On Wednesday July 7, the Sabres signed free agent center Rob Niedermayer to a one-year contract worth $1.15 million plus playoff bonuses.
Let's welcome Robbie, shall we?
He was born in Edmonton but grew up in BC
Most famous for being Scott Niedermayer's little brother
He's 35
He won the Stanley Cup with Anaheim in 2007
He once scored 26 goals in a season, but usually hovers in the 10-goals per season range
It seems Edmonton, Pittsburgh, and Buffalo were the three teams who made him offers. Picking Buffalo over Edmonton is understandable, but picking Buffalo over Pittsburgh is surprising. Turns out Robbie has a history with Lindy when he played in Florida and Lindy was an assistant coach. I like it.
Let's welcome Rob to town.
Yes, we're paying Rob in orange slices, tasty, tasty orange slices.
In 2009 I did a liveblog of the opening of free agency. It was a lot of fun at the time, and re-reading it was fun a few months later. So I'm gonna do it again if you're so inclined to check in or drop a comment.
11:06 Back from job interview. Went well. Hate job interviews. The person doing the interviewing knows exactly what you're interviewing for and your understanding is usually somewhat vague. Whatevs, it went okay and this guy was 1,000x more pleasant than the douche who interviewed me on Monday. Now I'm hungry.
11:09 I figure something has to happen today or soon. We're losing Lydman and Tallinder and the defensemen free agents are somewhat appealing today. Gonchar, Martin, and Kaberle (oh wait, he's not a free agent, but he is up for grabs) just to name a few. I'm still hungry, and we have $14 million in cap space? Really? Sweet.
12:00 Let the madness begin!
12:01 Marty Biron signs with the Rangers?! :( :(
12:02 Per Darren Dreger, Marty goes to the Rangers for two years at just under 900k per season. :(
12:03 Also from Dreger, Danny Paille signs with Boston in a two-year $2.15 million deal.
12:06 Never got anything to eat. Talking to my sister on the phone. Now I'm going to take the laptop downstairs. I expect 57 signings between now and then.
12:14 I loooves me some Danny Paille but that's a lot of $$$ for him. Also, there were no signings between leaving my bedroom, starting lunch, and now.
12:18 Looks like Gonchar to Ottawa 3 years, $5.5 million per with a NTC.
12:27 In "Meh?" news Alex Tanguay to Calgary for 1 year and the Flyers re-sign Coburn. Whoop-dee-doo!
12:31 GareBear is on NHL Live and sounds like he has a cold. I'm sick of hearing him talk about the same things. Now we're on shootouts. Yawn.
12:34 Mahc Sahvahd is likely being traded today. It's being tossed around Regehr for Savard but it's being reported that Savard won't have his NTC to play in Western Canada... because he wants to come to Buffalo. Right? :D
12:48 Re-signings can be boring, like this one. Alex Steen signs an extension with St. Louis for 4 years. Whatevs. I like the Blues. Mostly because of David Backes, so whatevs.
1:02 Marty St. Louis signs a 4-year extension in Tampa Bay.
1:04 Paul Martin to Pittsburgh? Okay, I guess.
1:11 Now Zbynek Michalek to Pittsburgh as well.
1:13 Never ind about the Paulie Martin to Pittsburgh. That was an incorrectly reported trade. Eric Belanger is on NHL Live. He's cute, I'm not sure if we could use him, but at least he's pretty. Darcy?
1:18 Michalek to Pittsburgh is 5 years for $20 million. I'm not hopeful that Martin would come to Buffalo but it makes me feel better that it's still possible.
1:29 Alex Auld to Montreal for 1 year. Not really a huge deal to fix their situation, to be honest. That's a Darcy-esque signing.
1:35 A little piece of us all dies as Colby Armstrong signs with the Leafs for 3 years and $3 million per. :( Also, Niittymaki signs with the Sharks. Yikes, San Jose's goaltending isn't looking to snazzy.
1:39 I just shrieked and gasped. Sean O'Donnell signed with the Flyers :( I'm as bummed as I was when Sissy went to Montreal. :(
1:48 I'm so bummed out about O'Donnell and Armstrong. I figured O'D was going to stay in LA and Army would be back in Pittsburgh :(
1:50 Manny Malhotra to the Canucks. I suppose he'll do. He and Ballard can ATTEMPT to make up for the pretty lost when Big Bear left BC.
