-- The Sabres got Steve Montador, a steady-enough defenseman who won't make a ton of mistakes and has offensive upside. He gets angry and fights a lot of guys, usually losing. Montador isn't exceptionally large -- 6'0", 210 pounds -- and will be 30 around Christmas.

He's on his fifth team in five seasons, but his last two years have found him coming into his "own," whatever that means -- 12 goals, 32 assists, plus-18 rating, 216 penalty minutes. Montador has been to the playoffs twice, competing in the Flames' losing Cup run in 2003-04 and with the Bruins last season.

It's a good signing, perhaps you'd call him a lower middle class man's Craig Rivet, but I've got a hunch there are 1-2 signings coming up. In hockey circles -- doing radio interviews and talking to folks -- you hear a lot of rumours and such, and the ones that have stuck with me run contrary to preconceptions on the Sabres. I wouldn't be shocked to see a good center (Saku Koivu) and a defenseman with upside (Francis Bouillon, Francois Beauchemin) in town. You could also substitute the "helpful old guy" move that's been popular in recent years (Mathieu Schneider, Todd Marchant, P.J. Axelsson).

During Wednesday's press conference, Regier made the point that the better trades will happen once free agency settles in a bit more, which makes sense for trading, but also hints that they could make a decent signing now and dump some payroll later. Regier disavowed the notion that the Sabres could buy-out a player and send him to the minors.

One thing's for sure, the team's depth chart right now likely won't cut much more than a first-round figure which, sadly, would be an improvement.

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Eastern Conference teams:

Folks who want to tell you Montreal didn't get that much better are trying too hard. Brian Gionta and Mike Cammalleri are terrific signings, and picking up Scott Gomez for the rights to Chris Higgins isn't bad at all. Add those forwards to Tomas Plekanec, the Kostitsyns, Maxim Lapierre and Guillame Latendresse, and Habs fans have to be thinking Montreal has done a lot to address the flame-out of a talented team. Their new defensive corps starts with Andrei Markov, Jaroslav Spacek, Roman Hamrlik, Josh Gorges and Hal Gill. That's alright.

I do not get $4.5 per year for Mike Komisarek, Toronto. Honestly, he's two years younger, but his numbers don't look as good as even, say, Montador. Yes, he's big, and tough, but $22.5 million is a lot of money. His Montreal-fan-ballot-box-jammed All-Star appearance and status as a 2001 first-round pick must be worth their weight in currency, because I don't get it -- again, for that money.

I'd say I like what Tampa Bay did, but I liked what they did last year and look where it got them. Good looks to re-up with Lukas Krajicek, and Mattias Ohlund should help Victor Hedmun learn the game. The Lightning were so thin on the blue line that they had to call up WNYer Kevin Quick way before they wanted to, so the signing of Blackhawks blueliner Matt Walker is a nice one as well.

Pittsburgh lost Hal Gill and signed Michael Rupp, but their action was inking Alex Goligoski and Bill Guerin in the last couple weeks. They'll sign a couple more, and the big question will be whether they can come up with the funds to sign Rob Scuderi, or if he's jammed video footage of his Cup-saving saves to every GM in the league who might overpay him.

The Flyers lost Mike Knuble, which is rough, but they couldn't afford to bring him back. Before the draft, Philadelphia traded for Chris Pronger in a deal that makes them better this year, but I don't love it. Ian Laperriere at just over one million dollars a year is a real nice "under-the-table" deal. I wish his sloppy looking nose was in Buffalo.

Ottawa is losing. They re-signed Chris Neil, and crybaby Dany Heatley must look even more attractive to teams after demanding a trade and then turning one to Edmonton down. Now, I'd officially trade much less for him.

If the Rangers can sign RFA Chris Higgins in addition to whomever else they use their freed Gomez money on, you can consider this offseason a win. Oft-injured Marian Gaborik got a lot of money from New York, and if he can somehow play more than 60 games in a year, is an almost surefire bet for 40 goals. In the last three years, he's scored 85 goals in just 142 games. All that in Minnesota, where Jacques Lemaire mandated you play at least one period of every game incased in cement inside the neutral zone. Yeah, he's not there anymore.

Does drafting two goaltenders in the first three rounds and inking Dwayne Roloson say that Rick DiPietro's injury is career-threatening? The Islanders are several years away, though I bet they eventually re-up, in a sense, with Mike Comrie.

New Jersey's re-signing of defensemen Johnny Oduya and Andy Greene works, but losing Gionta will be a tough one to stomach. I would've liked to see John Madden in Buffalo, but his loss won't mean much to the Devils.

Florida's big deal was keeping David Booth around for a while, but all they did on Day One was swap out Craig Anderson for Scott Clemmensen. I can hardly contain myself.

Knuble's signing is a nice one for Washington to be sure, who are already better if Simeon Varlamov isn't a one-playoff wonder.

Erik Cole's back in Carolina for two years at $2.9 million per season. They also kept Jussi Jokinen. Boston and Atlanta did similar bouts of re-signing.

See ya later: nick@wgr550.com