This time of year, getting better through free agency is all the rage. But teams are still making trades to fill those holes too. Like the Buffalo Sabres and Dallas Stars.

On Monday the two teams made a deal, swapping a couple of guys who have been rumored to be on the trade block for some time. The Stars took Derek Roy off of the Sabres' hands and in return sent Steve Ott and Adam Pardy to Buffalo. Life on the rumor mill can finally end for them.

Getting Roy fills the vacated spot of Mike Ribeiro in Dallas, who the Stars sent to the Capitals at the NHL Draft. Now Roy, who has been rumored to be out in Buffalo for some time, will get a fresh start. At least for one season as his contract is up next summer.

Roy had seen his production go down some in the past two seasons, and he was really falling out of favor in Buffalo. This past year he scored 17 goals with 27 assists in 80 games. Go back just one season to see Roy was close to a point-per-game player. In fact in 2010-11, he was. He played just 35 games but had 35 points. In 2007-08 Roy scored 32 goals and had 49 assists in just 78 games.

Maybe a change of sceneray will do him some good. The Stars certainly hope so.

With Ott going back to Buffalo in return -- and Pardy -- the Sabres get something they needed: a little more toughness. They already addressed that in free agency by signing the monster that is John Scott. Safe to say that the Sabres won't be seeing many repeats of that passive response to the Ryan Miller and Milan Lucic incident from last season.

As Ott put it, he's ready to rock some people.

But Ott is more than just an annoying, physical force. He did have 11 goals and 28 assists for Dallas this past season, which isn't horrible for a guy not in the top six.

What's better, as Ott reminded Claude Giroux and the viewing audience on 24/7, is that Ott is really good in the faceoff circle too. He won 561 draws this season compared to 450 losses. That's an awfully useful tool, especially in the defensive zone.

Pardy is sort of a throw-in in the deal going to the Sabres. He has never played more than 60 games in an NHL season, appearing in just 36 for the Stars in his one and only season in Big D.

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