2:00 Derek Morris stays in Phoenix for 4 year, $11 million deal.
2:24 A little late on this because I was giving my dog a bath, but Jody Shelley to Philly (WOW, REALLY?) and someone named Crabb to the Maple Leafs.
2:25 Dan Ellis to Tampa Bay. Good place for him, he can play a lot more than he would in a lot of other cities.
2:29 Okay, now Paul Martin IS a Pittsburgh Penguin. I just tweeted this but I could see Andy Sutton as a Lydman replacement. Blocks a lot of shots and hits quite a bit.
2:38 Derek Boogaard to the Rangers. Wa-hoo. Life-changing signing, really.
2:47 Paul Martin got the elusive 5-for-25 deal. I jokingly tweeted about him getting that earlier, haha. Oh Paulie.
3:01 Toni Lydman to Anaheim. Although it was reported that Tony Lydman was signed there but I'm going to assume they meant Toni.
3:03 Lydman gets $9 million over 3 years in Anaheim. I hope he and Greener have fun pummeling each other into the boards.
3:15 Ray Whitney signs in Phoenix for 2 years, $3 million per. No chance was he coming to Buffalo, I'm not sure why people were pumping that rumor. He's made no secret that he wouldn't want to come here based on what some writers have said about conversations with him.
6:25 I went to see a movie. Whoops. I missed a few things, it seems.
6:27 The Sabres signed Jordan Leopold, Adam Burish to Dallas, Andrew Ladd traded to Atlanta, Chris Mason signs with Atlanta, Dan Hamhuis to Vancouver, Saku Koivu stays in Anaheim, Jeff Tambellini to Vancouver, Tallinder and Volchenkov to New Jersey, Kurtis Foster to Edmonton, and that about covers what I missed since Whitney signed in Phoenix.
6:31 Matt Cullen signs with the Wild.
6:38 Olli Jokinen back to the Flames, because that worked really well the first time... and Vinny Prospal stays with the Rangers.
6:39 Andrew Raycroft signs a 2-year deal with the Stars.
7:02 Edmonton agrees to terms with Collin Fraser who they traded for a few days ago. 2 years.
7:36 We've got 10 minutes until Darcy makes some random announcement. Probably that everyone but Jordan Leopold was too expensive and they might make a trade later.
7:59 Eric Nystrom signs with Minnesota for 3 years, $1.4 million per
Darcy Regier actually signed someone on July 1! Someone actually chose to sign in Buffalo! What a novel concept!
Anyway, his name is Steve Montador and here's what we know about him:
Born December 21, 1979 in Vancouver, BC
Plays Defense
Not drafted, signed as a free agent with Calgary in 2000
Has played with Calgary, Florida, Anaheim and Boston
He's a right-handed shot which is handy to have back on the blueline
He's played in 368 NHL games over the last nine years and has scored 18 goals and 50 assits, plus a whopping 604 PIM
He seems like Craig Rivet pt. deux. I don't mean that as a criticism, its a good thing as far as I'm concerned. He's gritty and tough
Played in the OHL with North Bay, Erie and Peterborough
He played the same two years in Erie that Timmy played there.
I hear he's also quite Timmy-like with his off-ice, um, business.
His girlfriend board is boring and people just seem to whining and saying he'll play well in Buffalo. Boring
He's involved with Right to Play and in Summer 2007 took a trip to Tanzania with (then future, now former) teammate Andrew Ference. Here are some pictures:
Andrew and Steve attract the ladies 'round the globe
The Full Monty talks strategy
Team Yellow
Awww, smiles all around
Now is the birth of the Steve Montador tag and his official christening as the Full Monty. I'm sure I'm not the first person to call him this.
I'm a few days late with my welcoming but whatevs. Welcome Aboard, Steve!
The Sabres didn't do anything, neither did the Canucks. Fortunately, the Pens and Kings stepped up to the plate and made a move that really doesn't make a whole lot of difference to me.
