Buffalo Sabres

Sabres sign Montador - 2years - $3.1 million

Well, the Sabres did slightly more than I expected the first day of free agency, signing Anaheim/Boston blue-liner Steve Montador. While far from a significant signing, it is a step in the right direction in he does bring additional toughness to the blue-line. Anyone that can crack the physical line-ups of the two clubs he was with last year should help the Sabres.

At the same time, the one UFA the Sabres might have considered bringing back, Jaroslav Spacek, signed with the Montreal Canadiens for 3-years at just under $4 million per.

I have little problem with either of these moves…yet. While Montador is a step down from Spacek, no-one can be thinking of him as a replacement on the offense, though he should provide 20-30 points per season. However, I don’t object to letting Spacek go. Changes need to be made, and I think that he was a disappointment for the money he was making. This, his third season, was the first he really started to contribute consistently. The shake-up needs to start somewhere, and this is as good a place as any.

My thought (or hope) is that Darcy is still trying to deal one of our other defenseman and replace him with someone that can help the power play as well as improve the defense. This may happen though, which makes our defense look like this:
Rivet - Butler
Lydman - Montidor
Tallinder - Sekera
Paetsch / Weber / Myers (Rookie)

This would not be an improvement over last season in my view. The problem is cap space; the Sabres are currently at $48 million with only 17 guys on the payroll. Without shuffling out Tallinder or Lydman, it is unlikely that the money will be available to bring another D-man in. An upgrade for one of those guys would keep me satisfied on the defensive side of the ice. Let’s see what happens over the next couple of weeks…I still expect more changes are on the way.