Buffalo Sabres re-sign key defenseman Mike Weber to undisclosed, multi-year contract –NHL Update
Buffalo Sabres added another player on its list of signing and re-signing as it retained its key defender, Mike Weber, with an undisclosed, multi-year contract on Monday, day-four of the 2011 National Hockey League's (NHL) free agency.
New owner of the Buffalo franchise, Terry Pegula, a billionaire businessman from Pennsylvania, has been making some big moves these past few days, which include signing Calgary Flames' veteran defenseman, Robyn Regehr, and a number of other players.
According to sources, Pegula was also eyeing centre superstar, Brad Richards, but lost the opportunity to New York Rangers.
Weber will be entering his fourth consecutive season with Buffalo in October.
In the past three, it was during the 2010-2011 season that he played the most games, 58, and registered a career-high of 17 points, 4 goals and 13 assists.
Before that, Weber, was mostly used as a recall from Buffalo's American Hockey League (AHL) minor league affiliate team, Portland Pirates.
The 23-year-old played a majority of the 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 seasons with Portland Pirates, as he registered a total of 29 points, 6 goals and 23 assists, in 122 games.
In the NHL, Weber has played a total of 81 games for a total of 20 points, 4 goals and 16 assists, throughout.
The Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States native, played in all seven games of the 2011 NHL Playoffs with Buffalo that was eliminated in round-one against Philadelphia Flyers.
Drafted in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft by Buffalo as the 57th overall in round-two, Weber is expected to gradually become a big part of Sabres' line-up since his defensive skills are top-notch and can easily help boos Sabres' end on the ice.
In the upcoming days, Buffalo is expected to make a few more moves looking at the space that is still available on their salary cap.
It still has a number of restricted free agents like Jhonas Enroth, Andrej Sekera and Marc-Andre Gragnani and prospects which are hopeful of being signed in the near future before the signing process ends.
It will be interesting to see what steps the Buffalo management takes in order to further improve its line-up for the next season.
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