Former Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Rob Scuderi signed a four-year deal to play with the Los Angeles Kings. For me, this move was lateral. He moves from my #2 Eastern team to one of my two favorite Western teams. He'll be a great partner for Doughty or Johnson. Give them space to make the strong first pass to the forwards, and park it in front of the net. He and Greener play a similar game.
The Piece comes to the City of Angels
Other than that, nothing else seems to have happened today as far as my four teams are concerned. Jason LaBarbera signed with Phoenix late at night on the first. Not sure who the Canucks back-up will be next season, maybe Schnieder? I'm not sure if I want him just parking it on the bench, though.
Mike Komisarek went to Toronto. He and Luke Schenn would be one terrifying shut-down pair. They're both quite large, foxy, gentlemen.
No word on Staffy and his contract, Kris Versteeg and his contract or what other moves the Sabres are going to make. Whatevs. I hope that Darcy is trying his darndest to move Yoyo and Hank. Get those boys outta here. Also, what's up with Max?
We're approaching the one year anniversary of Big Bear leaving me for Vancouver and Craigory coming to us from San Jose.
Woooooooo. That also means my birthday is fast approaching because Darcy gave me the worst birthday present ever by trading Steven away ON MY BIRTHDAY.
No big bad deals had better happen on Saturday or I'll be QUITE put-out.
So on Trade Deadline Day, I kept a blog post going that I continually updated.
So far, all that's happened today is I decided to eat Special K for breakfast. The make-up of the entire NorthEast division is shaken.
Well, Gomez and Higgins swapped places yesterday along with some AHL type players and Bouwmeester signed in Calgary for five years. There was a deal in place to send Heatley to Edmonton, yet for some reason he said 'No' and will not waive his no-trade clause for it. What a douche.
10:15 am: opted for Cheerios instead of Special K. Story developing...
10:48: Drinking coffee out of my Mom's "I love My Cocker Spaniel" travel mug. In case I need to go somewhere and take my coffee with me...
10:55: Discovered I am drinking out of the wrong whole in the top of the travel mug. Situation has been remedied. No wonder it was taking so long to drink.
11:25: Danrick and Heniel Sedin sign identical 5 year contracts worth $6.1 million per year. Yay!!
12:00: It's nooooooon! Wooooooo!!!!
12:01: What do you MEAN, nothing's happened yet?!
12:10: Oh no, I have to pee. I can't tear myself away. Too much coffee.
12:15: Mattias Ohlund signs with Tampa Bay. Alix will be devastated. I'm sad :(
12:35: The first caller question they take on NHL Live is about the Sabres. Like most people EJ thinks they won't do much today. He mentioned Sissy testing the market and my heart broke a little :(
12:48: Radek Dvorak re-signs in Florida. My world is completely turned on its head.
1:00: Kovalev staying in Montreal? Komisarek heading home to the Islanders? All rumors kicking around Twitter.
1:14: Colton Orr signed by Maple Leafs 4 years/4 million. $1 million/year Word?
1:17: The less cool defenseman in the NHL named Greene (Andy) re-signs with the Devils. Good.
1:23: Caller on NHL Live mentions that the Islanders are struggling to meet the cap FLOOR. And they've got Tavares hype, Chelios has said he'd play there, Komisarek could get a big salary from them. Things look good for the Islanders these days. Clearly they didn't get this way by over spending.
1:36 Kovalev officially re-signs with Montreal. Two years for about $8.8 million.
1:41: David Booth signs 6 year contract extension with the Panthers.
1:45: Maybe Kovalev didn't sign? Lots of conflicting reports. Pierre Lebrun told EJ Hradek that Kovalev's agent said no deal has been reached.
1:52: Craig Anderson going to Colorado. Really securing those top goalies, aren't we, Avs? I think I'm the only one who doesn't think this is an answer. Darren Pang agrees, thank goodness.
2:06:Hossa officially a Blackhawk. Ugh. Its a lot of years. Matt Walker signs with Tampa from Chicago for 4 years.
2:11: Hossa signs for TWELVE YEARS but only $5.2 million a year. Ty Conklin signs with St. Louis for two years.
2:24: Dwayne Roloson signs with the Islanders. Excellent signing in my opinion. If the Islanders sign Komisarek and Tavares can play the way people hope he can, things are looking better for the Islanders next season.
