It’s obviously been a long day tracking everything down today, jumping on conference calls, jumping into the car for press conferences, keeping an eye on web sites and keeping perspective on what today means.

On the signing of Mattias Ohlund, I have to say I like it. And if there was one player who the team wanted, this was the guy and I think you have to give some credit to general manager Brian Lawton for getting this one done. He identified the need, identified the player he felt could fill that need and got a deal done. Sure, Ohlund may not be as quick as he was five years ago, but this is still a perfect fit, even if the seven years is a bit long. The cap number, though, is friendly even if it’s front loaded.

Adding Matt Walker addresses a need for a physical type defenseman, and Walker is tough and will surely become a favorite of head coach Rick Tocchet for the way he plays. He also adds some good size.

Now, here is my question after adding two defensemen today (and the re-signing of Lukas Krajicek), what do you make of the blue line?

Here’s what you have right now
Mattias Ohlund
Matt Walker
Lukas Krajicek
Paul Ranger
Andrej Meszaros
Victor Hedman
Matt Lashoff
Matt Smaby
Mike Lundin (who for some reason is not listed on the roster of the team’s web site, is this a sign of things to come?)

and

Vladimir Mihalik
Ty Wishart
Kevin Quick

That’s 12 defensemen all of whom played in the NHL at some point last season with the obvious exception of Hedman. Of the 11, nine will be on NHL contracts next season - assuming that Lashoff, Lundin and Smaby are signed.

To me, that’s a major logjam. Sure, the defense is upgraded with the addition of Ohlund and Walker, but what’s to become of the other players?

Does Lashoff still fit in their plans? Does Paul Ranger, for that matter? Is Lundin all but out of here? What about Matt Smaby, who made a heck of an impression last year playing through a broken foot even when there was nothing on the line?

I think it’s got to be pretty obvious that the team will be moving some bodies off the roster. Brian Lawton said earlier today that he still needs a backup goaltender (Clemmensen, Anderson, Garon, Conklin, Jason LaBarbera all off the market) and when I spoke with Lawton on Thursday, I got the impression that a goaltender might be more likely to come via trade, but that was just a general feeling I had after talking to him.

On Wednesday, Lawton also said the team would like to add another forward (Chad LaRose is still out there?), and as we know, there is a log jam on the bottom lines especially when you factor in Brandon Bochenski and Zenon Konopka are on one-way contracts this season.

So, I think it is pretty obvious that more moves are coming and at this point it might be more bodies out than in, it’s just a question of who is on the way out?