Although July 1 is Canada Day north of the border, it’s also a day for NHL players to cash in big with the start of the free agency period, and for some teams, they dove in head first while others sat back to let the market play out.

For the Buffalo Sabres, they were active on the phones, but ultimately were more than happy to sit on the sidelines instead of dishing out boat loads of money – it just seems to be their way.

The lone signing for the Sabres was defenseman Jordan Leopold, who they signed to a three-year deal worth nine million, which was announced shortly after Toni Lydman and Henrik Tallinder had signed elsewhere.

Today signing does little for the Portland Pirates other than make the depth chart a little bigger. The Pirates future roster won’t likely come together until sometime in mid-August when Sabres sign those one or two veterans who will play in Portland, helping the prospects to develop. But, Regier did give some insight to his thought while speaking with the local Buffalo media this evening.

With the loss of Lydman and Tallinder, it meant that a replacement would either need to be signed from the free agent market or come from Portland.

The Sabres signed Leopold, but Regier feels Portland has a couple of defensemen who are ready for the NHL, namely Mike Weber and Marc-Andre Gragnani.

“I feel very strongly that we have one, if not, two defensemen who can play next year,” Regier told the the local media. “When we looked at the overall offseason plan, the expectation was at least one defenseman from Portland would play, and maybe two.

Mike (Weber) had a very solid year (in Portland),” Regier said. “He’s really grown. He played a few years ago (in Buffalo), and played well… “In the case of Gragnani, he has tremendous offensive skills. His ability to pass the puck, see the ice and skate are very good. It’s just a question if the maturity level is high enough to play some games next year.”

Goaltending is also an issue for both Buffalo and Portland. The Sabres currently only have Ryan Miller and Jhonas Enroth under contract and they need to figure out if they want an NHL backup to Miller or if they feel that Enroth should be given the role.

Regier spoke to that issue as well.

“I spoke with Patrick Lalime’s agent today,” he said to the local media. “We’ll meet again tomorrow… We have a goaltender down in the minors that’s very close to play (in the NHL). I believe that he can play in the National Hockey League, at least play some games in the National Hockey League. The question for us is whether we are going to put him in that backup role or find someone else the backup role and use (Enroth) over the course of some games next season.

If Enroth is the back up in Portland that will leave the Sabres to find two goalies who can play in Portland unless they can re-sign JP Lamoureux, who became a free agent today and is freely able to sign with any team.

In either case, the Sabres with continue with their slow-paced deliberation as they preach patience. Good thing is we only have 99 days and counting until opening night.

NOTES: Word on the street is the Pirates will hold an exhibition game in at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee in Lewiston against the University of New Brunswick. The date hasn’t been finalize yet, but it expected to be on a night when the Maineiacs are playing on the road.