2:31: Are you all sitting down? No, really, you'll want to sit down for this. THE BUFFALO SABRES MIGHT HAVE ACTUALLY SIGNED SOMEONE I'VE HEARD OF TODAY. I know! I don't believe it either. Steve Montador is apparently a Sabre. I'm not sure about this. It's not confirmed.
2:32: Sabres texts were on the ball. Its official. Two years of the Full Monty in Buffalo.
2:42: Apparently MJ says the Full Monty has off-ice antics like Timmy. Yessss!!! As long as he's not as injury prone, I'm ok with it.
2:51: Donald Brashear goes to New York. Fills in the hole left by Colton "I ain't Bobby" Orr.
2:54: Knuble signs with the Capitals. Also, I missed that Thomas Kopecky signed with Chicago.
3:08: Scott Niedermayer signs with Anaheim for 1 year $6million. I guess that means he won't retire in August.
3:15: Joel Ward stays in Nashville, Aaron Rome signs with Vancouver and Lucas Krajicek stays with Tamps. Ho-kay.
3:24: Quote from Sabres Edge, from Montador's agent makes me feel fine about his signing. I wasn't against it, but I'm really really appreciating the commitment Darcy has made to signing physically tough, no-quit players:
"He’s a solid, character individual who comes to play every night," Montador’s agent, Steve Kasper, said by phone. "He was looking to go to a place that has the same type of reputation as a team, competes hard, and Buffalo is a hockey city. He couldn’t be happier."
3:30: Brian Boucher is signed to back-up Ray Emery in Philly. He was in net for this goal, btw:
Ha.
3:51: My beloved Sissy has apparently signed with Montreal for 3 years. I'm devastated. OUR OWN DIVISON, TOO?!?!?
3:55: MONTREAL? REALLY? COME ON! There's no WAY they'll appreciate his caveman-like appearance and startlingly blunt interview style up there! Whyyyyy?!?!?!
4:00: Khabibuln to Emdonton. SISSY USED TO PLAY FOR EDMONTON!!
4:02: Ok, well I have to get ready for work, so this "Live Blog" will end on an extremely sour note. :( Habs fans, take care of Sissy.
While most of you consider today to be a mostly meaningless holiday, right up there with Labor Day and Veteran's Day, I consider this day to be the most important of all holidays. Its magnitude is EPIC, you just might not know yet why.
Why? Do I have some freakish patriotism? Am I president of the Thomas Jefferson fan club?
No.
Because today is my BIRTHDAY!! YAY!!! I'm not one to generally go ape over my birthday, but it needed to be brought up to illustrate a point:
Dear Darcy Regier,
Hey, it's Anne. I know we've never met, but we've been a part of each others lives for a long time now. Whether or not you realize it, you and I are in a long-term committed relationship. Therefore, it seems only fitting that you, Mr. Regier, and your lackey, Larry Quinn should feel OBLIGATED to get me, lowly fan Anne (hey that rhymes!) a present for this, my incredibly significant 23rd birthday. What would I like? Funny you should ask...
Well, Moms and Pops already got me the newly released DVD version of The Sword in the Stone and a New York and Company gift card. So those are checked off the list.
Let's seeee, what else is left.... oh yeah!
BIG BEAR is 23!! Sign him!!
Aaaand Pie-YAY was 23 when me made this masterful facial expression.
Therefore, Darcy, it seems only right that on this 4th of July, this day of American independence, this, my 23rd birthday, I should receive from YOU, a Canadian, 2 Canadian players to hold tight to my heart for multiple years to come.
Also, our country was founded in Philadelphia... therefore it seems that, as Philly took our Captain last summer, we should take their's in 2008:
Jason Smith was a finalist for one of our dreamboatiest defensemen in the East
Also, his nick name is "Gator" that's totally awesome. I love animal nick names. BIG BEAR!
Anyway Darcy, I don't think my birthday wishlist will TOTALLY break the bank, so if you could do something for me, I'd appreciate it! Thanks! You're the best!
Today, the New York Rangers signed Dmitri Kalinin to a one year contract. Awwww, bye bye, Dmitri!
