Buffalo Sabres Need To Sign Rasmus Ristolainen, ASAP

The Buffalo Sabres have yet to ink their best defenseman to a new deal, which prompts the question, “Why?!?”

The summer of 2016 is almost over, and the Buffalo Sabres still have a pretty important item on their To-Do list:

It seems like such a simple task, especially since Risto is the Sabres’ undisputed No.1 blueliner (who was just ranked 19th among the current 30 No.1 defenesemen in the NHL, by the way).

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But common folk like you and I must be complete and utter idiots, because what to us seems like a simple process that began on June 27 has yet to result in a new contract for Ristolainen, meaning this must be a much, much more complicated procedure than, say, open-heart surgery, which can be performed in 3-4 hours.

Insert eye-roll here.

Okay – so maybe I am guilty of over-simplifying the art of negotiating a new contract to an extent. Still, it seems to me like an awful lot of these talks simply go on for too long. Yes, there are millions of dollars involved, but I have seen contract negotiations between school districts and the hundreds of teachers they employ get taken care of in less time than it takes on team to sign one player, so I find it hard to sympathize with either the player of the team in these situations. Find some time, lock yourselves in a room, and get the damn job done.

There are numerous examples of defensemen with similar skill-sets who have already signed brand-spanking new contracts – Danny DeKeyser (6 yr./$30 million), Morgan Rielly (6 yr./$30 million) and Seth Jones (6 yr./$32.4 million) come to mind – so it’s not like the Buffalo Sabres will be trying to reinvent the wheel. Risto is deserving of a 5-6 year contract worth between $5-5.5 million per season. If GM Tim Murray and Buffalo’s front office feel confident that Ristolainen wil continue to be one of the NHL’s top-25 blueliners, as he was in 2015-16, maybe they lock him in for 7-8 years – but does any of this sound like a conversation that requires two months to complete?

I suppose GMTM might be stuck on the fact that paying Risto $5-5.5 million will mean the young blueliner will make more than Dmitry Kulikov ($4.3 million) and possibly Zach Bogosian ($5.142 million) – but who cares? For starters, the Sabres did not negotiate the contracts for Kulikov and Bogosian, so if those two players have a beef, tough. Bogosian and Kulikov agreed to those contracts prior to these negotiations, and there’s nothing they can do about it except blame their agents. Besides, if the Buffalo Sabres truly feel like Ristolainen in their No.1 guy, they should pay the man like he’s their No.1 guy.

Seems pretty obvious, I know!

Bleacher Report just posted an article on the NHL players most likely to hold out during training camp, and the Buffalo Sabres No.1 defenseman, Rasmus Ristolainen, was mentioned, which pisses me off to no end. There is little to no reason for this to be taking so long . . . unless Ristolainen is trying to fleece the Sabres (which doesn’t seem likely) or the Sabres are trying to low-ball him (which does seem likely, frankly).

There is a third possibility, which is that the team was waiting to see where Jimmy Vesey went and now is toying with the idea of adding another player via free agency. Out of all the possible scenarios, this third one is the only acceptable explanation for why it has taken so long to lock Ristolainen in, so cross your fingers that contract talks between the Sabres and Risto’s camp begin in earnest, in order to avoid him missing out on training camp.

Next: Sabres Player Projections: Evander Kane

What do you think, Sabres fans? Why is it taking the team so long to come to terms with their defenseman of the future?

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