Sabres news: Good news for Buffalo the day before training camp

With just one day until training camp starts for the Buffalo Sabres, the team announced some news that should make fans happy. The Sabres signed 2018 first overall pick, Rasmus Dahlin, to a three-year, $6 million AAV contract. Buffalo is now over $3 million over the cap floors so they do not have to sign anyone else.

With this signing, Buffalo signed their three big restricted free agents to three-year deals this offseason. Dahlin joins Casey Mittelstadt and Henri Jokiharju as young players that will remain in Buffalo. Signing these three players to contract extensions was a main goal of the Sabres this offseason, and they delivered.

With Jake McCabe and Rasmus Ristolainen both out of Buffalo, this will lead to Dahlin seeing increased minutes and potentially being a mainstay on the top defensive pairing. Dahlin and Jokiharju was a very common pairing on the ice for Buffalo last season, and that could very well become the Sabres’ new top defensive pairing this year.

After struggling to start last season under Ralph Krueger, much like a majority of the team, Dahlin flourished and showed great improvement once Don Granato took over the head coaching duties for the Sabres. It was obvious that Dahlin enjoyed having Granato as his head coach, so it is likely that the hiring of Granato played a role in Dahlin signing to stay in Buffalo for at least another three years.

The Sabres were very smart to sign Mittelstadt, Jokiharju, and Dahlin to contract extensions this offseason. The hope is that they will be centerpieces in the young core that is being built by Kevyn Adams in Buffalo for years to come. With the three of them being either 22 or 21 years old, they all have a lot of hockey left ahead of them, and hopefully, it will be in the blue and gold.