The Rangers also signed Markus Naslund, most likely to replace the leadership role vacated by Jagr. Eep. That was surprising. I can't imagine Canucks fans are going to be too happy about that one. Hmmmm, losing an important leader on the team to the New York Rangers via free agency... a tune that Sabres fans know all too well.
I'm done with screaming for my defenseman. I'm spent.
So we'll be trading for our newest blue-liner, it appears. That, to me, is more exciting than an obscene signing.
MAYBE MY WEEK AND A HALF LONG DREAM OF SIGNING MIKE GREEN CAN COME TRUE!
So, Greener's getting 5.25/ season? Hmmm, that's a lot. BUT if we dump Max's salary... that's only an additional like 1.75 next season. After that, it might become more of a concern. Ha, just to confirm Max's salary was $3.5, I checked some website that's all screwed up that says everyone is a UFA and the only player signed is Sissy. Hahaha. We're gonna need more than just one defenseman, Darcy!!
If we dump 2 of our excess of forwards, that frees up even more space. A lot of people are saying Kotalik might be on the trade block, but I don't want to dump him, he's size and powerplay goals and we need size and powerplay goals. I would be lovely if he scored a few more EQ goals, but hey, we'll take what we can get. He's also one of our most consistent shooters in the shoot out (sad, I know). I could see packaging a smaller player like MacArthur (sorry, Grizz) and Afinogenov and shipping them for a solid defenseman.
On Sabres Edge, John Vogl suggested trading Max for Jay McKee. As deep as my love for JKee runs, I don't think that's the right move. Not at his current price and level of injury prone-ness. We already have a near-paraplegic in TimmyHO, I don't think we need another.
COME ON! We've seen that we don't have the defensemen in the minors to fill in the (at least) 1 or 2 spots we have vacant. We've definitely got Toni, Hank the Tank, Sissy and Patches. We might still have Teppo and Pratters. Sekera will most likely be making the leap. Ok. That would give us more than enough bodies to throw on the ice. HOWEVER! We need at least 1 more strong veteran that will be around for a few years to (probably) partner with Sissy.
I secretly thought we might get Ron Hainsey from Columbus because I read about him in passing the other day and he's just the kind of obscure signing that Darcy likes to do. However, not so much. According to WGR's conversation with Hainsey's agent, the Sabres haven't expressed any interest in signing him.
According to Darcy, we're also all but out of the running for signing Orpik. BOOOOOOOOOOO!!! I know, I know, trades are still possible, but I WANT MY DEFENSEMAN NOWWWWW!!!
ALSO: Where my Paille at? Big Bear? Grizz? TEPPO?!?!?
You know what else is not a wondrous thing to start your day with? Well I'll tell you:
So I went to Timmy Ho's (no, the coffee place, I'm not having an affair with Tim Connolly) to get myself an iced coffee and a muffin. Delish. The guy who took my order was clearly not a native born American or even North American citizen. So, to cut the guy a break, which his co-worker was not, I spoke slowly and made sure I didn't rush my order. I was all pumped for my tasty breakfast, my iced coffee was perfecto, and I took my first bite of my wheat and carrot (don't judge my awful taste in muffins) muffin when, blech, barf GROSS it was NOT a Wheat and Carrot Muffin but that abomination to all muffinkind: a Fruit Explosion muffin.
For those who might not know Timmy Ho's GROSS muffin choices, a Fruit Explosion muffin is basically a raspberry flavored jelly-filled blueberry/cranberry muffin. The same stuff they fill the donuts with. To some people? Genius, brilliant, they can't get enough of that jelly. However, I am not one of those people. I enjoy this raspberry jelly when mixed in with my Breakaway Berrier, but that was a fluke, a rare happening, a potentially gross flavor masked by my love for both Ryan Miller and chunks of dark chocolate in my ice cream.
There are very foods in the world that grosses me out more than jelly-filled donuts or muffins. Really I can't think of any food off the top of my head that makes me gag more. NOT a pleasant way to start the day. I thought of one. I get really grossed out when I hold a peeled avocado. What a GROSS texture.
Anyway, it was not a good way to start the morning.
