It was a major reconstruction job for the Montreal Canadiens.
Now, Bob Gainey has $107 million worth of contracts, 20 years worth of contracts and five players, but the Canadiens certainly did not get the big centre they were looking for in Scott Gomez.
Meanwhile, Brian Gionta and Mike Cammalleri add skill and goal-scoring capability on the wing but they're not a bigger team, that's for sure. They do have skill to go with the Kostitsyns, but are they better than the guys they lost? Are they better than Saku Koivu? Are they better than Alex Kovalev? Are they better than Alex Tanguay?
We do know they're a little bit bigger on the blue line. Jaroslav Spacek and Hal Gill are in but Mike Komisarek is out. The jury is very much out on the moves that Gainey has made. This is going to be an interesting team to watch because nobody knows quite what to make of it.
The first big splash of the day was made by the Vancouver Canucks. They got the Sedin twins back under contract and that's a big "phewwww" for everybody in Vancouver because, if they lost them, they didn't know how they were going to replace them, but they did.
It was quiet after that for the Canucks. They ended up losing Mattias Ohlund very early in the day - they knew that was going to happen. He went to the Tampa Bay Lightning and now they've got a hole on defence.
They also want to add an elite winger to go with the Sedins if they can, but all those elite wingers are signing: Martin Havlat with the Minnesota Wild, Cammalleri with Montreal, Marian Gaborik with the New York Rangers and Marian Hossa with the Chicago Blackhawks, so lots of work to do for Canucks GM Mike Gillis, who started the day well but then things went quiet.