie for awhile now still has one year left in his contract. Meanwhile the team has signed unrestricted free agent Cristobal Huet to a four year deal. Huet had a good year last season playing with both Montreal, and Washington. He is a solid number one goaltender, but Chicago now clearly has a problem, and needs to find a place to move the Bulin-wall to.

Chicago will be a real good team this year, but will have to sign lots of important free agents over the next two seasons with little cap room to work with.

Sabres get trading

The Sabres made two trades today, in the first one giving away Bernier for two draft picks, and in the second landing Craig Rivet from San Jose for two draft picks.

The first trade with Bernier makes perfect sense. While his first game in town went very well, he fell off the radar a bit after than. I think he would have made the top fifteen forwards, but only just barely with Kaleta, MacArthur, and Gerbe all close to pushing him out. If this trade puts Gerbe in the starting lineup, I'll be happy.

The second trade helped fill out our need at Defense by bringing in Craig Rivet from the San Jose Sharks. Rivet still has three more season under his contract, at $3.5 million a year, which seems very reasonable. I think it is safe to assume, that he will be put on the second line with Spacek. While I feel this gives us three solid defensive lines, with Nathan Paetesch as a very capable seven defenseman. Still the Sabres are still in talks with Numminen, and that's not a bad thing at all.

Some big names sign (elsewhere)

First Brooks Orpik signed a six year deal for $3.75 million per season with the Penguins. This is a real deal for Pittsburgh. It would have been nice if he extended his hometown discount to his actual hometown, but its understandable that he wanted to stay in Pittsburgh. The team has Crosby under contract for a number of years, just signed Malkin to a four year extension, and went to the finals last year, and look to be one of the best teams around for a few years to come. While I would have loved for him to come to Buffalo, I'm also not going to rip on him for wanting to stay with the Penguins. In fact choosing to stay with that group for that price is a real class move.

One former Penguin who did jump ship is Marion Hossa who surprisingly signed a single year agreement for $7.4 million. It had widely been speculated that Hossa who was this years most sought after free agent would be looking for a long term deal for around $10 million a year. In fact it is expected that he was actually offered that much in some places, but turned it down to play for Detroit instead. Perhaps every European player just feels required to play for the Red Wings.

I was just starting to like the Marty Turco lead Dallas Stars these past two seasons, overlooking the whole foot in the crease deal in order to root for an awesome goaltender. However the team has gone ahead and signed Sean @#%&-ing Avery for $15.5 million over four years. Why a team would waste that much on a player like that is beyond me. It's times like this when I love Buffalo for doing absolutely nothing...

A new backup goaltender

For all the hype going into the start of free agency, the Sabres only managed to sign a back up goaltender, and while it was something that needed to be done it was less then spectacular. That said we still got a few months till the season starts to make a few more moves.

So we signed Patrick Lalime to a two year, one million a year contract to be the back up to Ryan Miller. I watched a number of Chicago games last year where Lalime got a good number of starts due to injuries to Khabibulin. As such I'm not to confident about Lalime, as whenever he was in net I was always a little more worried, and wondering when Khabibulin would get healthy again. All in all, I guess he looked a little shakey. However taking a more objective approach and just looking at the numbers, Lalime went 16-12-2 despite playing for a team that failed to make the playoffs. As such, perhaps he isn't that bad, and the games I happened to watch were just his off days.

I would have preferred to sign Andrew Raycroft or Curtis Joseph, but they have both already signed elsewhere.

Well the Sabres still have a hole to fill at defense, both Teppo Numminen and Brooks Orpik are still unsigned. However the rumors about Orpik are not good.

Gaustad signs for four more years

Paul Gaustad has avoided restricted free agency by signing a four year, $9.2 million deal. That comes to a yearly cap hit of 2.3 million a year, which is about right. Gaustad was actually grossly underpaid last season making under a million, but a little over two million a year is closer to what he deserves, and doesn't leave the Sabres paying too much for him.

The next player the Sabres now need to focus on is Dan Paille, who is restricted, but has been playing very well.

Free agency starts today at noon, but the Sabres won't be too into it. Speculation has been surrounding Brooks Orpik, but that may or may not happen (although if the money is right I hope it does). Campbell will get to sign for billions, and perhaps the Sabres can pick up a back up goalie (Andrew Raycroft may be signable for a reasonable amount).