The Buffalo Sabres have locked their talented defenseman Mattias Samuelsson on a new contract. According to the team’s official announcement, Samuelsson inked a seven-year deal that will keep him in Buffalo through the 2029-30 NHL season.
Samuelsson will get an average annual salary of $4,285 million and a total of $30 million over the course of the deal. He is entering the final year of his entry-level contract, which pays him $925K annually.
“I think it was easy because, I’ve said it before, I want to be a part of this for a long time,” Samuelsson said after signing the deal. “That feeling was always there from my side. When they expressed that they were interested in the long-term too, it wasn’t too long before something came together.”
By handing Samuelsson a new deal, the Sabres continued efforts to tie their young core to long terms contracts. The franchise previously also worked out a new deal with promising center Tage Thompson, who agreed to a seven-year, $50 million contract last month.
Mattias Samuelsson made his NHL debut with the Sabres during the 2020-21 NHL season, playing 12 games and getting two assists in his rookie campaign. Samuelsson didn’t play much in 2021-22 either, being limited to 42 games by injuries, but the Sabres obviously liked what they saw.
“If you think of a star player on the other team, he’s the antidote,” Sabres’ head coach Don Granato described Samuelsson. “He is an athletic beast.”
