It’s been more of the same from the Buffalo Sabres so far this offseason.  A few bodies lost, a few medium to-low-impact signings and a lot of quotes from the powers that be about how they like where they stand and filling holes from within is the right route to go.

Unfortunately for fans, that’s not what they desire to hear after a rebound season for the team ended with an embarrassing six-game loss to the Boston Bruins in the first round.  While the team showed vast improvement over the year before and won themselves a division title, their shortcomings were heavily exposed against a more physically dominant Boston squad that rendered the majority of Buffalo’s skilled players as useless.

Here’s what’s happened so far this offseason:

• Henrik Tallinder and Toni Lydman signed with the New Jersey Devils and Anaheim Ducks respectively for moderate raises.
• The Sabres signed Jordan Leopold to a three year, nine million dollar contract in between Lydman and Tallinder signing elsewhere.
• The Sabres re-signed Cody McCormick to a one-way, one year deal for 500k.
• The Sabres signed Rob Niedermayer to a one year contract at just over one million dollars.
• The Sabres re-signed backup goaltender Patrick Lalime.
• Patrick Kaleta re-signed with the Sabres on a two year contract worth over 900k per season, avoiding the team-elected arbitration date.
• Tim Kennedy’s player-elected arbitration award is pending as I write this.
• Darcy Regier admitted to heavily pursuing two other players who signed elsewhere.  These two players have all been confirmed to be Saku Koivu and Matt Cullen, who signed in Anaheim and Minnesota respectively.

First off is the good news.  I don’t hate any move Regier has made so far.  Leopold is solid defensively, capable of logging minutes (led a solid Panthers defense corps in even strength and shorthanded ice time) and better offensively than either Tallinder or Lydman.  McCormick was dynamite in the playoffs and toughens up a Sabres’ forward corps far too reliant on Kaleta and Gaustad as fireplugs.  Niedermayer is a solid veteran presence, drastically improves the Sabres’ center depth and adds another strong penalty killing forward to a PK unit that’s already top three in the league.  Lalime is a great locker-room guy who was involved in two of the team’s biggest wins last season.  Kaleta is a fan favorite for his hitting and his overall game has improved each year he’s been in the league.  Kennedy had to go to arbitration to get his $1-million award, but at the end of the day another scrappy youngster was retained up front.

Unfortunately, as much as I like what Regier has done individually, in the grand scheme of things, the team hasn’t turned from pretender to contender.

First off there’s the defense.  Leopold is an adequate replacement for one of Tallinder or Lydman but Regier has left the responsibility of either going up against top competition at even strength or anchoring the second defense pairing to the Sabres’ stable of young defenseman.  This would be all well and good if one of Andrej Sekera, Chris Butler and Mike Weber put together a consistent season last year.  Weber looked great in the AHL but never actually got a chance to show his stuff at the NHL level last season due to Buffalo’s defensive depth while neither Sekera nor Butler were good enough to stay on the roster down the stretch.

If Regier is done adding to the defense, which is likely considering the team has seven NHL ready defensemen when healthy, it’s disappointing that he settled on Leopold in a free agency class loaded with strong defensemen.  Spending a little more on a guy like Paul Martin would have given the Sabres a dominant top defense pairing or it would have provided one of the younger defenseman with a mentor who could cover their mistakes.  As it stands, the team’s younger defensemen have a lot of improving to do this offseason.

Far more worrisome however, is the prospect of going into the 2010/2011 season with the same group of “top six” forwards.  One of the Sabres biggest needs going into the offseason was a center better suited for a puck possession system, a big body presence who could win faceoffs and use his size to create space for his linemates, something that is especially important considering Buffalo’s lack of size on the wings.  Unfortunately, Regier has defended Roy and Connolly’s poor playoff performances and it looks like the two will remain the Sabres one-two punch down the middle.

Even a physical winger seems to be out of the picture as it seems that the Sabres will move forward with Vanek, Hecht, Pominville and Ennis or Stafford on the wings, a disappointing realization for fans hoping to pick up a playoff monster like Dustin Byfuglien.

Although the offseason isn’t over and there are still more dominoes to fall, namely the fate of Tomas Kaberle, I’d be surprised if Regier pulled off a major trade.  It’s simply hasn’t been in his ammo since the lockout, where Craig Rivet was his biggest pickup in terms of assets acquired.  If Darcy has closed up shop, the team will be where it has been for the past few seasons, capable of winning the division with a few lucky breaks, but just as likely to be fighting for a playoff spot if the puck bounces the other way.

Hopefully Regier hasn’t called it a summer just yet though.  It would be a shame to waste another year of having the best goaltender in the league.