Devils deal Tallinder to Devils

The Buffalo Sabres continued to revamp their defense by reacquiring Henrik Tallinder from the New Jersey Devils for prospect Riley Boychuk.

Tallinder spent the last three years with the Devils after spending parts of eight seasons with the Sabres. He entered the NHL as a second-round draft pick of the Sabres in 1997.

Tallinder, 34, played in just 25 games last year, posting one goal and three assists. He was a stalwart on the back end during Buffalo's playoff runs in 2006 and 2007 and became an on-ice mentor to Tyler Myers in 2009. Myers, 23, has struggled without Tallinder as a defensive partner.

''We are excited to have Henrik back in the mix on our blue line,'' Sabres general manager Darcy Regier said in a statement. ''His experience will be invaluable not only in adding more stability to our back end, but also in the development of some of our younger defensemen.''

Boychuk was a seventh-round pick of Buffalo in 2010.

The Sabres have focused on defense in recent days, re-signing Alexander Sulzer to a one-year contract and signing Drew Bagnall to a two-way contract Saturday. Buffalo also selected two defensemen in the first round of the draft, Rasmus Ristolainen and Nikita Zadorov, and acquired former Carolina defenseman Jamie McBain in a trade during the draft for defenseman Andrej Sekera.