After years of failing to attract notable free agents to Montreal, Gainey went on the most significant free-agent-signing frenzy in franchise history, inking wingers Mike Cammalleri and Brian Gionta and defensemen Jaroslav Spacek and Hal Gill to multi-year contracts.

Factor in Gainey's acquisition on June 30 of center Scott Gomez from the Rangers, and the Canadiens added an entire scoring line plus two veteran defensemen.

It remains to be seen however if overhauling the roster so dramatically will pay dividends. Teams which in the past relied heavily on free agency to bolster their lineups had limited success, and if Gainey's acquisitions fail to significantly improve the Canadiens he likely won't be their general manager by this time next summer.

While Gomez, Cammalleri and Gionta are skilled forwards they're also small, and that could limit their effectiveness against bigger, physical conference rivals like Boston, Philadelphia and Toronto.

Hossa's new deal is heavily front-loaded as the deal averages a cap-friendly $5.23 million per season. He's coming off a disappointing performance in this year's playoffs, but he led the Red Wings this season with 40 goals and should be a strong addition to a young, swift, talented Chicago team.

Gaborik is a truly gifted player when he's healthy, but has been plagued by injuries for most of his career, most recently missing most of last season due to hip surgery. So there's no guarantee that changing cities will help him avoid the injury bug.

A healthy Gaborik would be a big boost to the Rangers. (Jim McIsaac / Getty Images)

Perhaps a bigger problem is finding a quality center for Gaborik. Having dealt away Scott Gomez to Montreal, the Rangers are lacking a first-line center and promoting Chris Drury into that role isn't a solution.

Sather fortunately has about $15 million in available cap space to shop around, but the pickings are now pretty slim for first line centers.

Like Gaborik however Havlat has been hampered for years by injuries, having only played 80 or more games once in his career. If he continues to be sidelined by injury in the coming years, his signing won't be considered much of an improvement over the oft-injured Gaborik.

Ohlund will be a tutor to his young Swedish countryman Victor Hedman, whom the Lightning selected second overall in this year's draft.

Lawton and the Lightning organization were the targets of criticism and ridicule throughout the past year for questionable signings and trades, but their recent moves suggest they've learned from their mistakes.

The amount per season isn't the problem, as it's almost half what he made with Chicago. But Khabibulin's NHL career has been an up-and-down one, plagued by injury and inconsistency. A two-year deal might have been the safer move, but considering the limited goaltending options available this summer the Oilers probably had little choice.