There are a number of ways I could've cleverly-titled this column, variations on themes of defense, red hair and soup, but "Sign Brian Campbell" was the choice for a reason.

It's a no-brainer.

There's been discussion on our airwaves about how much Campbell will fetch in the off-season — likely a king's ransom — and arguments about where to throw your money in the "New NHL that closely resembles the old NHL," or NNHLTCRTONHL, for short.

The more you look at numbers, the more it makes sense to pay the man. Performance-wise, there aren't many times fans are watching a replay of an opponent's goal, wondering "What was Campbell thinking?" His offensive gifts are many, the physical play is there, and he eats minutes like the league's best.

Now, after shelling out crazy cash to Thomas Vanek and Derek Roy, and with Ryan Miller's contract on the horizon, it's okay to be a little hesitant to pay Campbell as one of your team's best, but let me walk you through an argument for re-signing the 28-year-old.

First off, he's becoming the most complete defenseman on the team, better offensively than Henrik Tallinder and Toni Lydman, and a shade better than Jaroslav Spacek in his own end. The numbers don't lie, either:

— His 49 points led Sabres blue-liners, and ranked 18th in the NHL in 2006-07, near young stud defenders like Calgary's Dion Phaneuf and Colorado's John-Michael Liles.

—His 16 points to-date this season rank 8th amongst NHL d-men, despite the Sabres spending a good portion of the early season trying to remember what it felt like to see a red light behind the other team's net.

— He's missed three games in three years, kills penalties and mans the point on a power play unit.

—His 25:07 in average ice time is 13th in the NHL.

— Campbell's recorded 13 points in 34 playoff games, which isn't too far off his production in the more wide-open regular season.

— Calling a guy "Soup" is fun, and the spin-o-rama move is pretty cool.

Of the regular defensemen, only Dmitri Kalinin and Nathan Paetsch are younger than Campbell, although "Soup" is only older than Henrik Tallinder by approximately four months. His 28 years appear to fall right in the wheel house of being able to relate to the new guys and hold weight with the veterans.

If you're asking if I think he should be captain, the answer is yes.

Then, there's the money issue, and there'll be plenty of hemming and hawing. Is he worth three-, four-, or five million per year? Is he more of an Andrei Markov or a Brian Rafalski? Well, how about you check out this list of defensemen and their salaries, and tell me you'd sign them over Campbell:

Paul Mara, NYR, $3 million
Brendan Witt, NYI, $2.8 million
Nick Boynton, PHX, $2.95 million
Brad Stuart, LA, $3.5 million
Sergei Zubov, DAL, $4 million
Mattias Ohlund, VAN, $3.5 million
Cory Sarich, CGY, $3.9 million

Those are all guys in the $4 million range, and several signed last year, in the "New NHL." Campbell is almost certainly a better asset than anyone on the list, and Sarich and Stuart were guys I advocated as Sabres last summer.

Is he Wade Redden, at $6.5 per year, or Chris Pronger at $6.25 million? No. In an ideal world, he should be more in the $3.5 million, Chris Phillips range, but this is also a league in which 475-year-old Mathieu Schneider is making $5.5 million, and still pretty productive. Market value is skewed beyond belief, and Phillips would make a lot more money somewhere else.

Someone is going to pay the man in the $4 to $4.5 million range, and I hope it's Darcy Regier and Tom Golisano. If necessary, I'd be willing go even higher, but I would hope that's unnecessary. Each assist, and minute logged on the ice is another step closer to unrestricted free agency.

A guy like Campbell may be missed more than a Daniel Briere, and while I wouldn't go quite as far as to say Chris Drury, he's getting there. The question you have to ask yourself is does the name "Brian Campbell" fit in your mind as a core-member of the Sabres, with names like Vanek, Roy, Hecht and Miller? All signs point to "Yes."

In summation, I'm only charging 1 percent, Soup. I'll give a lot of it to charity.

E-mail: nick@wgr550.com