Looking Within

The free agency period can be either the best or the worst time to be a hockey fan, or, indeed, a fan of any sport. On the one hand, there's the chance your team will wheel and deal and surprise everyone with their managerial acumen, snatching a prize free agent from the jaws of a rival or convincing a player who could easily be a key part of your side to sign for much less than he's worth. On the other hand, there's the chance your team could panic, be sluggish or get out of the blocks late, missing out on the prizes and paying excessive amounts to players worth a fraction of the cost. The trick, of course, is picking out which is which. So ahead of free agency, what do we have in Buffalo?

For one thing, an overpaid goaltender. It's no secret that Vesa Toskala's contract has been the worst move of Jay Byers' short tenure - while he attempted to justify it by explaining that Ryan Miller having a stable backup was vital if he wanted to keep playing 65+ games a season, there is no team that could possibly benefit from having their backup be paid almost twice as much money as their starter for less than 25% of the games. As if this weren't bad enough, the signing of Jay McClement and the resigning of Keith Ballard, among others, put Buffalo close enough to the cap anyway without Toskala's influence. If he can't find another team so desperate for a goaltender to take his cap hit, it's expected the Finn will be waived and left to play out his career in the minor leagues - an inauspicious end to his time in the ITC.

Aside from him, there are rumours of some other high earners leaving, although this time in trades. The recently-signed Jay McClement, who spent all of last season coaching the Bramption Battalion - his junior team - as an unsigned restricted free agent, has been targeted by Florida, who acquired Carl Soderberg from the Sabres not long ago; likewise, Pierre-Marc Bouchard has been the subject of inquiries from teams all across the nation. Aside from them, nobody is expected to leave except for Mathieu Dandenault, whose team option was declined; the acquisition of yet another ex-Panther, Michael Ryder, made him surplus to requirements.

Surprisingly for a team with their record, there are two positions where everything is seen as satisfactory. With the trading of Jochen Hecht, there may only be three left wingers but they ARE of great quality - Rick Nash, Sid Sorensen and Robert Nilsson, if you needed to be reminded; similarly, the defensive corps have both experience and youth on their side, and while the combination is untested, it is hard to see how it could be worse than last year.