Four weeks after the start of the NHL free agent period, Buffalo Sabres General Manager Darcy Regier said Thursday his team's roster may be set for training camp, and that it could include injured captain Craig Rivet.

Regier added that Rivet, the Sabres' 35-year-old defenseman coming off shoulder surgery, almost certainly will be ready for the season opener Oct. 8 in Ottawa.

Rivet had surgery in late May to repair a double labrum tear that has dogged him since 2008. Regier said at the time he was hopeful Rivet could be ready come October, although there were fears recovery could be six months.

Asked for a progress report Thursday, Regier said Rivet's rehabilitation is going better than expected.

"Craig is actually moving along very good," Regier said in HSBC Arena. "I talked to [head trainer Tim Macre] today and he's on or ahead of schedule. So it looks good for him.

"I expect him to be ready to participate in training camp and then I think the question will be how physically active he can become off the start of camp. But certainly we expect him to be ready for the start of the season."

Regier was meeting with reporters in the wake of forward Tim Kennedy's one-year, $1-million arbitration award that was announced earlier in the day. Kennedy's hearing was held Tuesday in Toronto.

The South Buffalo native made $635,000 last year, scoring 10 goals and 26 points over 78 games of his rookie season. His qualifying offer as a restricted free agent would have been $698,500 and the Sabres were believed to be offering in the $800,000 range.

"For us, [the award] was a little higher than we expected certainly but we'll work with it," Regier said. "Tim is a player we think can improve. We expect him to improve and we'll work with him in that regard. We worked off what we thought he would get in arbitration as did they and that really is the process."

"It's never a fun process for either side but everybody was real professional throughout the whole thing," Kennedy's agent, Allain Roy, said by phone from St. Louis. "We feel it was a fair award. ... Timmy wants to stay in Buffalo. He's a born-and-bred guy and he loves the Sabres."

Roy said both sides tried to reach a settlement but Regier said they could not agree on the numbers.

"Talks were positive with the Sabres and Darcy was very professional," Roy said. "It never got ugly. Sometimes arbitrators hear the horror stories on these things but that wasn't the case here."

As per the collective bargaining agreement, the Sabres must accept the terms. Teams cannot walk away from an arbitration award under a specified floor figure, which for this year is $1,611,180.

Regier said the Sabres feel Kennedy can still improve on offense.

"You expect growth," he said. "As a rookie, he had a good start and we now look for him to take the next step. He had a 26-point season. Anything from a 35-45 point season would be considered very good."

"Tim has only scratched the surface of his potential," Roy said. "He was somewhat happy with his season but he's kind of a perfectionist too. There's still a lot more he can reach in his game."

Kennedy is the 14th forward under contract for the Sabres, who are more than $6 million under the NHL salary cap.

"We're fairly close to being set," Regier said. "There might be one or two things that maybe if we can do it, we will. Right now, we'll start gearing up for training camp."

Regier said the Sabres are about to turn their attention to stocking players for their AHL affiliate in Portland. He said he expects the unsigned Adam Mair and Matt Ellis to continue to seek NHL deals and neither has been approached about an AHL contract.

mharrington@buffnews.comnull