Buffalo, NY (SportsNetwork.com) – The Buffalo Sabres added veteran spice to a rebuilding franchise on Tuesday afternoon, signing former Montreal Canadiens captain Brian Gionta to a three-year deal and forward Matt Moulson to a multi- year contract.<\/p>\n
No financial terms were disclosed, but Gionta’s pact is reportedly worth $12.75 million, while Moulson is in line to receive $25 million over five years according to multiple sources.<\/p>\n
Gionta spent the last five seasons with the Habs, and the last four as the designated team leader. He picked up 18 goals and 22 assists over 81 regular- season appearances, but slowed a bit in the playoffs with six assists and seven points over 17 contests.<\/p>\n
The 35-year-old native of Rochester and Boston College product, who is a two- time All-Star selection and won a Stanley Cup with New Jersey in 2003, has logged 776 games of NHL experience and recorded 249 goals with 485 points.<\/p>\n
Moulson returns to western New York after a brief sojourn in the upper Midwest.<\/p>\n
Acquired by the Sabres from the Islanders for Thomas Vanek in late October, he totaled 11 goals and 29 points in 44 games before a trade-deadline deal landed him in Minnesota. Moulson contributed 13 points in 20 regular-season appearances and three points over 10 playoff games for the Wild.<\/p>\n
Heading into his eighth NHL season, the 30-year-old Toronto-area native has racked up 141 goals and 134 assists for four clubs.<\/p>\n
Also announced in the early hours of the free agency period, was forward Cody McCormick agreeing to a multi-year contract and the signing of forward Marcus Foligno to a two-year deal.<\/p>\n
The 31-year-old McCormick also returns to Buffalo, having spent his first 29 games of last season there while tallying a goal and four assists. He was sent to Minnesota in the Moulson deal, then finished the year with a goal and assist in 14 games with the Wild. Over 372 games for three clubs since 2003, the Ontario native has compiled 20 goals and 41 assists.<\/p>\n
Foligno posted seven goals and 19 points with a minus-17 rating in 74 games for the Sabres last season, his first full NHL campaign. In 135 games since 2011, the 22-year-old Buffalo native has collected 18 goals and 32 assists.<\/p>\n
Another addition later in the afternoon was defenseman Andrej Meszaros, who was inked to a one-year deal. The 28-year-old native of Slovakia split last season with the Flyers and Bruins, picking up seven goals and 22 assists in 52 appearances.<\/p>\n
Since arriving in Ottawa for the 2005-06 season, the left-handed shooting blueliner has totaled 56 goals and 168 assists over 585 contests for the Senators, Lightning, Philly and Boston.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Buffalo, NY (SportsNetwork.com) – The Buffalo Sabres added veteran spice to a rebuilding franchise on Tuesday afternoon, signing former Montreal Canadiens captain Brian Gionta to a three-year deal and forward Matt Moulson to a multi- year contract. No financial terms were disclosed, but Gionta’s pact is reportedly worth $12.75 million, while Moulson is in line […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nhl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20313"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20324,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20313\/revisions\/20324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}