from John Vogl of the Buffalo News,

The pressure to do something about Ryan Miller and Thomas Vanek intensifies daily in Sabreland. The summer of 2007 scarred Buffalo, and neither the organization nor its fan base wants to watch assets depart for nothing again....

“We’ve probably been a little more public about the need to make decisions on these players at some point,” Sabres General Manager Darcy Regier said. “The league’s full of these players.”

Indeed, plenty of organizations need to decide what to do with their own players before adding others. San Jose has Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau, Dan Boyle and Joe Pavelski entering the last year of their deals. Minnesota has Dany Heatley, Jason Pominville and Devin Setoguchi as part of an 11-player contingent. The Rangers must deal with Henrik Lundqvist, Ryan Callahan and Dan Girardi, among others. Toronto has Dion Phaneuf and Phil Kessel. Daniel and Henrik Sedin head the list in Vancouver.

With Sunday’s draft in the books and free agency starting Friday, teams will use the space between to reassess who they’ve got and decide whether to extend deals, look for replacements or ship out pieces.

read on