Will items sockets remain static?

I was simply wondering one little, and yet important, detail about the whole jewelcrafting and socketing system planned to be established for the Burning Crusade.
My question is as follows; will items that comes along with sockets have a static number of sockets (and types of sockets) that should not change from one drop to another?

If a [Razpunzel Hat] drops for instance, and that it has one red socket and two blue sockets, will it always have the same number of sockets and the same colors as well?
Because elsewise, I would find it to be extremely frustrating to have something like a [Hyper Staff of Death] drop with one green socket and then spend DKP to earn it only to see another [Hyper Staff of Death] drop a few runs later with this time five sockets, thus obligating me to roll once more for an item I already do have.