Dev Camp is over, I hopes it went well for da boys. There's a nice feature on SabresTV about a day at Dev Camp including a hysterical bit about them working on their skating skills set to awesome ice capades style music. Featuring my latest frenemy, Nathan Gerbe and some ring around the rosy style team skating.
There's lots of Lindy talking to the players, and a great conversation between him and Tyler Ennis. I'm no longer posting SabresTV segments on here, because on PCs they eat the screen and COMMAND your attention. Not on Macs though for some reason.
HOPEFULLY OUR NEXT UPDATE WILL BE TO PROFESS MY UNDYING LOVE FOR OUR NEW TOP 4 DEFENSEMAN!! WOOOOOOO!!!!
I consider the trade deadline the hockey fan's Christmas. Mostly because it's all day long and you could hear about a trade at like 8:00 a.m. in Anaheim. Since free agent day coincides almost directly with my birthday, I consider free agency day to be the hockey fan's birthday.
Last year, I avoided the whole Briere/Drury debacle by being in Italy on July 1 and Spain on my actual birthday (July 4). So, as I am on American soil this free agency day, I consider it to be quite fortuitous for our boys in blue and gold.
We've locked down Goose who's totally excited to still be here, almost as excited as I was when I read the news on TSN. There was jumping up and down and squealing. Ahhhh female sports fans, we have our own unique way of celebrating. It's roughly the same way I celebrated when I found out a friend of mine was pregnant, actually. WOOO! MORE RANDOM BAR AND GROCERY STORE ENCOUNTERS FOR ME AND THE GOOSE. Cuz, honestly, where else do people aged 23-26 gather other than bars, grocery stores and work? Ok, creepily enough I might soon start working at the Arena. Maybe I should start shopping at Tops...
Anyhoot, I love delving into "anayltics" sometimes:
To the person who found this blog by searching for "man buds" umm, welcome? I'm not sure what "man buds" are, but I hope we were able to aid you in your quest.
What's up creepers who searched for "Drew Stafford is mine" and found this blog? Does that then make him MINE if it's on this blog somewhere? I don't recall ever typing these words except in perhaps: "Brian Campbell is S(h)ara's favorite Sabre, Drew Stafford is mine" Well I mean, hey, I think Staffy's pretty B-A but that doesn't make him MINE. Besides S(h)ara and I were young and foolish and have new favorite Sabres now. Although the race is back on next season, boys.
"Andrew Peters girlfriend 2008" is that like NHL 2k8? Do you go on virtual dates with Petey and have to pass hockey-player-girlfriend related tasks?
Why is "Thomas Vanek" our top player name hit? Mad love for ya, SabreBritney, but I don't think I talk about you all that often. Although, for a hot minute his play in the World Championships was the only hockey related/ Sabres related thing I had to talk about, maybe that's why.
"'what a guy' orphans blind" I'd love to know what this person's ultimate goal was in using these search terms.
Anyway, I have class from 1:30-4:30 today and then I have to take the bus home so I will miss the most exciting hours of free agency. I don't want to talk about it. BOOOOOOOO. I'll have to wait til I get home to find out the good stuff. I'll be able to pay attention to the first hour, and hopefully that's when the most exciting Sabres-related or most exciting non-Sabres-related deals go down. WOOOO!
Almost all pictures are borrowed from other sources. If they're yours and you don't want me to use them, just shoot me an email and I'll take them down.
The Los Angeles Kings logo and Buffalo Sabres logo used in the title bar are registered trademarks of the National Hockey League; no copyright infringement is intended. If anyone is offended by anything I've written, get over it, it's a personal blog, not an accredited news source.
anniebeeswax [at] gmail [dot] com
Glossary... Sort of
"Ryan Miller Shutout" - A 58 minute, multi-goal shutout lead that is blown when Miller allows one meaningless goal
Britney or SabreBritney - Thomas Vanek
Butter Snaps - Carolina Hurricanes. Because Butter Snap pretzels, like the Carolina Hurricanes, are disgusting
Greener - MATT Greene (LAK)
JBG - Jolly Blonde Giant - Tyler Myers
Little Foot - Drew Stafford
MK - Anne's sister; often leaves nonsensical comments under her Twitter name Mmmkizzle
