Paul Martin

Change is the only certainty in the NHL's salary cap era. Dynasties are harder to come by as teams are forced to make difficult financial and personnel decisions each year, but sustained success can still be had by the clubs which are best able to maneuver within the system.

The Pittsburgh Penguins have been one of the most consistently successful clubs since the salary cap was enacted at the beginning of the 2005-06 season, with five straight postseason appearances and counting and a Stanley Cup win to their credit.

The play was emblematic of the season thus far.

Defenseman Alex Goligoski charged up the boards inside the blueline, trying to keep the puck in the offensive zone midway through the third period of a 4-4 game. Shawn Thornton of the Boston Bruins got to the biscuit first, however, and chipped it past the oncoming Goligoski and into the neutral zone.

Gone are the questions of when Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Kris Letang will step up his game and play to his full potential, because the start of the 2010-2011 NHL season has this young Penguin playing some top-notch hockey.

For a player who was touted as a future Paul Coffey after being drafted 62nd overall in the 2005 NHL Draft, Letang's NHL career started slowly and unstable.

After four games, the Pittsburgh Penguins have no answers to their poor play that has kicked off the start of the 2010-2011 inaugural season of the Consol Energy Center.

Lucky for them, an answer doesn't need to be found. Head Coach Dan Bylsma knows what must be done.

Listening to Bylsma's comments that are coated with frustration, he's absolutely right.

Today, I am going to take an in depth look at the Atlantic division.

New Jersey Devils

Key acquisitions: Anton Volchenkov, Henrik Tallinder, Jason Arnott, Johan Hedberg

Key losses: Paul Martin, Mike Mottau and Ilya Kovalchuk (maybe)

I know free agency is still going on and there are a lot of good players left so these picks will probably change. Here is my list of the three biggest winners so far.

New Jersey Devils

The Devils added two very good defenseman in Anton Volchenkov and Henrik Tallinder. As all of you know, Volchenkov is a big, hard-hitting defenseman who will block any puck coming his way and will give a 110-percent effort night in night out.

In what seems very unorthothodox to most people who have followed the New Jersey Devils, GM Lou Lamoriello has remained emphatic that the Devils are still "in the mix" to sign LW Ilya Kovalchuk to a free agent deal.  While it seems more and more apparent to all that Kovalchuk likely wants to be a King, it still hasn't happened two weeks after the free agency period began.  Plus, it doesn't seem very Lou-like to stand by and trying to convince a player to stay, when it appears that player would rather be elsewhere.

When about 15 minutes after noon went by, I refreshed twitter at work and saw about eight tweets discussing that Sergei Gonchar had been traded to Ottawa for a three-year deal. 

My immediate thought was "Our season is over." 

When the season ended, I immediately realized how many free agents we had. I knew we were going to lose players, that's a given. What I didn't expect was how many players we would be losing.

This whole summer I thought Gonch would be back, along with Eaton and Guerin. Now Gonchar is gone and Eaton and Guerin might be following suit.

July 1st was quite tame this year in terms of contract lengths and money being dished out in the NHL.

We didn't get the "Hossa" 12 year deal, or the "Brian Campbell" 57 million dollar deal.

But, there were still some big deals handed out, majority of them being smart. There were some overpaid guys, but hey, that's free agency. And it should only get worse as teams miss out on guys and over compensate to make sure they get a second or third tier guy.

The biggest name out there, Kovalchuk, has yet to sign, but today was the day of the defenseman.

With NHL free agency just a few days away, here are some rumors on who may be going where.

According to ESPN.com, the Blues, Capitals, and Penguins are all possible destinations for Paul Martin, however, if the Maple Leafs move Tomas Kaberle for a top six forward, Martin might draw the eye of Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke.